UncleTrapspringer

Civil Engineer here,

I'm not entirely sure I agree with your statements regarding pavers. I spent some time as a highway inspector for large paving operations and I think you have over simplified today's pavers to sound like there's a problem to an uninformed audience. Also, lane closures will happen regardless of the paving equipment used as well.

I'm curious about these statements:

are incapable of addressing the bumps, dips, depressions and ruts that are common in all roads around the world.

Furthermore, their inability to compensate for even minor surface variations actually contributes to the very problems that plague our roads and highways and therefore perpetuate the need to continually repair them.

In modern paving a two step process is used where the original surface is milled ~25mm down to remove any ruts, bumps, or holes. Then new pavement is applied to the top of the road section. I think I understand what you're trying to do with the 3D paving, but very rarely do new road pavings simply throw a new layer of asphalt on top of the old stuff. If that were to happen, yes the holes and ruts would have an effect on the top new layer. But that's why we mill out the old stuff.

Basically what I'm getting at is a process is in place that efficiently removes all the variations in the road surface. Does your "new revolutionary" technology have a place in an industry dominated by milling? If a road is milled out your paver would accomplish the same things as the current pavers, would it not? I'm sorry for being pessimistic but I'm curious about your invention. Minus all the fluff you have added to it.

What was it like when the United States announced their entrance to world war 2? Was it fearful or was there a sense of pride?

Also thanks for doing this, its great to hear individual accounts of history :)

I thought there was another Diefenbunker in Ottawa? I visited it in highschool and it seemed pretty cool, I thought it was also a cold war era nuclear shelter?

Was it giraffe boner?

Unfortunately it's not that simple haha there's a lot of conditions that have to be met (compaction, grade, thickness, etc) for the road to be viable. Putting a thicker lift on doesn't necessarily mean it will last longer. A thicker lift may have drainage problems and actually fall apart sooner.

Engineers will put on the amount of asphalt that will durably last the longest, they don't try and cut corners so the road breaks and looks like crap. Roads are often rated for 50 years and if the asphalt is installed properly there won't be problems for a long time. However, nothing lasts forever.

Edit: incorrect about road lifetime