It Pays to Save Your Brick Streets
Photo Credit: @rhindaxu through UnSplash
At the turn of the 20th century paving streets became a priority throughout the U.S. Prior to 1913, long distance travel was done via train. The lack of connectivity and adequately maintained roads made it prohibitive for anyone to travel in the newly invented automobile. With the support of the Good Roads Movement (which actually began to support better streets for bicyclists, not cars) and funding from the federal government, communities began converting rutted and deteriorated dirt roads to paved streets.
At the time paving came into fashion, concrete was a poor material choice. Its use was limited because of the poor quality, durability, and life span. Brick on the other hand was easy to manufacture, transport, and lay. Many cities saw brick factory's spring up on the edge of town, providing cheap bricks not just streets, but buildings in town as well. As the years passed, vehicle ownership exploded. What used to be a novelty turned into 838 vehicles per 1,000 people in the U.S. today (fourth highest in the world). The brick streets of 1900, while still holding up 100 years later, are beginning to buckle, heave, and rut because they were not designed to carry the amount or weight of vehicles they see today. But that does not mean we have to replace them with asphalt or concrete. They just need to be pulled up and laid back down on a stronger base.
When I made this claim to a friend, he asked for supporting evidence which I did a quick search to try to send, but came up empty. There are hundreds of articles for cities completing brick repaving projects, but trying to find the simple answer to whether saving brick streets instead of replacing them with concrete is more cost effective was a challenge. I did eventually find a very useful article from 2011 when the Public Works Department in Columbia, Missouri did their own life cycle analysis for four options to fix their brick streets— replace with concrete, replace with asphalt, replace with the original brick, and install new brick. Their findings supported my claim, brick streets win over both asphalt and concrete, but not in a straightforward manner.
As it turns out, the cost of brick street installation is much higher than asphalt or concrete because it is labor intensive. It is the longevity that makes brick streets more economical in the long run. While maintenance of brick is also more expensive for the same reason, a properly laid brick street will not experience the buckling, cracking, and heaving that an asphalt or concrete street will, reducing the amount of repairs needed over time. Other benefits of brick streets are safety, beauty, and history. They slow traffic down, they provide charm to a downtown district boosting tourism, and they represent the early stages of development in a community. There is something special knowing you are walking on the same streets a horse and carriage traveled 100 years before.
What I found on life span of pavement material was a lack of consensus. While it was frustrating, it is not all that surprising. The length of time a street will last depends heavily on the location and weather patterns, quality of the material used along with the original substrate, amount of traffic and type of traffic, and the maintenance performed. Generally speaking, asphalt only lasts about 15 years and concrete about 30. Brick streets vary, but most streets laid in the early 1900s are just now needing major restoration over 100 years later. As the image below from the 2011 analysis in Columbia shows, a properly installed brick street, using either the original brick or new brick, costs far less than both concrete and asphalt. That is because the brick street has a 100 year lifespan. A concrete street will be replaced 3 times and asphalt 6 times over that time period.
Photo Credit: Como.gov
Cities plan for growth 20 years into the future, so why should decisions on paving materials not also consider a long horizon? It may be a tough sell to pay double the cost now, but tearing up the old brick, installing concrete or asphalt, and kicking the can 30 years down the road is a mistake. Once the brick streets are gone, it is nearly impossible to bring them back. Plus, the charm and history has been lost, regardless of whether a future administration puts new brick back down. It also wastes the embodied energy of the existing brick. The brick is already there, it just needs a new foundation to keep it going another 100 years. The choice for communities with historic brick streets is clear, make the sustainable, historic, and economical decision to repair and maintain your brick streets for the next 100 years.
