Real De-construiction

Kansas City tells us about

RIP brick

Bank Street downtown between 7th and 9th was stripped down last week in preparation for resurfacing, so I got to walk on the old bricks that were hidden beneath the asphalt.

Today, Bank Street was back to boring regular fresh black asphalt. The bricks are hidden yet again.

It actually might make more sense to have the streets made of easily-moved bricks ("unit pavers") rather than using them for the more static sidewalks which are more rarely torn up for utilities and so forth.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, my conjecture is that (counter-intuitively) it make more sense to use the unit pavers in the street and pave the sidewalk with concrete or (believe it or not) asphalt. The City of Dunedin in New Zealand is one of the most charming, urban cities I've ever visited and it has asphalt sidewalks...very odd at first but after a while one forgets and they look just fine.

Comments

[Rich]

I shudder at the thought of bricks (or as in Britain and Australia Pavers) being used more widely in the US. Sidewalk projects in London seemed to take about five times the length expected in the US because of their use of pavers. No one could ever answer the question of why they used pavers instead of just pouring concrete. It might be marginally more aesthetic, but in the end it is just a huge waste in all but the most scenic areas.

As far as the cost of reconstruction, it is still a huge pain in the a** with pavers. Perhaps a good comprimise is to just find ways of making poured concrete marginally better looking.

In the end my best guess of why they used pavers in Australia and England is that there was a huge amount of institutional momentum from the construction industry, labourer's unions, and city officials. Let's not get ourselves in the same situation in the US.

[Ian]

The reason why paviors are used in the UK is because there are lots of services under the pavement in most towns (thats sidewalk to you) and they do get taken up regularly. We do use ashphalt and also concrete or stone paving flags. Poured concrete is almost never used.

There is also a lot of public support for keeping them - paviors/paving flags are the traditional material for sidewalks and we like them that way.

[Kris Hasson-Jones]

The trouble with the brick pavers in the streets in my town is they get knocked out of place and *broken* by the heavy weight of loaded trucks and busses. That becomes a trip hazard for pedestrians. The trouble with brick pavers on the sidewalks is that they get slick and slippery in the 9-months-of-the-year rain we have.

[Ian]

If the paviors get broken then they are laid wrongly. If they get slick in rain they should have a different texture.

[clew]

Asphalt sidewalks would be better on the knees of pedestrians than concrete ones are.

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[Tom Beard]

I'm interested in your surprise at seeing asphalt footpaths: they're pretty much the default in NZ. For all its lack of charm, asphalt has some prosaic but very real advantages over brick, cobble and the like:

- It has more "give". When my partner & I were in London, she was always complaining of sore feet and legs, and we put that down to the use of flagstones and other harder surfaces.

- It has no cracks or holes. Many women will go out of their way to avoid cobbled streets becuase their heels keep catching in them.

- They are smooth and quiet. Ever tried towing a wheeled suitcase for a couple of kilometres across cobbled footpaths? Or lived above a brick footpath which some people use to skateboard to work?

- They don't reflect a lot of light. Here in Wellington, a lot of asphalt footpaths are being replaced by yellowish "golden" bricks, and these create a lot more glare than dark asphalt. Pale concrete is the same.

- It's resilient. Sure, it can be subject to potholing, but bricks can be worse in that when they get loose and have water seep underneath them, they can create a "minefield" that spurts muddy water up the trouserlegs of unsuspecting pedestrians.

- It can be shaped to better suit curved surfaces. Wellington (like Dunedin) is very hilly, and where the curvature changes, asphalt creates smooth transitions whereas bricks leave projecting edges to trip on.

So, asphalt may lack the nostalgic, handmade, historical appeal of cobbles, bricks or flagstones, but for a pure "comfort" point of view, it has a lot going for it.