Astroturf Highways
Also on Czabe’s show this morning, he made mention of Astroturf highways in Minnesota. You read that right:
ASTROTURF HIGHWAYS
The story behind it is that Minnesota residents were complaining about how noisy their highways have gotten because they have to be made with grooves in the pavement to help drain water and get better traction. Their solution? Astroturf. Officials drag the wiry, plastic grass over a highway’s surface to rough it up and make it skid-resistant. The result is a different texture that is quieter to drive on than the grooves that had been previously placed in concrete. Ok, sounds great… until I read this part of the article:
What we have out there now, if you were riding a bike and fell on it, it would rip all the meat off your bones. It is very skid resistant,” said Rettner, who now is principal engineer for American Engineering Testing Inc. in St. Paul.
WHAT?? Ok, don’t people ride motorcycles on the interstate? Not that regular pavement wouldn’t really mess up someone if they fell off, but I don’t remember there ever being reports of someone who has all of the meat ripped off of their bones. What kind of astroturf is this? If it is like football turf, wouldn’t more of the NFL players have no skin?
I can’t imagine the road department using your average ball field turf on a road.. I think it would wear out much faster than desired by the road department or the citizens dealing with constant road construction… A little food for thought… I wonder how the turf affects tire wear???
Comment by tulsa — 2/17/2005 @ 5:48 am