Chapter 160
Another year swings into the past. I wonder if anyone out there had any fun memories bubble up from my last set of musings? I hope that this season of family gatherings and celebratory happenings gives rise to many fabulous memories to sustain you in the coming years.
More book-related prompts to my scribblings: I just discovered that a section of motorway in the UK is surfaced with the inclusion of two and a half million books, mostly Mills & Boon (what is the Canadian equivalent? Probably known by parent company Harlequin?). It’s not all pulpy romance novels, but it is all pulp.
Excess or damaged novels are shipped to a pulp mill in the south of the country to be converted into a pulp that is integrated into the Tarmac® that is used to cover and seal the road. This is because the pulped wood material is absorbent and elastic, helps keeps the road intact, reduce cracking and potholes. This road was built twenty years ago using these techniques.
Hmm… fast forward to this year and a little research more. Canada quite recently realised there might be something useful in wood to add to road surfaces, enter the experiment in Thunder Bay. Instead of exploiting an endless resource already falling into landfill and recycling, we’re utilizing the Lignin released as a byproduct of pulp and paper-making to replace some of the Bitumen added to road materials. Wouldn’t it be great to use recycled novels too? The experiment in Thunder Bay started two years ago. Someone has obviously looked into the twenty-year-old road in the UK. It may not be subject to the same temperature fluctuation stresses, but it is subject to vastly higher usage stresses, although not quite the volume the road owners want – it’s a toll road, something of an anathema in the UK where all drivers already pay a road tax equivalent to just over $300/year.
Every Spring when in our country there is a rush to fill potholes and repair cracks in the road, maybe we should be chucking our used books in there and tamping them down? It would be a great thing to improve the elasticity of the road surface so that potholes became slightly less of a giant issue… but we have nothing on the potholes of India which will swallow a whole car in the blink of an eye.
Each Spring the use of asphalt spikes as we repair our roads. We generate a bunch of greenhouse gas emissions and cause collateral damage to the environment when paving or repairing. Canadian studies have shown Lignin can significantly improve the aging resistance of asphalt and has different effects on the high-temperature rheological (flow or plasticity) property, low- temperature crack resistance, and fatigue resistance of asphalt. Jolly good stuff eh?
Funnily enough, it’s in Alberta that we have a bunch of Lignin-related studies, projects and companies working on making this all a viable aspect of road building and maintenance for the future. Yay for Alberta entrepreneurs!
When I first came to Canada I spent some time in Ontario working a ranch/trail riding outfit. In the Spring it was such an adventure to ride horses up and down the gravelled hill roads, navigating the washboard effect that the frost heaves give rise to. Sudden excrescences emerging in the middle of the trail from one day to the next, soft on top, solid with ice beneath. These bursts of upward-moving frost would erupt through asphalt too. Never seen anything like it before, it is a fascinating aspect of nature in this country.
Somewhat tangentially, the 50,000 miles of Roman Roads across England and Europe are epic constructions that have lasted centuries. They may not have to deal with 60+ degree temperature fluctuations, but they accommodate everything else that man and nature throws at them. They are not, however, the reason that our railways run on 4’ 8.5” gauges. Ask Stephenson.
Who knew? Let’s make more of our roads out of miles and miles of dreams and stories. Imagine driving over all those thoughts and hours of effort and creativity. Interesting times.
Blissings,
Kat Dancer
bodymudra@gmail.com
403-931-3866 (h) +1 415 525 2630 (c)
