SOMA Nature Walk: Roadmuncher Edition
Somehow I have never seen a roadmuncher in action before. It's a "Cold Milling Machine", and it heats and then scrapes off the asphalt. There's a big water tank inside for cooling that they filled up from a fire hydrant. Supposedly the asphalt is then melted and re-used.
Tags: firstperson, mpegs, photography, robots, sf, teeth
9 Responses:
We have had a lot of watermain replacements going on in the last few years on our local side streets and arterial roads. As the pipes are being replaced they put in temporary patches over the compacted gravel and sand in the trenches. Later on they have this machine come along to prepare the road bed for asphalt. It makes for a nice smooth surface for in-line skates.
I saw that go by too. There should be a platform tied to the back with go-go dancers.
Does asphalt burn? Because if the spray was on fire, that would be better.
Look for "railway track layer/replacement" - now, that is something!
I wonder if the pulled-up asphalt ends up going back down on the same road. That would be nicely symmetric.
For smaller roads with only a thin coating, this can be done by one machine. It will then not be used as top coating, but as part of the underground for a new road.
”Supposedly the asphalt is then melted and re-used.”
Indeed it is recycled. If you’ve ever seen asphalt that appears like it is bleeding rust red then you are looking at recycled material. The rust red comes from scraps of steel that were embedded into the previous pavement torn up and recycled.
As an American road lover, why fantisize about a train set when you can fantasize about a Wirtgen?
Saw one resting in a parking lot last week, backlit by orangey sunset. Drove up at an oblique angle, pointed it out to my friend: "Firefly!"
(As in: Firefly class space transport ship, similar to the Serenity)
Now i wanna finish watching BLOOD DRIVE. Machines gotta eat!