I get a little sad when I see all of the cobble stones and street car rails buried under black top.
2012-06-05 17:45:09
12
Watch out for streetcar tracks
Streetcar tracks, as you can imagine, are kind of dangerous to ride over. It's a problem in Portland and in Washington, they are anticipating problems with cyclists when they eventually get a streetcar system up and running there.
We are not so fortunate to have that kind of problem in the East End of Pittsburgh, but we can imagine what it might be like, at least until they finish re-paving on Craig Street.
2012-06-05 17:42:33
@rsprake me too. I can't imagine that is a very good base for the black top and probably leads to a shortened lifespan for the new stuff.
2012-06-05 17:51:14
Just memorize where those tracks are, and you'll know where the potholes will open up in March 2014. (Date of this post: June 5, 2012.)
2012-06-05 17:52:20
I thought stone blocks were supposed to be an excellent base for blacktop. Anyone know?
2012-06-05 18:01:16
its already paved now.
2012-06-05 19:03:55
My grandma to this day marvels over the industrious little dutch boys she saw refurbishing a cobblestone road in the early 80s. Granted "little dutch boys" may have been 25 at the time, but I like to think about that story when "repaving" over lovely stone roads makes me sad.
2012-06-05 19:10:41
Belgian block may be awful to ride on (unless you like a free ass-and-wrists-massage...), but it doesn't seem to take much maintenance-wise. Or is that just because nobody likes to drive on it, either, and the only places we still have it around here are roads that don't get used much?
2012-06-05 19:40:03
Compacted gravel and sand base of several feet is great for asphalt. Hand laid block, much larger than gravel, with rail that has a different expansion rate than stone, is NOT a good base for asphalt. Hence Stu's comment.
I still tell DPW workers that I will happily volunteer to remove cobble stones after they mill roads. No luck.
2012-06-06 02:54:18
I would happily ride around on a practical European city bike with some 38s if the city would just mill everything back to belgian block. Talk about traffic calming. Bringing back the street cars would be icing on the cake. I think this is more along the lines of why the picture made Ryan sad.
2012-06-06 03:19:45
@cburch +1 it was me who diverted the conversation, apologies.
2012-06-06 12:01:50
It is my understanding that the 40th street
hill between penn and butler was cobbles
during the 90's. Cars didnt go 50 up and down
it then I imagine.
2012-06-06 13:02:06