Some Background on America’s Crumbling Infrastructure In May 2020, TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, published a report that assessed the condition of rural America’s crumbling infrastructure. Its findings were not positive. First, 50% of all rural, non-highway roads are rated between poor and fair. Roads in this condition have cracking, potholes and ruts, to the point that the TRIP report states they “often …
The Key to Successfully Converting Paved to Unpaved Roads – Part 2
In a previous article, we looked at the growing trend of converting paved to unpaved roads. Unpaving rural, low-volume asphalt roads has financial and other benefits that are driving local road agencies to take this seemingly odd – yet innovative – step. What are the challenges to converting paved to unpaved roads? How does Midwest’s solution address all of these …
The Safest Way to Road Dust Control
For community residents that live near unpaved roads, there’s an obvious, and understandable, concern about the health, safety and environmental impact of road dust control measures used on their roads. There are a number of ways that chemical dust control products can move from the intended location: Over-spraying the sides of the road during application can leak the product into …
The Key to Successfully Converting Paved to Unpaved Roads
In a recent two-part series on how to think about the costs associated with unpaved roads, we introduced the idea that utilizing effective dust control and stabilization can allow you to create a road that has the low overall carrying costs of a gravel road but also has the strength and durability of a paved road. Today we’ll be tackling a …
Road Management Process: Extending the Lifecycle and Performance of Unpaved Roads
In the previous article in this series, we discussed how to understand the various road maintenance costs that go into your road management process including the repair and rebuilding of unpaved versus paved roads. Midwest has developed a proprietary method for achieving the pros of both paved and unpaved roads, while minimizing the cons of both, based on our latest research and …