Excuses Excuses
I was reading an article today on CNN about how the rising cost of crude oil is affecting our state’s ability to keep up with the cost of maintaining our road / bridge infrastructure. Here is a quote from the article that gets me the most…
Rising oil prices have contributed to an increase of at least 50 percent in the price of steel, asphalt, concrete and earthwork over the past 2½ years, the report says, forcing repair delays.
“Thirty months of unprecedented construction inflation are forcing state officials to delay important bridge replacement projects,” the report stated.
“Nearly every state faces funding shortages,” it says, preventing them from doing work to “keep their bridges sound indefinitely.
To that my friends, I call BULLSHIT! If you are at all aware of the RAC system, you understand how absolutely ridiculous this sounds. Using old tires in asphalt has been around for decades. There is no reason why today, 38 years after this system was created, we are still not harnessing this technology in every state. Instead, we’re dumping tires in landfills and offshore, causing more environmental strife by doing so. Here are some of the highlights of RAC (rubberized asphalt concrete):
“A two-inch-thick rubberized asphalt concrete overlay can save as much as $50,000 per lane mile when compared to a four-inch-thick conventional asphalt overlay.”
“… lasts much longer than conventional materials–often 50 percent longer.”
“… noise can be reduced as much as 85 percent in some instances.”
“… for a one-mile section of a four-lane highway, over 8,000 scrap tires can be used in creating a safer, quieter, longer-lasting road!”
So what’s the deal??! Why are we still using such an archaic technology when pouring our roads?
