Chapter 1: The Streets- Our Raceway Sydrome -- What's WRONG with MUENSTER Texas?

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:36:36 05/22/08 Thu
Author: John Doe
Subject: Chapter 1: The Streets- Our Raceway Sydrome

Muenster 'seems' to have a rather respectable system of wide, paved, well maintained streets. However, a closer look reveals cracks and potholes in streets no more than 3-5 years old, and dips and gutters that cause countless thousands of dollars in front end damage to unsuspecting drivers, as well as dangerous driving conditions.

Because of inexpensive repaving techniques, wherein outside construction crews are hired to merely overlay old surfaces with new pavement, this causes the roads to become higher and the dips & gutters get lower.

This process has a 3 pronged negative affect:

-A road's surface is ONLY as good as its underlying components. So, regardless of how much asphalt you put on a sub-standard sub-surface, you aren't going to get a long lasting, crack free, durable final product. We pay for roads to be resurfaced, and then in a matter of a few short years, that same road shows extreme signs of wear, to include potholes, long cracks, and even noticeable buckling where heavy traffic flows.

-As the roads get higher and the dips get lower, traffic flow itself is affected. At a four-way intersection with no stop signs or traffic lights, the drivers 'should' yield to the right. However, because of the ever increasing street heights, this has caused traffic, regardless of its position to other traffic, to slow and yield to streets without such obstacles. Thus the creation of Muenster's raceway street system, wherein proper traffic laws are ignored by most local drivers. While 'we' have learned to deal with this issue, visiting drivers are literally put into peril as they 'yield to the right', not expecting the fast free flowing Muenster traffic.

-These extremely deep dips and gutters cause damage to most cars, minivans, and other low-profile vehicles, regardless of the speed at which the dip is crossed. The most extreme of these dips must be crossed at an angle, or cars and the like will suffer the familiar "...s-c-r-a-p-e..." of the front end. The damage to visiting driver's vehicles is even worse, given their lack of knowledge about reducing your speed and increasing your angle of attack upon these outright hazards.

ALL of these problems could be remedied, if we chose to invest in proper resurfacing techniques. Having read several books on this topic, I have concluded that instead of overlaying new material on an old problem, and making them even worse. We should instead remove the built up height, lay down a heavy tar paper, and then lay down a new resurfacing material.

Removing the old height will rid us of our dangerous raceways, and the tar paper underlay provides a floating distributive subsurface, allowing better weight distribution and a much longer lifespan of 30+ years, even with heavy vehicle use.

While this technique IS more costly than the present procedure, the savings in far fewer repaving projects alone would be worth the investment. Not to mention the elimination of the raceways, a danger to both car and driver alike.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]