Entries this day: Asphalt

Asphalt

2:15pm Friday 26 October 2001

Asphalt, when it's first poured, is hot. I recently had the fun experience of watching the guys outside our window pour asphalt to make a street. Actually, it's just a layer of asphalt, on top of which will be poured concrete, fourteen inches thick.

A worker guy said it's 360 degrees when poured. Asphalt. Not concrete.

Even more amazing though - the steamroller (which doesn't run on steam) can vibrate. Not just like the engine is vibrating, but the actual wheels(?) are being vibrated up and down to further pack the concrete. I mean asphalt. Wow! Each wheel on this (small) steamroller weighs 4 tons. Their big roller is 7 tons per wheel.

After it was steamrolled, the steamroller driver was giving me answers to the Asphalt FAQ, and said that I could stand on it if I wanted, "but it will be hot."

I stepped onto it with both feet. It was hot. Probably hotter than I've ever stepped on a hot parking lot before, but I didn't stay standing on it too long. Or that was my intention. When I stepped back off the surface, some of the rocks stayed stuck to my feet. They were still hot. But not so bad. I scraped them off into the dirt.

Had to scrape them off again before I tracked tar inside.