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A United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) study concluded that for
each $1 billion of federal spending on highway construction nationwide, 47,500 jobs are generated annually.
— TripNet.org |
Seventy-four percent of the $8 trillion worth of commodities delivered annually to and from sites in the United States is transported by trucks on the state’s highways.
One percent is delivered by a combination of trucks, rail, and ships or barges, and
12 percent is delivered by parcel, U.S. Postal Service, or courier, which use multiple modes, including highways.
— TripNet.org |
Nationwide, local roads account for approximately 75 percent of the nation’s
highways and roads (approximately 2.93 million miles). Counties manage approximately 1.74 million miles of those roads, while cities and townships manage 1.19 million miles. Counties also own 219,000 bridges and operate one-third of
the nation’s transit systems.
— National Association of Counties |
There are 82 county road commissions in Michigan. County road commissions are not part of general county government, except in Wayne County, which has a Public Works Department instead of a Road Commission. They are legally separate entities, receiving nearly all of their operating funds directly from the state.
— HoughtonCountyRoads.org |
Vehicle travel on Michigan’s major highways increased by 27 percent from 1990
to 2004 — jumping from 81.1 billion vehicle miles traveled in 1990 to 103.3 billion vehicle miles traveled in 2004. At the same time, total lane miles in the state increased by only four percent.
— DriveMichigan.org |
Adopt-A-Highway volunteers have removed more than 1.4 million bags of trash
from state roadsides since their start in Michigan in 1990. Approximately
2,500 citizen volunteer groups pick up trash three times a year on nearly
6,000 miles of state highways.
— Michigan Department of Transportation |
The first border-to-border concrete highway was M-16 from Detroit to Grand Haven,
Michigan, in 1920.
— Michigan Department of Transportation |
From 299 BC to 476 AD, the Romans used pozzolana cement from Pozzuoli, Italy, near Mount Vesuvius, to build many famous Roman structures, including the Appian Way, the Roman Baths of Caracalla, the Basilica of Maxentius, the Coliseum and Pantheon in Rome, and the Pont du Gard aqueduct in southern France. They used broken brick aggregate embedded in a mixture of lime putty with brick dust or volcanic ash. They built approximately 5,300 miles of roads.
— DeeConcrete.com |
Concrete used without strengthening is termed mass, or plain, concrete and has the structural properties of stone — great strength under compressive forces and almost none under tensile ones. F. Joseph Monier, a French inventor, found that the tensile weakness could be overcome if steel rods were embedded in a concrete member. The new composite material was called reinforced concrete, or ferroconcrete. It was patented in 1857, and a private house in Port Chester, New York, first demonstrated its use in the United States in 1857.
— Education.yahoo.com |
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