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Not only that, but forget concrete: think asphalt. Having lived in Texas with countless 100+ F days, I can confidently say the asphalt never melted. What are t

Not only that, but forget concrete: think asphalt. Having lived in Texas with countless 100+ F days, I can confidently say the asphalt never melted. What are they paving runways with in Luton, anyway?

capableweb 4y ago
> “I can’t believe how those southerners can’t handle 1 below freezing and half an inch of snow, it’s not even that cold”… > Because infrastructure is built in a local context, where materials, designs et cetera are chosen on what is/was normal. I’m genuinely curious: do you really not understand this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32154999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32154999 Seems many people in this thread have trouble understanding that most of the infrastructure we build is built for the people living there under the conditions they normally experience, not for "freak" outliers like this. Similar to how if there is snow in southern Europe, most infrastructure shuts down while in Russia they run trains through snowstorms. But if it gets tiny bit too hot in Siberia, the trains shut down while in southern Europe they survive no matter how hot it gets.
pixl97 4y ago
Remember that time in Texas all our infrastructure shutdown because it got cold here? Next, you seem to be completely clueless on aggregate mixes, your mix will be a balance of rock and tar meant to survive a temperature range. Texas mixes will be more aggregate. The problem is this make it less flexible in cold weather and it would degrade far faster. So great you'd design a runway to survive Texas heat that occurs once every few decades versus the cold winters that happen every year.
badcppdev 4y ago
How is the infrastructure in Texas generally? Roads? Bridges? Power grid?
- MandieD 4y ago
  Roads... I grew up in Texas but moved to Germany in my 20's. I went back for Christmas after a few months of flying on the Autobahns, and was really concerned that I'd slip up and catch a monster speeding ticket while visiting home and cruising on those long, straight, relatively empty rural highways. That was a ridiculous worry, because there are enough random, unmarked road problems that I was nervous just doing the limit sometimes on roads like TX 36, the main highway between Central Texas and Abilene. Even I-35 between Waco and Austin seemed dodgy in spots. Things that would get marked "Straßenschaden" ("road damage") and have dropped speed limits in Germany were completely unmarked. This was in 2004, and the last time I was back (pre-Covid), it wasn't better.
kennend3 4y ago
So many crazy posts like yours... As others have said, why did Texas have so many problems when it got cold? Taking our infra, designed for your temps and stating "others should have this too" doesn't make sense. I live just outside Toronto (Ontario). When you were struggling with a brief cold snap which cost 246 lives because it was -19C, large and heavily populated parts of Canada faced -40C and no one died? "Texas was not winterized, leaving it vulnerable to extended periods of cold weather, leading to widespread power outages" why wasn't it winterized? Because statistics show it was a controlled gamble NOT do to this. UK airport is the same deal. They could use different (and more expensive) materials, but they gambled it wouldn't be needed, much as why Texas didn't winterize the equipment.

capableweb 4y ago

> “I can’t believe how those southerners can’t handle 1 below freezing and half an inch of snow, it’s not even that cold”… > Because infrastructure is built in a local context, where materials, designs et cetera are chosen on what is/was normal. I’m genuinely curious: do you really not understand this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32154999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32154999 Seems many people in this thread have trouble understanding that most of the infrastructure we build is built for the people living there under the conditions they normally experience, not for "freak" outliers like this. Similar to how if there is snow in southern Europe, most infrastructure shuts down while in Russia they run trains through snowstorms. But if it gets tiny bit too hot in Siberia, the trains shut down while in southern Europe they survive no matter how hot it gets.

pixl97 4y ago

Remember that time in Texas all our infrastructure shutdown because it got cold here? Next, you seem to be completely clueless on aggregate mixes, your mix will be a balance of rock and tar meant to survive a temperature range. Texas mixes will be more aggregate. The problem is this make it less flexible in cold weather and it would degrade far faster. So great you'd design a runway to survive Texas heat that occurs once every few decades versus the cold winters that happen every year.

badcppdev 4y ago

How is the infrastructure in Texas generally? Roads? Bridges? Power grid?

MandieD 4y ago
Roads... I grew up in Texas but moved to Germany in my 20's. I went back for Christmas after a few months of flying on the Autobahns, and was really concerned that I'd slip up and catch a monster speeding ticket while visiting home and cruising on those long, straight, relatively empty rural highways. That was a ridiculous worry, because there are enough random, unmarked road problems that I was nervous just doing the limit sometimes on roads like TX 36, the main highway between Central Texas and Abilene. Even I-35 between Waco and Austin seemed dodgy in spots. Things that would get marked "Straßenschaden" ("road damage") and have dropped speed limits in Germany were completely unmarked. This was in 2004, and the last time I was back (pre-Covid), it wasn't better.

kennend3 4y ago

So many crazy posts like yours... As others have said, why did Texas have so many problems when it got cold? Taking our infra, designed for your temps and stating "others should have this too" doesn't make sense. I live just outside Toronto (Ontario). When you were struggling with a brief cold snap which cost 246 lives because it was -19C, large and heavily populated parts of Canada faced -40C and no one died? "Texas was not winterized, leaving it vulnerable to extended periods of cold weather, leading to widespread power outages" why wasn't it winterized? Because statistics show it was a controlled gamble NOT do to this. UK airport is the same deal. They could use different (and more expensive) materials, but they gambled it wouldn't be needed, much as why Texas didn't winterize the equipment.