Recycling old tires for paving material is a hit with drivers
Q Thank you for the article on paving with recycled tire rubber mix. It is nice to know our tax dollars are doing something I’m sure everyone is pleased with.
— Sue Walmsley, Walnut Creek
A Rubberized asphalt is quieter, safer and saves 4.5 million used tires from the dump a year. Yes, most everyone should be pleased.
Q Is rubberized pavement being considered for some arterials, too, and nonfreeway major highways? Also, what about the expressways in the South Bay?
— Dave Simpson
A Oh, yes. Great America Parkway in Santa Clara went the rubber route. Ditto Hamilton Avenue in San Jose and Highway 84 outside Livermore.
Q When roads are repaved, what are the standards for smoothness? I was in the carpool lane on San Tomas Expressway between Benton and Homestead Road, and noticed that the recently repaved road is very rough. Is this roughness acceptable for newly paved roads?
— Shelley Hoyt, San Jose
A The section of San Tomas between El Camino Real and Homestead Road was recently microsurfaced. This is a cost-effective treatment to extend the life of the existing pavement, but it does not offer the smoothness of a brand-new hot mixed asphalt overlay. The tradeoff is the cost. For every dollar spent on sealing as a maintenance strategy, an agency avoids spending $5 on resurfacing.
Q Payne Avenue was repaved from San Tomas to San Tomas Aquino Road. It’s smooth as glass. Now drive on the following repaved roads: Monroe from Naglee to Forest. Forest from Bascom to Winchester. And Hedding from Bascom to Winchester. They were smoother before repaving. Does anyone oversee road resurfacing to see that it meets some kind of standard?
— Alan Levin, San Jose
A The difference in ride quality is due to the difference between sealing, which is applying a thin coat of asphalt to maintain a road, and resurfacing, which is a more involved process of removing and replacing a layer of asphalt. When a street is resurfaced, the ride is drastically improved. Streets that are selected for resurfacing need more than those that need regular maintenance.
Q Who is responsible for cleaning Caltrain stations? The Sequoia station has had human feces on the wall for over a month. I don’t recall it ever being clean, and I have been using that station daily for three years.
— Robert Patterson, San Jose
A This gets complicated. The Redwood City station is cleaned daily by Caltrain contractors and washed weekly. But Caltrain is not responsible for the shopping center wall, nor the strip of land behind the shopping center and the back of the platform. They are not considered part of the station. But the transit district will check this out and do what needs to be done.