Duane <
sp...@flarn.com> wrote:
Note that the damage a vehicle does, due to weight, goes up with
fourth power or so with axle loading[4]. A 16,000 (the maximum *legal*
loading for trucks in the US, generally speaking) pound axle does a
whole hell of a lot more damage to pavement than a 3000 pound car
axle, which does a whole hell a lot more than a 150 pound bike axle.
[4] it's complicated, but that's the typical rule of thumb for
flexible pavements, with loads suitable for the pavement. Exceeding
the capacity of the pavement can kill it in a handful cycles or even just a
single trip. Ablation of the wearing layer (the top couple of inches
of pavement, what's normally replaced when 'repaving') is a function
of speed and axle loading, but loading is the dominate term.
:Frank thinks roads are usually worse on the right where there are less
:trucks driving. I once showed him a road here where the shoulders were
He's nuts. one of the the failures of asphaltic pavements is humping,
where heavy loads deform the asphalt plasticly. Where you have
continual loads, like on a highway, you get grooves. It's a real problem
for city buses, as well, because at stops they tend to follow the same
route. Lots of places put in concrete pads at busy bus stops, for
just this reason.
Oh, humps and grooves make the pavement less smooth, so they increase
the damage that snowplowing does, and increast the damage that water
for snow and ice melt can do.
--
sig 6