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Don’t Eat It. Walk On It

by Paul Bass | Aug 5, 2010 6:55 am

(17) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Transportation, Whalley

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.

Comments

posted by: Seb on August 5, 2010 7:12am

I saw the faux brick yesterday for the first time, and was really wondering how they were able to lay it so quickly at this busy intersection. This article certainly explains it - thanks. And I do think that it makes the intersection more pedestrian-friendly as there is a clearer border between “car space” and “pedestrian space”...

posted by: junebugjune on August 5, 2010 8:34am

I was actually lucky enough to be crossing at that intersection while they were in the process of doing this. It was really quick. I was surprised by the relatively minimal interruption to traffic as a result.
I like it and Whalley certainly could use some beautification, but still, my mind reels when I see 30k being spent on crosswalks in one intersection that’s almost someone’s salary. Here’s hoping it lasts long and pays off in the long run (maybe some new businesses on whalley).

posted by: jdavis on August 5, 2010 8:44am

Looks great! Every intersection in Downtown should have these.

posted by: Pedro Soto on August 5, 2010 8:53am

This is really great stuff, and I’m glad that finally we’ll be getting some permanent, visible crosswalks that don’t require constant painting!

Junebugjune, I think that the $30,000 also represents the initial outlay of all of the pounding and heating equipment. Future sidewalks should not cost as much, although it would be nice to get a figure as to “cost per crosswalk” compared to constant repainting.

posted by: engineer on August 5, 2010 9:05am

The correct word used to describe the material is “elastomeric” and not “elastometric”. From the root word elastomer indicating a material with properties of elasticity. “Elastometric” is a made-up word that one might apply to something like a huge fish that continues to get larger and larger each time the story is told. Anyway, interesting use of the material, I think it provides a more obvious crosswalk and looks nice too.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on August 5, 2010 10:02am

Ok this is some cool stuff. I went on line to check it out and there are all kinds of cool design that you can do with it. Question is this contracted out? I watched another step by step and it seems to me that it would be cheaper to get the equipment and have PW do it if they are now already…this would allow us to do more of this around the city at a much cheaper price….Just say’n

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on August 5, 2010 3:06pm

The advantages of using paving materials like brick, cobblestone and setts is that they are more visually intricate and pleasing than asphalt, they are very bumpy on car tires, they create a lot of noise when traveled over at higher speeds and if set in certain materials they are permeable and instead of cracking they will flex with changing temperatures and weather patterns. It is good that this imitation material has some of these advantages, but I wonder if it is cost efficient considering that two of the most important money-saving characteristics of traditional paving materials are absent in this new material.

posted by: anon on August 5, 2010 3:40pm

Are these visible at night?

If not, let’s use the international style xwalk (aka “Zebra” marking).

posted by: Ben Berkowitz on August 5, 2010 4:38pm

Would love to see those on Upper State. Glad you focused on Whalley first as its in most need of assistance.

posted by: Lou Smith on August 5, 2010 9:45pm

My understanding is Street Prints / Integrated Paving Systems has franchised to Elmer Laydon. The first cross walk a dura threm plastic/ Street Prints was installed as demo for free by Elmer Laydon company. Hoping to get more business from the City of New Haven. There are two other companies in CT franchised one in Hartford and Rocco Iadarola General Contracting out of Waterbury CT. I wonder if the City is going to sole source this work or place it out to bid. It will be interesting to see. This system has been used in many cities for years Stamford, Boston. Street Prints / Integrated Paving Systems is a Canadian Company the product is not USA.

posted by: East Rockette on August 6, 2010 2:19pm

Anon asked: “Are these visible at night? If not, let’s use the international style xwalk (aka “Zebra” marking).”

A good question, but it’s not either/or, surely. The edges could be striped lengthwise across the road, or fixed with a row of “cat’s eyes” to make them more visible at night.

In other cities (e.g. Toronto), crosswalks have flashing lights suspended above them, as well. Perhaps the next generation of portable crosswalk signs will include lights?

posted by: Mark on August 7, 2010 7:40am

Lou Smith

If Stamfords been using it for years it proves Malloy has much better engineers than DeStefano.

posted by: robn on August 8, 2010 3:46pm

Hey!

I’ve got an idea.

Lets use political mailers to make the rest of our crosswalks. They’re colorful and rather flexible (with the truth) and I’ve personally got a 6 foot stack which I’d be willing to donate.

posted by: cedarhillresident on August 8, 2010 8:07pm

Ha Robn I saved all of mine Read the when I am in the reading room. Plan on doing a bon fire with them in November on election day to keep warm! Figure that will at least justify the killing of trees for them

posted by: jack on August 9, 2010 11:03am

Regardless of the color, it is still asphalt! How about going “green” with non-petroleum products??

posted by: robn on August 9, 2010 12:33pm

Merely a technical point, but I think that people are commonly confused about what constitutes a crosswalk….the law says its where sidewalks cross streets at an intersection. In reality, we have places with no stripes, places with stripes bordering the crossing in parallel, places with stripes every foot perpendicular to your crossing (ala abbey road), combinations thereof, and now brick crosswalks with and without border painting. Since CT drivers stink and aren’t taught or tested for pedestrian safety issues, it would be nice if there was some graphic consistency in all crosswalks. (I vote Abbey Road.)

posted by: Anon on August 9, 2010 2:52pm

$30,000…does anyone else think this money could be used more wisely…just asking.

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