Thursday, 7 June 2018
A View From The Cycle Path)
A lot of the cycle-paths in this area are made of concrete rather than asphalt. When I first moved here it seemed a slightly odd choice because concrete is a more expensive material. I was surprised that we were getting the premium product while drivers on roads alongside those cycle-paths had the “cut-price” asphalt (immaculately laid, mind you).
The advantages of concrete have become more clear with time and were reinforced by a representative of a company which builds cycle-paths who I met a few days ago at the opening of a new path in Assen. The main advantage is that once laid, concrete cycle-paths generally require no maintenance for 30 years. We’ve only lived here for 11 years, but while the city has been diligent about fixing problems which occur on the asphalt paths, sometimes before they’re really problems at all, and in some cases three times while we’ve lived here, none of the concrete paths have required any work at all so far as I can tell. For this reason I’m inclined to believe 30 year claim. Another advantage is that relatively little preparation of the ground underneath the cycle-path is required, making these paths less labour-intensive to install than would otherwise be the case. Obviously the ground underneath should be flat, but that can be sand and a 20 cm thick layer of concrete is then enough to spread the load and withstand damage without the same multiple layers of support as asphalt paths require.
There are concrete cycle-paths in this area dating from when we moved to this area which still look exactly as they did when we first saw them except that the bright colour has faded a bit. Others which already looked faded when we first came to live here also remain perfectly smooth and pleasant to cycle over. Even when there are trees nearby, these paths appear to be so completely immune to the problem of root damage.
