I don’t know what this means. I’m not sure it means anything at all. Then again, it may mean everything:
The high price of pavement and the sour economy have driven municipalities in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Vermont to roll up the asphalt — a mile here, a few miles there, mostly on back roads — rather than repave.
Now look, I grew up in a county FULL of gravel roads. I used to drive gravel roads to visit my friends and to get to work. Heck, when I was teaching the directions I gave to family was “turn left at the gravel road”. I am FINE with gravel.
Question is: I this a sign of fiscal responsibility or a harbinger of bad times ahead?
Whichever it is, I hope that once municipalities realize the many many benefits of not paving roads, they may decide “hey, maybe this is the way to go for those 2 lane roads.”
When I moved into my present house, the road was gravel. Rain was absorbed. We got paved and now have regular run off – often into culverts that were created to carry run off to the Gulf of Mexico. We’re not feeding the aquifer that way!
I’d like to see more gravel.