4 ms·

>Road maintenance is the cheapest form of public transit in the US Roads are pretty expensive: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/27/how-much-does-a-m

>Road maintenance is the cheapest form of public transit in the US Roads are pretty expensive: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/27/how-much-does-a-mile-of-road-actually-cost https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/27/how-much-does-... > So, for example, a representative cost in 2014 for reconstructing an existing lane of a major urban freeway was $7.7 million per mile; doing the same on a collector street in a small urban area would have set you back $1.5 million per mile. So at $20/person, you need a density of 4000 people per mile (assuming 18 year life for the road).

mcguire 6y ago
Collector roads serve areas. $1.5mil, assuming a 10 year life, would need 7500 people at $20/yr each, or 3000 households at 2.5 ppl/household. Assuming each household is a quarter acre, that's 750 acres, or about 1.2 sq mi. That's a depth of .6 mile on either side of the mile of road. (Which is a depths of 15 lots. I think.) Edit: $10-$20 per month. Well, there's a lot of other roads needed, too.
- wott 6y ago
  > $1.5mil, assuming a 10 year life, You don't perform a reconstruction after 10 years. You need a reconstruction when you have done zero maintenance for 30 years. Or else if there are 1000 loaded lorries roaming on your street everyday :-) Otherwise you can do with some (partial or full) resurfacing after 5/10 years. That's much much cheaper.
supertrope 6y ago
I agree with Strong Towns that we've gone overboard on cars, parking, highways, and sprawl. But their focus on road costs is not based on facts. I checked my town budget and roads are <10% of the budget. The vast majority (2/3) is hiring cops and firefighters and parks staff.
deleted 6y ago
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wott 6y ago
But most suburban streets are very low traffic, and low-weight traffic roads. They are not arterials / collectors. And you rarely need a full reconstruct. So even trusting the given quotes, you generally are good with the "resurfacing" column, and you can aim well below the smaller price for arterial/collector. If I take my local prices, resurfacing 1 mile of a 6 yards wide road, is less than $250.000. And that's with full refurbishing for a pretty damaged road + a new asphalt concrete surface! If you just do preventive maintenance with single-layer or bi-layer that can be 5 or even 10 times less... (Sorry about the probably imperfect technical terms translations).

mcguire 6y ago

Collector roads serve areas. $1.5mil, assuming a 10 year life, would need 7500 people at $20/yr each, or 3000 households at 2.5 ppl/household. Assuming each household is a quarter acre, that's 750 acres, or about 1.2 sq mi. That's a depth of .6 mile on either side of the mile of road. (Which is a depths of 15 lots. I think.) Edit: $10-$20 per month. Well, there's a lot of other roads needed, too.

wott 6y ago
> $1.5mil, assuming a 10 year life, You don't perform a reconstruction after 10 years. You need a reconstruction when you have done zero maintenance for 30 years. Or else if there are 1000 loaded lorries roaming on your street everyday :-) Otherwise you can do with some (partial or full) resurfacing after 5/10 years. That's much much cheaper.

supertrope 6y ago

I agree with Strong Towns that we've gone overboard on cars, parking, highways, and sprawl. But their focus on road costs is not based on facts. I checked my town budget and roads are <10% of the budget. The vast majority (2/3) is hiring cops and firefighters and parks staff.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

wott 6y ago

But most suburban streets are very low traffic, and low-weight traffic roads. They are not arterials / collectors. And you rarely need a full reconstruct. So even trusting the given quotes, you generally are good with the "resurfacing" column, and you can aim well below the smaller price for arterial/collector. If I take my local prices, resurfacing 1 mile of a 6 yards wide road, is less than $250.000. And that's with full refurbishing for a pretty damaged road + a new asphalt concrete surface! If you just do preventive maintenance with single-layer or bi-layer that can be 5 or even 10 times less... (Sorry about the probably imperfect technical terms translations).