Back to gravel roads?

[lxskllr]

Ah hell, just sell all of the roads to foreign countries and let them maintain them and charge toll. IIRC, that's happening already....let's just accelerate it a little more. No more taxes and you only pay if you travel the road. Solved.

That's not a half bad idea. The problem is the "no other taxes" part. Tolled roads would only be an addition :^/

 

[IronWing]

The real culprits are scumbag developers who drop subdivisions and "rural lifestyle" communities out the middle of freaking nowhere and the f-tard politicians who approve these developments. The developers take the money and run leaving the provision of sufficient infrastructure as a burden on the taxpayers. Since the same a-wipe politicians who support this crap also promise to lower taxes we all end up with crappier infrastructure than we would have had we simply told the developer filth to go f themselves. If you ever have a chance to live in a town that is not growing or is landlocked and thus can not grow you learn that tax dollars go a lot further when they aren't being used to subsidize sprawl.

 

[Zebo]

China should have NEVER been granted favored trade status. I saw the writing on the wall way back then.

Yup same here. People called me Pat Buchanan, racist etc when I said you should not put food on Chinese tables instead of your own. Someday all will see folly of global labor arbitrage. Hard to pay pensions on $1 a day.

 

[Zebo]

Ah hell, just sell all of the roads to foreign countries and let them maintain them and charge toll. IIRC, that's happening already....let's just accelerate it a little more. No more taxes and you only pay if you travel the road. Solved.

In OK NYers own the turnpikes. That's pretty foreign... We're getting there.

 

[Zebo]

Snip

I think techs was confused If you count "surplus" as in insane projections of DOW at 28,000,000, yes million, to justify future benefits such as pensions, yes then we had a surplus.

http://www.businessinsider.com/california-pension-dow-25000-2010-6

 

[TehMac]

This is actually good. When honest working taxpayers finally realize that it is a sham about all those services they are promised for their tax money maybe they will wake up. There is a lot of useless and damaging pork in all governments' budgets but they never cut that when times are tough, they cut the stuff that affects the average taxpayer all in an effort to extort more money out of them.

I was thinking something similar, but a sucker is born every minute, and they'll all continually vote for some SOB who'll promise stuff like "change"...oh wait...they already have...

Aside from that, this sounds like the collapse of civilization. Reverting back to gravel roads because government is so inept it can't do a decent job?

What about all the democrat mobster's bmws? How can they cope?

 

[Regs]

A man who lost his job, and has two kids to feed, never worked harder before in his life.

 

[Eos]

We sort of have these shitty roads around here where they throw gravel down and put a layer of tar. Then a few weeks later they sweep the excess gravel off.

It's pure shit because after a year you already have potholes galore. My city is too damn cheap to pave roads properly, yet they're bleeding money on public projects that no one wants.

Edit: i guess it's still technically asphalt, but it's the shittiest quality possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal

SHITTY. It was recently done to a well traveled road by my house. Noisy as fuck.

 

[Eos]

The problem is unions. Ever see the crews they use to put down asphalt roads. Ever watch the pace they move?

Gravel they just dump and roll it over with a roller. I'd use the term 'steamroller' but like in real life you get the fucktards that want to explain they haven't used steam to run them for a long time....

the big problem with gravel though is it wears tires out and really makes a mess of the vehicle. Just passes the costs to the consumer.

Not exactly. It does have to be graded too, before being rolled.

 

[waggy]

meh. i live in the country. most of the roads we travel are asphalt. if they are taken care of they are fine.

what bothers me the county has said this year they aren't going to be able to salt or plow as much. wich is bullshit since they rarely do it anyway. its not uncommon for most roads to have 4-5 inches.

only one usually done is rt 64 but even then in Dekalb county it fricken sucks.

 

[Wyndru]

How bad does the road have to be before they "roll it up" and put gravel down?

After about a year the gravel is going to be filled with potholes anyhow, so I'm not understanding how this is cheaper than just patching it, or if they like gravel so much, just use it as fill for the existing potholes.

 

[sandorski]

How bad does the road have to be before they "roll it up" and put gravel down?

After about a year the gravel is going to be filled with potholes anyhow, so I'm not understanding how this is cheaper than just patching it, or if they like gravel so much, just use it as fill for the existing potholes.

Ya, it doesn't make much sense to rip it out. I wonder if State Regulations are such that it forces certain types of Maintenance(such as Resurfacing)depending on some criteria based upon Potholes/Distance or something. If that's the case, seems like State Governments should relax those requirements for a period of time.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Ronstang, your earlier post was, IMO, racist. Maybe you don't care but since no one has called you out on it, I am.

 

[sandorski]

Ronstang, your earlier post was, IMO, racist. Maybe you don't care but since no one has called you out on it, I am.

Though I agree with the basic argument, this Thread is now about: Mexican is not a Race!

 

[Ronstang]

Ronstang, your earlier post was, IMO, racist. Maybe you don't care but since no one has called you out on it, I am.

You talking about the road crew of Mexicans? It was an observation. They were Mexicans and they were standing around watching two Mexicans work. How is that racist? Does it matter to you that Mexicans ARE NOT A RACE? I guess you aren't that smart, huh? I guess it was the illegal comment that bothered you? Well, you never know around here since there are so damned many illegals and the government seems to LOVE them. I said "if" because I did not know. Touchy because there are illegals in your family?

 

[alevasseur14]

I tried to find the link but couldn't. There was a story in the Star Tribune not to long ago that mentioned Minneapolis was considering doing the same thing. If I remember correctly, the story said asphalt costs somewhere around 400 dollars/ton while gravel is in the neighborhood of 200/ton. Even 200 sounds a bit high so I'll try and find the link again when I get home.

I really hope they don't start putting gravel down here. The winters around here would tear them to shreds in weeks!

 

[lxskllr]

Those prices might include grading and everything. It would probably be more useful to the average person if it was estimated at linear feet with 2 12' lanes.

 

[Zebo]

Ronstang, your earlier post was, IMO, racist. Maybe you don't care but since no one has called you out on it, I am.

You need to look up racist in dictionary. While you're at it look up bitch, pansy, metro, queer, and effeminate you might see someone you know.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

For many counties in Arizona, gravel roads would be an upgrade.

 

[ViviTheMage]

One of my customers is now on a gravel road instead of asphalt. I don't know if I should drop them. I worry about the gravel hitting my car and how safe it will be in winter.

Really? That seems pretty crazy reason to drop a client, unless they're low profit, haha.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

For many counties in Arizona, gravel roads would be an upgrade.

True, though the minimal precipitation in most of the state means that even gravel roads hold up extremely well.

The capital of Montana uses the chip and seal method everywhere in the city (including all the roads around the capital). They also have to use sand instead of salt on the roads. The end result is that you never really know where the lanes are as they are not painted anywhere near often enough to be effective.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

True, though the minimal precipitation in most of the state means that even gravel roads hold up extremely well.

The capital of Montana uses the chip and seal method everywhere in the city (including all the roads around the capital). They also have to use sand instead of salt on the roads. The end result is that you never really know where the lanes are as they are not painted anywhere near often enough to be effective.

The dirt roads in Arizona will beat your brains out. Seriously, 4x4's are better off driving in the ditch alongside the road. The only good thing about them is Sage Hens often wander along the road. Good eats!

 

[Blayze]

Rented a house on a gravel road for a few years, and it was terrible. It was near a farm and one of the people living on the road maintained it. When new gravel was first put out it was ok, but after a few weeks it started getting bad. Mud, etc... in the winter and when it rained. They never put tar on it. Just kept putting dump truck loads of gravel on it and smoothing it out with a farm tractor.

Sadly I wasn't able to keep my car clean living there at all.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

The real culprits are scumbag developers who drop subdivisions and "rural lifestyle" communities out the middle of freaking nowhere and the f-tard politicians who approve these developments. The developers take the money and run leaving the provision of sufficient infrastructure as a burden on the taxpayers. Since the same a-wipe politicians who support this crap also promise to lower taxes we all end up with crappier infrastructure than we would have had we simply told the developer filth to go f themselves. If you ever have a chance to live in a town that is not growing or is landlocked and thus can not grow you learn that tax dollars go a lot further when they aren't being used to subsidize sprawl.

A brilliant, well thought out, and correct assessment of the problem. It saddens me that no one else has commented on this post.

 

[DrPizza]

Gravel? That would be an improvement for many of the local roads. A lot of the roads, including the road in front of my house beginning 200 feet after my house, are dirt roads. My town maintains them every year, grades all the dirt roads, etc. FAR FAR cheaper than paving & maintaining a paved road. For whatever reason (bad luck?) we seem to get a long 2 week dry spell after they grade the road past our house. That leads to a shit ton of dust. After it rains once or twice, the dust isn't nearly as bad. But, given the population density around here, it doesn't make economic sense to pave over all these roads. I suppose it'd be nice if they tar and chipped it though. I'd almost do it myself, but there are a bunch of out of town fvckwads who have camps up the road from us. We've already had cars lose control on the dirt surface while thinking they could drive 55mph on a newly graded dirt road, going around a bend on a hill. I'm not going to make that a liability for me.

Also, potholes aren't usually *that* bad on gravel roads, provided the roads are maintained. I don't think there are any at all up the hill from me for about 2 or 3 miles. In the spring, there will be potholes. If it was paved, in the spring there would be potholes.