nothin Don’t Eat It. Walk On It | New Haven Independent

Don’t Eat It. Walk On It

Paul Bass Photo

Warning: This baked concoction is no biscotto. It’s a chunk of acrylic faux brick — and it has begun showing up in New Haven crosswalks.

The city has just finished laying out a crosswalk with the material at Whalley Avenue and Sherman Avenue.

Thursday afternoon the city plans a demonstration of how the stuff is heated, melted, and molded as it creates a second crosswalk with the stuff on Temple Street in the middle of the Green.

The new crosswalks are part of an experiment. The city hopes it will prove longer-lasting than brick, impervious to chips, and more durable than painted stripes — and help make streets safer for pedestrians.

This is cool stuff,” City Engineer Dick Miller (pictured) said while holding a sample of the new miracle crosswalk compound at a City Hall press briefing Wednesday.

Instead of arrayed bricks or paint on asphalt, the new crosswalks consist of elastometric material” set into asphalt.

The city bought an acrylic plastic product called StreetPrint” (“genuine stamped asphalt”) for the experiment.

Miller described a six-part process for laying the crosswalk with StreetPrint:

1) Heat the pavement.
2) Pound a steel mesh into the heated pavement to make grooves. Then remove the mesh.
3) Place the acrylic StreetPrint on top of the grooves.
4) Heat it up again, to 300 degrees.
5) Put the mesh back on. It all melts into the grooves.”
6) Place light sand on top for texture.” (Hence the baked-good look of the chunk at the top of the story.)

Voila! A brick-like crosswalk.

(Click here for a slide show of a crosswalk being laid out this way.)

The city spent $30,000 on materials and equipment and labor to create the Whalley crosswalk (pictured), according to Miller. It’s part of a larger beautification of the mid-Whalley corridor that the city has undertaken in conjunction with the Whalley Avenue Special Services District and the quasi-public Economic Development Corporation.

We’ll see how the public reacts” to the first few crosswalks before deciding whether to place them throughout the city, Miller said. He hopes that in addition to lasting longer than the alternatives, the crosswalks will also prove more visible to drivers and pedestrians. He said the effort is part of the city’s Complete Streets” campaign to increase public safety and make New Haven friendlier” for pedestrians and cyclists.

Check it out yourself: Miller was planning a demonstration of the new technique at 1 p.m. Thursday on Temple Street between the lower and upper halves of the Green.

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for Just Wondering

Avatar for To steve no jobs

Avatar for Pedro Soto

Avatar for ctownchief@yahoo.com

Avatar for cedarhillresident!

Avatar for anonymous

Avatar for upwards

Avatar for Lou Smith

Avatar for East Rockette

Avatar for rnarracci@pcparch.com

Avatar for cedarhillresident--big Robin Hood Fan :)

Avatar for rnarracci@pcparch.com