The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2.b. Concrete Paving ROSE�✓IOLINT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CITY COUNCIL City Council Work Session: September 9, 2014 AGENDA ITEM: Concrete Paving AGENDA SECTION: Discussion PREPARED BY: Phil Olson, PE, Assistant City Engi AGENDA NO. Z � . . ATTACHMENTS: APPROVED BY: c� RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: Discussion BACKGROUND: Council requested information regarding the use of concrete pavement on city roads. April Stier with the Portland Cement Association�vill provide a brief pYesentation on concrete paving and will be available for questions. April is a Pavement Engineer in the North Central Region of the Pordand Cement r�ssociation. SUMMARY: April Stier will provide a presentation on concrete paving and will be available for discussion. U:APacement�fanagement\2U14(I)08 C(;Conerete Pa�-ing.doe� StarTribune - Print Page Page 1 of 2 �StarTribune Edina residents fight to keep their �, „ t concrete streets M � '-�-,��. A� Article by:Mary Jane Smetanka " �e•°'* _ , :;.. StarTnbune � May11,2014-623AM ,. �. . t�i Ask some residents of Edina's Tingdale Avenue about their street, : ':} � and this is what you hear:It has a tough,environmentally safe � ,t��l�'.',,- surtace;residents can walk on it barefoot at the height of summer � ' without seanng their feet,and kids claim that when they fall from , . their bikes they are less likely to get"road rash." ai�' r r� Their street is concrete,soon to be replaced by asphalt That ��,f��m f� r ��F � . � , doesn't make sense ro homeowners like Judd Rietkerk. ay� ,r;<<on r �� .��,- i�,F, n�� a.��au Bruce Bispng.Stai Tnbune "I think the concrete that is out here now will last longer than the new asphalt,"he said.Concrete,he said,"just goes on and on." The concrete vs.asphalt debate is an old one,and a hot enough topic that it draws a sigh from traffic engineers who are asked which is better."Bette�'depends on the site,the soils and the budget. Yet people who have concrete streets often like them.When the Edina City Council began preparing to redo roads and underground utilities in the Birchcrest neighborhood,where about 30 percent of streets are concrete,residents sent e-mails and showed up in person to praise concrete. In Apnl,the council decided to replace all of BirchcresPs concrete streets with asphalt Chad Millner,Edina's director of engineering,said one of his goals this year is to develop a plan for dealing with Edina's concrete streets,which are 50 to 60 years old. "We lean toward removing them and putting blacktop in,"he said. AsphalYs advantages Concrete was popular decades ago when asphalt technology was in its infancy,said Curt Turgeon,the Minnesota Department of Transportation's state pavement engineer.Minnesota's early paved highways were concrete. "We knew how to build concrete streets then;the technology hadn't evolved much with asphalt at that time,"he said."Now plants pump out asphalt quickly and you can lay it and drive on it." In Edina,an estimated 30 percent of residential streets are concrete;in Minneapolis that proportion is 25 percent. Bloomington has none.In Richfield,the only concrete city slreel—that is,not a state or county road—is 77th Street. Until recently,concrete was more expensive than asphalt,but rising oil pnces have shrunk the pnce difference.Turgeon said he wasn't sure what the proportion of concrete streets is in Minnesota,but said choice of street matenals is dictated not only by pnce but by soil conditions.Concrete is more commonly used in northwestern Minnesota,he said,where soils are unstable and concrete provides the needed rigidity to bear traffic loads.Concrete also is used where gravel,a base for asphalt roads,is scarce. Cities prefer asphalt because it cures quickly,allowing new roads to open for traffic sooner.And it's easier to repair. Streets from the'60s But concrete has its advantages,too. Rietkerk,a former Minneapolis city employee who knows a bit about street work,cited concrete's durability when he was making his case to the Edina City Council. "Asphalt has the maintenance factor,"he said."In five years you have lo seal-coat it,and you do it again at 10 years and 15 years,and then it needs a mill and overiay.And when you patch asphalt,it settles different,and you always have a bump. Look at the potholes." Mike Kennedy,Minneapolis'director of transportation maintenance and repair,said concrete is indeed durable—for a time. The oldest of the city's 150 miles of concrete residential streets date back to the mid-1960s. "ICs pretty remarkable,what shape most of them are in,"Kennedy said."They last a long time....But when they go,they go fast.We have some that are in very rough shape." Minneapolis doesn't build concrete streets anymore,and it is checking out the latest in concrete renovation lo fgure oul how to extend the life of the ones it has,Kennedy said.It has patched some concrete streets with asphalt—a technique Edina rejected because of the black-and-white"Swiss cheese"appearance—but repairs holes made for utility repairs with concrete. Concrete has some cracks For cities,the biggest headache with concrete is that when concrete ages,panels shift and joints need to be repaired. Richfield has county roads that were originally concrete and were overlaid with blacktop,but the concrete base is so deteriorated that"the cracks just shoot to the surface,"said Jeff Pearson,ciry transportation engineer. In the next few years,Hennepin County will join with Richfield to replace concrete-based arterial streets like Portland Avenue and 66th Street with new asphalt,a decision Pearson favors. "For a local street,I'd be hard-pressed to find a use for concrete over asphalt,"he said. http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=258772421 9/4/2014 StarTribune - Print Page Page 2 of 2 Edina's Millner agrees.If the concrete streets in Birchcrest were just 30 percent damaged,the city might have repaired them, he said.But about half of the panels in those streets either need repair or will be damaged by major utiliry work that will be done this summer. Millner said if those concrete streets were replaced with concrete,residents could not drive on them for a week and the surface would not reach its full strength for almost a month.And residents would be paying about$3,000 more per household to replace their streets. Rietkerk acknowledges that concrete is not pertect.In some places,his street is cracked and concrete is crumbled around manhole covers. "Sure,you get chucks,bump,bump,bump,"he said."We put in speed bumps to slow traffc.IYs the same effecl." He says he didn't lose the debate over what to do with Tingdale.He's getting a nice,smooth,new blacktop street. "I think the city lost,"he said."Because they will have to maintain it and they will lose it sooner." Mary Jane Smetanka•612-673-7380 0 2014 Star Tribune http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=258772421 9/4/2014