Posted May 31, 2026, 9:55 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 15,377
|
|
Quote:
Asphalt is considered a “flexible” pavement. Other pavement materials, like concrete, are considered “rigid.” When it gets hot, asphalt gets soft and malleable. And when soft asphalt has the tremendous amount of torque of large buses pushing against it, it tends to move. Concrete doesn’t have that problem.
So when you see wavy pavement, it’s often because that location has large trucks or buses frequently stopping, starting or turning there on hot days, pushing the asphalt around. Street engineers know that buses can cause these when they slow down and take off, so they put rigid concrete pads in front of most stops.
While wavy pavement is often caused by this phenomena, there can be other causes, said Lund, such as problems with the gravel or rock base underneath the top level. “Think of [a street] like lasagna. [There are] lots of different layers of different materials. When baked just perfect, it holds together, its great. But when something isn’t quite right there, when you slice it, it runs all over the plate.”
|
https://whyy.org/articles/streetsplainer-what-s-with-those-concrete-pads-in-front-of-bus-stops/
|
Prev
Linear Mode
