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Maybe this is true. But honestly, we don't have that many roads in the PNW that are concrete. It was when I lived in the midwest that I noticed them everywher

Maybe this is true. But honestly, we don't have that many roads in the PNW that are concrete. It was when I lived in the midwest that I noticed them everywhere. I really don't care for them. In the PNW we have relatively few, but the weather here is milder than the midwest. Not sure what that says about the freeze-thaw hypothesis.

coryrc 4y ago
I live in Seattle and almost every single road I drive on is at least concrete base. Even if I couldn't tell for other reasons, I've seen enough sections replaced for water or gas line maintenance; I've never seen one without concrete, from my side street all the way to the freeway.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Maybe that's a Washington thing, then. In the Portland area it's nearly all asphalt, or asphalt-over-concrete. Concrete is terrible in places where it rains a lot, which is one reason I'm surprised you'd find so much of it in Seattle. We have porous asphalt that never has any standing water even in a downpour. At least when it's maintained, which isn't always a guarantee on some lesser used roads.
- loeg 4y ago
  Older Seattle area roads tend to be concrete; newer roads are more frequently asphalt. It was definitely very popular here in recent memory — I could name tons of concrete Seattle roads off the top of my head — but my impression is it is no longer as popular in new construction.
  - toast0 4y ago
    There's some real old roads that are bricks under asphalt. That's a trip. Some of the real steep stuff like Bell or Blanchard at Western, IIRC. PS if you like brick roads, there's a big (flat) one out in Redmond I accidently drove on once that someone made a nice post about https://www.dadlogic.net/old-red-brick-road-redmond/ https://www.dadlogic.net/old-red-brick-road-redmond/
    - loeg 4y ago
      Yeah, sometimes you see the brick where the asphalt has worn away. There's a bunch of that in Pioneer Square, I think. I've actually been out to the Redmond brick road before (on a bicycle -- it was unpleasant).

coryrc 4y ago

I live in Seattle and almost every single road I drive on is at least concrete base. Even if I couldn't tell for other reasons, I've seen enough sections replaced for water or gas line maintenance; I've never seen one without concrete, from my side street all the way to the freeway.

rootusrootus 4y ago
Maybe that's a Washington thing, then. In the Portland area it's nearly all asphalt, or asphalt-over-concrete. Concrete is terrible in places where it rains a lot, which is one reason I'm surprised you'd find so much of it in Seattle. We have porous asphalt that never has any standing water even in a downpour. At least when it's maintained, which isn't always a guarantee on some lesser used roads.
loeg 4y ago
Older Seattle area roads tend to be concrete; newer roads are more frequently asphalt. It was definitely very popular here in recent memory — I could name tons of concrete Seattle roads off the top of my head — but my impression is it is no longer as popular in new construction.
- toast0 4y ago
  There's some real old roads that are bricks under asphalt. That's a trip. Some of the real steep stuff like Bell or Blanchard at Western, IIRC. PS if you like brick roads, there's a big (flat) one out in Redmond I accidently drove on once that someone made a nice post about https://www.dadlogic.net/old-red-brick-road-redmond/ https://www.dadlogic.net/old-red-brick-road-redmond/
  - loeg 4y ago
    Yeah, sometimes you see the brick where the asphalt has worn away. There's a bunch of that in Pioneer Square, I think. I've actually been out to the Redmond brick road before (on a bicycle -- it was unpleasant).