Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/07/how-to-resurface-a-road-without-stopping-traffic.html
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Cool. That kind of thinking has never occurred in Ohio.
In some places around here, the highway intersections barely have any controls - it’s worst when they cross at an angle.
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I remember seeing this suggested as an option on Mr. Wizard decades ago…didn’t know it actually made it live.
Wonder why not used in the states? Climate reason? Stupider drivers? I can fully see here in Chicago someone plowing into that onramp railing at 70 while they were trying to pass a slow moving car.
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That’s a lot of equipment and f__ing around for a relatively minor boost in convenience
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And I think this is why it’s not used in the US - because the cost has to be pretty significant, you’d use it only when those costs are worthwhile, i.e. when blocking a particular road would cause major problems. But the US is so car-centric, so paved over, if a street is impassible, there’s another street (or two) that are just as convenient to be used instead, if a lane of a highway is unusable, you use one of the other 20 lanes…
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If you’re going to repair the road, and you can’t actually cause a little traffic mayhem in the process, then really, what’s the point?
This happened last night not far from here.
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I’m impressed. I can’t say I’ve ever seen that many people actually working on road construction all at once. 
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Technically, they do have to stop traffic, overnight (10h), while they assemble their bridge into place, and probably a similar stop later while they remove it.
Still, amazing! Dragon-level project management to get all the equipment, workers and materials in place at the right times. (“What do you mean we don’t have the self-sealing stem-bolts? We need those now, whatever the cost!”)
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it’s a common trope about roadwork. but the thing is, certain moments require a certain number of people. you can’t have less than that moment. plus, it’s hard dirty work, so people deserve to take frequent breaks and rotate jobs*
(* offer not applicable in texas and florida )
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We in the USA suffer because we don’t want to pay higher taxes to do these types of projects in a more intelligent way. We could do more construction at night when traffic would be less affected and heat would be less of a factor for workers. That would mean paying the workers at a higher pay level, which we can’t have, of course. So, instead we pay indirectly through increased gas use in backed-up traffic, higher insurance due to increased car accidents in construction zones, increased medical costs from more pollution, and various other indirect secondary costs due to the general public not wanting to pay more taxes. Cutting off our nose to spite our face.
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or we could always… become less dependent on cars?
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I suppose, if you are doing a proper job, it takes more than 4 days to resurface 100m of road, so in certain circumstances, it makes sense.
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You’re right! What we need are special elevated buses that straddle the crumbling highways!
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