Dive summary:
- Sahadat Hossain, a civil engineering associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington has figured out a way to greatly lesson the damage to Texas roadbeds from underlying expansive clay that can shift mightily with wet and dry weather – pin the road down where it's supposed to be.
- What Hossain came up with and has tried in a test on Route 287 was plastic pins – 10-foot-long pins that are each made of 500 recycled soda bottles – that are driven into the bed beneath the road.
- Based on preliminary results, the pins can halve the cost of repairs such as installing retaining walls and extend the period between major repairs from five to 10 years to 15 to 20 years.
From the article:
"Just think about it," Hossain says. "You need one million dollars to repair something. Or you can use a sustainable recycling material and do it for $200- or $300,000. You don't need to be an engineer to see that." ...
