blacktop/macadam

[Millie Webb]

According to a friend of mine in the insurance industry (albeit six years
ago), asphalt/blacktop/tar is made from essentially "crude oil" (what is
that term I am looking for...?), making it incredibly difficult to remove
all traces of a "gas spill" on an asphalt parking lot, for example in a
gasoline station lot.  You pull up the blacktop to remove the top layer of
dirt "in case" the gas leaked through, but then the top layers of dirt will
always test positive for traces of "gasoline" because of the makeup of the
asphalt/blacktop.  In essence, whether the gas spill actually leaked through
the parking lot or not, you end up tearing up the parking lot asphalt, and
several layers deep of the dirt underneath, trying to remove all traces of
"oil by-products" in soil that has been covered with asphalt for (possibly)
years.  Surprise, surprise, when you check areas adjoining the portion of
the lot on which gas was spilled, you also find oil by-products there, and
have to tear that up to, to remove the "contamination".  It can get
ridiculous pretty quickly.

Anyway, my point was, even if it is "blacktop", I suppose one could
technically say it was "recently oiled" when they really mean they put
another thin layer of blacktop over it.  That is the practice I understood
Dale to be referring to, not the grading and then wetting down of dirt roads
(whether with oil or water).
-- Millie
----- Original Message -----
From: "sagehen" <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: blacktop/macadam


> >I've been following this thread intermittently, forgive me if it's been
> >mentioned, but I used to be puzzled in Upstate NY by signs the highway
dept.
> >would put up  "Road recently oiled"  which meant they'd put a new layer
of
> >what we called "tar" down as far as I could tell.  Not sure what the
"oil"
> >referred to.
> >
> >The blacktop for us was a basketball court or other play area with
blacktop
> >on it.
> >
> >Dale Coye
> >Princeton, NJ.
> ~~~~~~~~
> It may be a practice now abandoned for environmental considerations, but I
> believe the "recently oiled"  warnings  did actually refer to oil being
> spread on dust&gravel roads to keep the dust down in dry weather.  Our
town
> had quite a few miles of unpaved roads    in the 70s & 80s  which would be
> oiled for a stretch  near the occasional house, as a favor to the
residents.
> A. Murie
>