Brick streets

[rmw]

I was in my hometown at a power plant this AM, and had occasion to go into the downtown area. I noticed that the street I was on was the same brick street that was there when I was a kid, and that was lots of Christmas's ago.

Brick streets were very common in the old days.

The streets were pretty old then, and from what I could see, the bricks were pretty much undisturbed which indicated that they had not required any maintenance.

I do remember as a kid in my motor scooter days that they were slick as glass when wet, but other than that they seem to be pretty tough.

Can any of my CE peers knowledgable about paving materials expound on why streets are no longer made of bricks? BTW, these streets have a very noticable crown, and still have the high curbs popular when the cars of the day when they were built permitted that.

rmw

 

[dicksewerrat]

High crowns means the water does not stay on the street. The bricks are hand laid. Very expensive.The street can move with the temp and the traffic loads so they don't break up. If they are not cut into by utility comapanies, they last almost forever. They do develop a rolling surface but still function very well. i noticed that whenever someone started to excavte in a brick street, many, many bricks grew legs during the night and walked away. Once we lost 250 sq. ft. of brick overnight.

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.

http://WWW.amlinereast.com

 

[rmw]

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that these streets were laid as part of what was called WPA, part of the New Deal program to put people to work during the Great Depression. That is about the age they are, and that would explain how something so labor intensive could get done on a gov't budget.

I was visiting with a neighbor this evening who had also lived in that town about the time I was a kid (an early employer of mine) telling him about posting this question, and as part of our conversation we noted that in the day and time that these streets were built, the high curbs were for model "A's" and model "T's" and therefore the cars and traffic load was much lighter than the streets are subjected to today.

What would the road bed below the bricks have been constructed of?

rmw

 

[ACtrafficengr]

The City of Ithaca, NY resurfaced one of their historic streets with concrete pavers a few years ago. If you want recent info on costs, you could contact them.

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[jdonville]

rmw,

Brick roads, once excavated for utility upgrades/repairs, are seldom as attractive again.

Firstly, any areas of poor compaction show up as ruts and depressions and affect the quality of the ride.

Secondly, the construction crews don't often, if at all, take the time to carefully reset the pattern, resulting in noticeable differences between the original street and the relaid brick.

The problem of bricks with spontaeous locomotive properties can also make it difficult to match the texture and color of the original bricks.

Jeff


Jeffrey T. Donville, PE
TTL Associates, Inc.

http://www.ttlassoc.com

 

[dicksewerrat]

The base is gravel, ussually 8-12 inches.Well compacted

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.

http://WWW.amlinereast.com

 

[BigH]

dicksewerrat/Richard: You talk of bricks disappearing at night - we were rehabing a national highway over in South Asia. The original road was on brick/brickbats (fragments) as a base. We were putting in full crushed subbase/bases instead as part of rehab. I've pictures of the local villagers removing the bricks even as the excavator was tearing up the pavement! You would see the little kids almost running under the bucket to get the "good" ones. They would then stack them on the side of the roads to remove later. Many cubic metres were lost this way. Insignificant compared to total volume and, in effect, the "stolen" bricks were probably put to good use in building a house or something.

 

[MPENN]

Went to Ann Arbor, Michigan on a motorcycle trip in the early eighties. Rode over some beautiful red brick paved streets. There were some areas scarred by UG utility work, as described by JDONVILLE. We have some old cobble paved roads where I live, quaint and very 19th century, however, they pale against the brick pavement.

 

[49merc]

I had a brick driveway installed at my house about 8 years ago. The bricks were from a Canadian manufacturer, and I was told at the time that they are still used in some parts of Canada as they move better with the frost and traffic without surface cracks developing as in blacktop. I was also told that utility ditches, when properly done, aren't noticeable but are more labor intensive. I used almost two full 18-wheeler trailer fulls of brick (a relatively large driveway). I have had several full dump trucks on it , and a mobile crane, with no noticeable effects. I bedded the bricks in 6 inches of sand on top of 18 inches of blacktop millings which were rolled in 6 inch lifts.

 

[jheidt2543]

The old brick street pavers are pretty big brick compared to most of those used today. We tore up a brick street here in town a few years ago. I believe those brick weighed 12 lbs. each!