Pavement

Another factor in whether I'll ride to work over the next few days was brought to my attention on my drive home this afternoon. New Albany (or N'Awb'ny, as I am wont to call it) is doing a LOT of repaving right now, much of it along my commute corridor.

I'm always of mixed minds over pavement renewal. Part of me considers all that oil to be something of an ecological disaster--the oil must leach out of the asphalt at some rate, reducing the cohesion of the pavement. It seems that such would be part of the wear cycle. The fumes around new pavement are pretty rough, too. I couldn't imagine working in that industry as a laborer.

Another, albeit short-term, pain in the axles is that they are reclaiming much of the aggregate. This is a good thing, in the long run, but for a couple days the road surface is very irregular, and not a little hazardous on a bicycle. The coarser surface is bad in a fall, too, should that happen.

Of course, being a small city, N'Awb'ny didn't wait until it REALLY needed to be repaved. There were a couple places yet that had not been patched, and a couple places that had not developed holes, even.

I'm sure, however, that many (including myself) will appreciate the new smooth pavement when the work is done.

At least for a week, after which time someone will have to dig under the street for some reason, leaving a metal plate over the hole for a week or two before making an imperfect patch (with the requisite sink-hole in it).