Read this: Towns Across the US are Unpaving Roads

No, this isn’t the latest old-fashioned hipster trend, it’s an honest-to-goodness solution—I use the term loosely—to a real problem that towns around the nation are facing. Instead of spending enormous sums of money keeping up asphalt roads, American towns and cities are returning to gravel, writes Aarian Marshall in Wired.

Although public spending on infrastructure has increased over the past couple of years, it has failed to keep up with the prices of asphalt, concrete, and cement. As a result, transportation infrastructure relative to cost fell by nine percent between 2003 and 2014, writes Marshall.

The article takes the example of Montpelier, Vermont, which unpaved a local road following a complaint from a resident about its poor, potholed condition.

By ripping up the road surface and replacing it with gravel, they saved $120,000 in the city budget, money that could be spent elsewhere, like on crumbling bridges.

Although gravel roads are harder on cars and (arguably) the environment than a well maintained paved road, they may be better for cars than a poorly maintained paved road. Either way, you may want to think twice about bagging your car, since it looks like the trend is catching on all over the country.

Read the full article at wired.com

The post Read this: Towns Across the US are Unpaving Roads appeared first on VWVortex.

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