arizona whisper roads

[skidlid]

Here I sit in beautiful Scottsdale pondering a permanent move out west.Had the opportunity to do some exploring for the past two days and I've noticed that some of the roads around here are "quiet". Maybe some of you local guys can help me out here.Is ground up rubber the cause for your silent roads or am I hearing things. One other thing--- how long does a Saguaro cactus live?

Skidlid l

[Guzz]

Aaaaa shhhhhhh!!! Don't tell anyone about our rubberized asphalt. It's a secret If it gets out, everyone will want it. Didn't you sign the non-disclosure agreement when you crossed the state line? If not, please report to the closest DPS office immediately to sign the proper forms. Falure to do so, we will have to ground you up and put you in the asphalt.

As for the Saguaro cacti, they get really old, roughly 200 years.

[Desertbilly]

Originally Posted by skidlid

Here I sit in beautiful Scottsdale pondering a permanent move out west.Had the opportunity to do some exploring for the past two days and I've noticed that some of the roads around here are "quiet". Maybe some of you local guys can help me out here.Is ground up rubber the cause for your silent roads or am I hearing things. One other thing--- how long does a Saguaro cactus live?

Skidlid l

Yep. It's something like 1500 tires per lane mile. They're ground to small pellets and put in the asphalt. The roads are much quieter. At first they weren't sure if it would last as long as regular asphalt, but it turns out they last longer than regular asphalt, but still shorter than concrete. I think the DOT is going to recover all the freeways in the Phx area. It's a major help with the neighborhoods near the freeways, which, on occasion, have complained about the noise.

The cactuses? Hell, I thought they lived forever. It takes 60 years before they start to grow their first arm. And a lot of folks do move out here; over 10,000 a month; so help yourself.

[k7]

Originally Posted by skidlid

Here I sit in beautiful Scottsdale pondering a permanent move out west.

Meet me in Snottsdale on ...oh... about Aug. 29, 2004 and we'll see if you still like it here. :-)

[Guzz]

Oh, good job Desertbilly. I officially take back the Arizona secret decoder ring!

If one must know about rubberized asphalt, go to Rubber Pavements. org. This stuff has been around since roughly the 60's The process was refined here in lovely Arizona by a guy named Charles McDonald. (Although sometimes the peoples of Kalifornia try to take credit for it )

It's basicly ground up used tires that is mixed with asphalt. It makes the roads quieter, last longer (well, they're still testing it), but it holds up well in hot and cold climents (less cracking). It is only starting to be used more because Mr. McDonlad's patients ran out in 1992 (who want's to pay for someone eleses ideas ). The cool thing (I think) is that it recycles used tires!!! Less tires in landfills and all the problems it causes.

[arroyoshark]

There's been a lot of teething pain with successfully developing crumb rubber asphalt paving mixes. The rubber bits don't adhere very well to most paving grade asphalt oils and there have been problems with segregation in the batch mix, which leads to poor roadway installation (paving) and there has been many instances of the crumb rubber migrating out of the asphalt pavement over time. The use of ground up tires in roadway asphalt paving has been mandated by federal highway funding programs, and I beleive states have a requirment to use crumb rubber asphalt in some percentage of federal funded jobs, or face reduced federal highway funds. As Guzzler said, primarily it is a concept of building linear landfills to dispose of old tires. Many states also make tire bales to be used in bank stabilization or in fills, just to get rid of tires. NM has a tire baling machine and I think it is used mainly in the Albuturkey area. The City of Carlsbad, NM used hundreds and hundreds of tire bales to reinforce the banks of Pecos River through town, building a nice "boardwalk" over the tire bales along the river. It worked out real nice.

[Guzz]

Originally Posted by arroyoshark

There's been a lot of teething pain with successfully developing crumb rubber asphalt paving mixes. The rubber bits don't adhere very well to most paving grade asphalt oils and there have been problems with segregation in the batch mix, which leads to poor roadway installation (paving) and there has been many instances of the crumb rubber migrating out of the asphalt pavement over time.

Yeppers, the whole idea has been around for quite awhile. I think I read that it was first attempted in the 20's as a complete utter failure. Mr. McDonald was the one that finally got the formulas right.

It's a shame that he was somewhat greedy (other peoples opinion) and put a high price tag on the licensing of his patients.

From my personal experience on driving on rubberized asphalt... THE SHIT ROCKS It also helps on traction. Because of the sound deadening aspects and how well it has done on the local freeways, Arizona has sped up and increase the budget to repave as many miles of freeways as possible with the stuff (the population has spoken and basicly demanded it). I'm just wondering when they are going to repave local streets with the stuff.