Route 152 Trail Progress

It's been nice having a week of dry weather.  The Route 152 Trail is starting to look like a trail west of Green Hills.

This is what the trail looks like towards the west from the mid-way point between Green Hills and Ambassador.

This is looking east from the same point.  One nice thing about this trail project is even though it is along Route 152, we were able to save some nice shingle oaks and other trees that grew along the highway fence.  Now that the trail is in place, they won't be torn down to grade out for a parking lot or structures and will provide some shade for users.

Blow is the view west from the backside of North Heartland Community Church's facility.  I don't know if I've mentioned it before but the Church has been great to work with, donated all the easments necessary for the trail, and sees it as an amenity to their facility.  I also want to plug their Easter Eggstravaganza this Saturday the 12th.  Check out the website for the details.  It's a fun event.

Here is fresh concrete looking east from the church parking lot looking towards the Green Hills Road interchange.  The trail goes over the top of a dam for storm water retention for the development north of 152.

Concrete trail pavement is formed up using plastic forms like the ones shown or wood.  The trail is six inches of concrete placed on four or six inches of rock base.  The thickness of the rock is determined based on soil characteristics and drainage.  Since concrete expands in 100+ degree summers and shrinks in 0 degree winters, a half inch fiber or polymer strip is placed every 150 feet or so.  This expansion/contraction joint allows the pavement to grow/shrink without buckling up.  The fiber/polymer strip absorbs the expansion and allows the shrinkage.

Between those expansion joints and every 10 feet, a joint is sawed using the concrete saw contraption shown below.  The saw cuts a less than inch groove in the pavement.  That groove then allows the concrete to crack at that saw cut rather than in random patterns.

Since concrete has rock in it, the friction between the rock holds the concrete in place even with the cut/crack.  That friction keeps the trail from settling and creating bumps.  It only works on thicker concrete slabs.

The sidewalk in front of your house is only 4 inches on dirt which isn't heavy enough and doesn't have enough friction to keep it level.  In older neighborhoods, that creates the uneven surface which is annoying when you are pushing a sleeping baby in a stroller.

I don't know if I was able to explain that so just remember that there is a whole industry and numerous universities that have studied all of this and determined this is the best way concrete pavements should be constructed.