There was a section of US 93 about 11 miles north of Caliente, NV that has been sinking and busting apart for quite some time. They kept saying they were going to fix it. About 2 months ago they started and are just finishing up. I have never seen this type of road construction in my life except for in model railroading.
These are 18"x48"x96" sheets of foam.
Here they are stacking the road base.
Once done stacking we add dirt.
Then we smooth.
They have blacktopped over the dirt and were setting up to paint the lines this afternoon. Now to see how styrofoam roads hold up in the real world!
I have seen that method of construction for a long time, up here in the “Great White North” I think they use it a lot where frost heaves are a problem.
LOL, that was a good one Wayne! We have gotten very little rain this year and no snow yet, so maybe it is the dry heaves.
The section of road they were replacing has been slumping / shifting. This new section was built to the east and downhill of the old section. Supposedly there is an aquifer under the old section, but we think there may be a small fault line in there also. I know there is a fault line about three miles west of this section and running in the general direction toward the road.
I’ve seen this a lot in Utah. It’s even stacked up around bridges to gain vertical separation. They seem to be holding up, and the light weight of the foam blocks supposedly reduces problems with settling.
