#126: Roads again (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:dlyall@cruzio.com

Road building and repair. Yes. It is a problem
in Hayti as well as many, if not most, poor countries.

I have to say that it is a serious handicap for the
pov in the provinces. Not everyone takes the
tap tap into the towns, but everyone buys things
in the market which have to be transported,
mostly by road. The cost of transport is extremely
high, presumeably due to the high rate of 
exhaustion of the motor vehicles.

I recently realized that I have never seen an
oil and gravel road in haiti. This used to be
quite common in rural areas of the usa.
I was thinking of this because I read about
a plan to pave the road up Pikes Peak
in Colorado. There is an automobile race there
which has been held for many decades.
A hill climb, the longest one in the world.
On dirt roads.

An environmental suit has been pressed to
halt the damage that the dirt and gravel road
poses to the mountain when material is
knocked off the road, down the mountain.
The racers would like the road to be
oiled rather than paved.

Anyway, there is apparently a specific
petroleum product designed for oiling
the roads. Put down with gravel on a 
freshly graded bed, it is far cheaper
than a complete hard surface road.
One of the main benefits which is cited
for oiling a road, rather than leaving it
dirt and gravel, is holding down dust.

So, why isn't the oil and gravel road
used in Haiti? It only takes one truck
for the oil. Maybe another truck and
some men with shovels for gravel.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Daudi, or  dlyall {AT} cruzio DOT com
http://www2.cruzio.com/~dlyall/
Resist so-called Quantum Mechanics!
  God does NOT play dice...
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