03-27-2008, 01:57 PM
I can't respond on the facts of these roads. Some of you will need to do your own research. I can add this:
Construction costs can vary - of course. They describe the ideal conditions for natural road building to occur in Puna. We have lots and lots of rock right at the surface to bond a road bed to. This means a minimum of 6" of enzyme treated material is compacted directly bonding to the stone below.
Hamakua, by contrast, has lots of roads over deep soil. Locations like that - with deep soft soil - may require enzyme treated road beds layered up to 30" thick or more.
They did describe that upon placement and compaction that light traffic can run on it very soon. Heavy traffic needs to be kept off the road for 72 hours.
Pavement has it's maintenance and durability issues too. Asphalt, done correctly, needs a lot of road bed preparation. Compacted gravel & fiines over well graded routes. A soft spot in the road bed results in - guess what? potholes. So in pavement the performance of the asphalt is directly related to the performance of the underlying ground.
So the proposal with this enzyme system is that basically you get a very serviceable road for the cost of the roadbed preparation that asphalt would usually require. And with the enzyme bonding to the substrate there should be no soft spots.
That worries me about HPP. I don't think that the $240,000 per mile includes grading and road bed preparatioin. I'm not sure. Someone correct me.
Construction costs can vary - of course. They describe the ideal conditions for natural road building to occur in Puna. We have lots and lots of rock right at the surface to bond a road bed to. This means a minimum of 6" of enzyme treated material is compacted directly bonding to the stone below.
Hamakua, by contrast, has lots of roads over deep soil. Locations like that - with deep soft soil - may require enzyme treated road beds layered up to 30" thick or more.
They did describe that upon placement and compaction that light traffic can run on it very soon. Heavy traffic needs to be kept off the road for 72 hours.
Pavement has it's maintenance and durability issues too. Asphalt, done correctly, needs a lot of road bed preparation. Compacted gravel & fiines over well graded routes. A soft spot in the road bed results in - guess what? potholes. So in pavement the performance of the asphalt is directly related to the performance of the underlying ground.
So the proposal with this enzyme system is that basically you get a very serviceable road for the cost of the roadbed preparation that asphalt would usually require. And with the enzyme bonding to the substrate there should be no soft spots.
That worries me about HPP. I don't think that the $240,000 per mile includes grading and road bed preparatioin. I'm not sure. Someone correct me.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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Punaweb moderator