The city was supposed to replace the alley behind my house last month. Got a letter today that it won't be done until next year because of a cement shortage.
No big deal but I never knew there was a shortage of cement.
Gas crisis all over again?
The cement thing has been for a couple of years. It is going to the one country that has the money to buy it and a lot of building going on. China.
Thanks for refreshing my memory...
I did read about China using the most cement.
OTOH: The alley has needing paving for 15 years , another few months are not going to make any difference...plus it now will be going on my 2016 taxes and not 2015
The US produced 95 million metric tons in 2007. It dipped to 64 million in 2009 and has crept up to 77 million in 2013. Transportation bottlenecks have created a shortage in the Great Lakes Region while production facilities sit full.
Which will of course result in more expensive cement.
It is Obama's fault. Demand for cement was way down during the recession and producers cut back. The economic recovery caused by Obama's policies increased demand for cement and led to the current shortage.
Thanks a lot Obama.
I never heard of paving alleys with concrete. Everything I have ever seen, all over the USA, has used blacktop materials.
Chicago has concrete alleys. Believe NYC also has them.
Ever been to Philadelphia? Miles of alleys, all concrete. Never saw one blacktop. Some over 100 years old.
Concrete alleys are very common in cities, especially East of the Mississippi.
I wish that were true. I just finished having to deal with the City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department always putting my garbage dumpster in the wrong place.
You see, when I had my parking lot repaved in 2013, I had a 5 foot wide by 38 foot long strip paved with concrete instead of asphalt because the garbage trucks that pick up and empty those dumpsters are too heavy for the asphalt and would leave a deep rut from their tires.
The garbage dumpster was at the end of that strip of concrete, and the monkey driving that garbage truck kept presuming that the concrete strip was part of the back lane. So, he kept putting the dumpster down at what he thought was the edge of my property, or where the asphalt meets the concrete.
I ended up having to phone the head of the Water and Waste Department and he came out to look for himself. I showed him that the truck driver should be able to see over the dumpster and should see that on the other side of the dumpster there's asphalt, not concrete. That meant that the dumpster was at the end of MY concrete strip, not on the concrete back lane.
I hope that's going to do some good because I've been pushing the dumpster back into place for months now with the front bumper of my car. It's a 3 cubic meter dumpster and I expect it weighs 600 or 700 pounds, so I can't really move it any way except by pushing it into place with my car.
If back lanes are paved with asphalt in the USA, then what happens at the ends of those back lanes where you have an apartment block or a business with a garbage dumpster? Those trucks leave deep ruts in the asphalt because of their tremendous weight. The city or municipality would have to keep repairing the ruts left by their garbage trucks, and that would get more expensive than just paving the back lanes with concrete to begin with.
Cicero, just west of Chicago also has concrete ... and, I think, Berwyn. Probably all of those burbs of Chi did what Chicago did.
Capone probably got a bigger cut from the concrete guys than the asphalt guys.
LOL
Cement better for hiding bodies?
- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus
Pico Rico posted for all of us...
Hmmm, wonder how many bodies were used for reinforcement? Paging Judge Crater!
"Hey, youse guys - we gotta fix da alley behind Lefty's joint. Dere's a hole as big as a Crater youse gotta fill right away."
WOW they use concrete to redo your alleys? Lucky if we see blacktop every 40 years or so around here.
John
Being in Wisconsin with huge temperature variations, concrete makes sense.
as cold as -20F in the winter and as hot as 100F in the summer
Originally the alley was just "pavers" which were later blacktopped over. In the 35 years I've lived here it's never been repaved and now it really needs it.
Yes.
Does NYC have alleys at all? Probably in Queens and somewhere in the Bronx, bu none or almost none of Manhattan, and not most or all of Brooklyn.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.