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Reposted by @evalpavement.bsky.social

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 02/10/2026

Also in September: 42% of new car sales in France were fully electric.

lesechos.fr

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

alt text: two images of deeply rutted asphalt pavement, only in the left turning lane (not the other two lanes)

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

lane the trucks take to turn into port. Having to stop at a stoplight magnifies the plastic deformation. (The asphalt’s viscosity provides much of the resistance as the vehicle lingers with the 80,000 load, instantaneous elastic component doesn’t help as much.) And ofc if hot, viscosity ⬇️

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

for the road users the costs are to their vehicles and in safety (and maybe health!) and these are usually not considered!) Pavement condition: 20/100 Image quality: 100/100 Me looking up the math equations of “hyperboloids of one sheet”: price…less (I found a 122-page math paper, too)

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I have also seen this happen in a very accelerated way with utility cuts and repairs, as confined conditions require smaller equipment and, consequently, several thin layers to achieve compaction. (Utility trench compaction is TOO OFTEN sacrificed for expediency and cost (for the utilities… 5/n

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

This is serious both in terms of the impact on road users, as well as in terms of the repairs needed: the condition needs to be addressed all the way down to the subgrade - a lot of compaction, and hand work, and monilization, for a small area. 4/n

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

A common reason for the granular base to degrade with this size of void is water running underneath (whether a broken pipe, or improper drainage leading to water flow over a significant period of time.) 3/n

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The surface is curvy and the asphaltic concrete has no visible, cracked edges but a curved surface, suggesting undermining of support, which for a viscoelastic material, can lead to plastic deformation without cracking. If much traffic stresses the surface a classic pothole will form. 2/n +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The pavement may indeed be the location of a discontinuity in space, in which case a physicist or mathematician may be the appropriate expert to comment ( cc @saavikford.bsky.social ), but if it’s pavement distress I see signs of a sinkhole… 1/n +

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Reposted by @evalpavement.bsky.social

Edgardo Block @edgardoblock.eurosky.social · 22/06/2026

In my years working in pavement and transportation asset management, it has been difficult to convey the message of infrastructure deterioration at the system scale. We were effective in CT for pavement (at the state level, locally it depends on the municipality) - you can see the impacts… +

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Reposted by @evalpavement.bsky.social

weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Irish Talking Heads cover band Seamus It Ever Was

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

has proven notoriously hard - in place structural *capacity* was noted in a TRB Consensus report to Congress a few years ago as being something we all need to work on (it seemed extremely odd as a recommendation sitting alongside high-level recommendations)

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

the chart is % poor, which is when the users notice the road, and also an indication of backlog, but not that useful to notice the impact of investments. It would be much better to have an indication of “remaining structural life” or a state-of-good-repair measure, but that… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

complexity from the pavement side, but also because 3R + projects typically are a good opportunity to update / replace all systems (safety, drainage, etc) so they take longer to even design, especially on existing facilities, and also to construct. So the higher ROI is preserve-first, but…

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The point: pavement management principles tend to steer the manager toward prioritizing preservation vs tending to the worst roads (in this area we have collectively observed this in actual practice). Pavement preservation requires order of magnitude less engineering effort (in part because of… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Just one point and one conjecture First the conjecture - we may have been, in some cases, close to industry capacity in some construction areas particularly in road work (like paving) - it would be good to study this via bid analysis by work item, for instance, which is typically publicly available

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

At the end of the day, there is no easy fix for this. Distress: 20/100 Function: 10/100 Difficulty of implementing a solution, now: 100/100

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

There is also the possibility, as is even mentioned in the 13 comments in the article, that there has been mire extreme weather and that this type of distress has shown up elsewhere in the Kent area - conditions outside the design parameters… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I don’t know what happened here, but I do know enough of TRRL and people there and the work done there (prob TRL continues at least some of this tradition) to know that there is know-how to have handled a case like this at design. … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

questioning before adopting a design, a lot of pressure. Pavement, usually relegated to other sexier considerations on projects, here takes center stage (or things can turn out badly.)… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Fascinating* situation on so many levels. Swelling soils are, for pavement engineers, difficult both from a technical standpoint (the solutions are site-specific) and from a political POV: The solutions are almost invariably $$$$… so it’s a lit of internal… + www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/ne...

kentonline.co.uk

‘It’s a disgrace’: The ‘rollercoaster’ A-road costing Kent taxpayers millions

The need for yet more restrictions on a bumpy stretch of a busy dual-carriageway has been branded an “absolute disgrace”.

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Stone dust, in this terminology, looks to be the same as screenings (that is just how I’ve learned to talk about it in my neck of the woods), I should have included both terms for clarity, so thank you (and for the illustration as well!)

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

sieve (4.75mm) and screenings are angular and well-graded, providing support for the riders and performance even in the rain. Distress: 90 (I think I see remnants of a couple potholes on the left side not compacted or with more of the coarse chips) Function: 100 Photo: 100 Subject (bike path): 110

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

In short, the relationship between the contact area of the bike tire with the ground. Aggregate that is larger than 3/8” tends to result in an uncomfortable ride (and complains to the road managers.) I don’t have much more to say except they seem to have done it correctly here, mat’l passes #4…+

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

It could be related to Har-Tru or one of those tennis surfaces. But that is a short length and this Pathway is ar least 20 km long. Much harder to use a high-maintenance material like that, Yet for bicycles in particular ride comfort means the surface texture is important… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Last weekend at Tanglewood (Lenox, MA) I had the pleasure of spending most of the morning and afternoon, and one of the paths (from the shed to Ozawa Hall) is surfaced with a very interesting material, sort of grey clay with some screenings. Really packed in nicely, smooth for walking or whlchr… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

In the meantime, here is a case study we did for the City of Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Comptroller in 2007-2008, following a similar set of conditions. www.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary...

milwaukee.gov

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

like this one. I guess I have to do some organizing of thoughts here to write about how to a) avoid this state of affairs, and also b) how to move forward so you don’t repeat the same mistakes. The field is “pavement and asset management” and it’s my professional passion… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

In large part this is because users really “aren’t bothered by the road until they actually are:” For most of the deterioration trajectory the user experience is pretty much the same. I hate to use the term “tipping point” but there definitely is one, and it usually involves a bad press story… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

As we under-invest in pavements, the deteriorating state is appropriately expressed as “loss of slack in the system.” Then one day the whole thing appears to break almost at once. … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

There are many ways and threads to answer this, but I would like to focus on my observation of the *failure mode of a pavement network:*

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

when the entire network is painful for everyone to use, like in this example. Why is that? Why do we look like “the sky is falling” types and then “how come these people didn’t see it coming?” when the (huge!) bills come due? … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

and they get press and all, but until next year everyone pretty much forgets about them (particularly at public budget times). Except… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

One of the hardest things to communicate for infrastructure managers everywhere is the backlog of needs of a network. We come out (ASCE in the US) with dire report cards… + infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/roa...

infrastructurereportcard.org

Roads

Road infrastructure in America is in need of updates. Click to learn more about the ASCE's 2021 report card grade and steps we can take to improve it.

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Pavements typically don’t die- they become zombies - they keep on being there, they just become harder and harder to traverse and costly for you (in vehicle operating costs.). … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Or, as the entire article hints at, the overall network has pretty much failed. That’s because generalized potholes are what a failed pavement looks like. … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

it is highly unlikely that paving contractors and inspectors all forgot how to pave over an entire region. So either you have road-manager and road-builder incompetence (in the country (UK) of Telford and MacAdam? unlikely) or you are seeing structural failure expressed in terminal distress… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Potholes can be formed (as in the case of British Bigfoot, discussed in this account a couple of days ago) by deficiencies in the surface lift of a pavement. At the scale of a segment of road, the fix fot surface potholes is rather straightforward: “Mill and fill” the lift. But: … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

When the public is complaining about a generalized pothole problem, you likely have a massive backlog of pavement needs. Citizen complaints express a tacit “minimum condition level” for pavements. Potholes everywhere are a symptom and cannot be addressed in a vacuum..+ www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Kent County Council needs funds to fix potholes - representative

The repair backlog to fix potholes in the south east of England is £2.5bn, according to a report.

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

is in parking areas and lower-traffic streets and roads. Here it looks in good, sound condition, even if I can see some aggregate without the asphalt coating, which can lead to early raveling (see previous post) Distress: 85/100 Function: 90/100 Photo: 100/100

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

and then rely on a thick(ish) coat of asphalt binder to help the stone stick together. These pavements are also quieter. Achieving stability requires tight control of the sizing of the aggregate in production, and when they don’t work they deform, so the primary use at least in the US… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

This pavement has the texture of a “porous pavement.” The purpose is to allow water through the asphalt down into the granular layers. Mix is “open-graded” (use a single-size stone and add a “choke aggregate” (smaller stone) to help stabilize the mix if needed… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

This would be known as a band-aid treatment, and there is nothing wrong with that over the short term (the pavement is smoother), but eventually you are inviting British Bigfoot to visit your road. Thank you for the awesome example, Joel!

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

I could easily imagine (this is all conjecture) that the road owner decided to place a thin-nish overlay to provide a smooth ride over old pavement, probably trying to save a buck (thinness and no proper tacking, and probably less care in compaction) and take care of complaints. … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

The top and bottom of the paving lift create a plane where there is less contact with the layer below, so pavers will apply a “tack coat” of asphalt or emulsion to promote adhesion at that interface. This seems to be missing at the bottom of the pothole, where you just see the layer below… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

a surface that is irregular and can hold. even more water and have more surface exposed to air. And there is evidence of yet another factor adding to the pothole formation: … +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

too thick and the roller has trouble compacting through the layer, leaving some voids interconnected; too thin and there are spots where larger stones lie on top of each other and “bridge” over the surrounding area, or worse, the paving screed “drags” the mix, leaving even more voids and… +

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evalpavement.bsky.social @evalpavement.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

In this case the location of Bigfoot’s shoeprint could be in the wheelpath. The porosity is exacerbated when the paving lift is too thin, which seems to be the case, too. The rule of thumb is that for compaction, a paving lift should be about 4x the maximum nominal aggregate size; … +

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