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A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment . It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt , but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as tarmac , concrete , cobblestone or brick . Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt , embedded with rails , or otherwise prepared to accommodate non- pedestrian traffic.

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114-652: Originally, the word street simply meant a paved road ( Latin : via strata ). The word street is still sometimes used informally as a synonym for road , for example in connection with the ancient Watling Street , but city residents and urban planners draw a crucial modern distinction: a road's main function is transportation, while streets facilitate public interaction. Examples of streets include pedestrian streets , alleys , and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass. Conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets. The word street has its origins in

228-423: A New York Times writer lets casually slip the observation that automobile-laden Houston Street , in lower Manhattan , is "a street that can hardly be called 'street' anymore, transformed years ago into an eight-lane raceway that alternately resembles a Nascar event and a parking lot." Published in the paper's Metro section, the article evidently presumes an audience with an innate grasp of the modern urban role of

342-412: A fatiguing or hypnotic effect upon the driver over the course of a long journey. Composite pavements combine a Portland cement concrete sublayer with an asphalt overlay. They are usually used to rehabilitate existing roadways rather than in new construction. Asphalt overlays are sometimes laid over distressed concrete to restore a smooth wearing surface. A disadvantage of this method is that movement in

456-432: A housing development feeding directly into individual driveways . In the last half of the 20th century planners of suburban streets often abandoned the tradition of a rigid, rectangular grid , and instead designed systems to discourage through-traffic. This and other traffic calming methods provided quiet for families and play space for children within a streetscape . Adolescent suburbanites find, in attenuated form,

570-786: A charter member of the Greenwood Garden Club. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in recognition of her work in the conservation of trees. Streets also tend to aggregate establishments of similar nature and character. East 9th Street in Manhattan , for example, offers a cluster of Japanese restaurants, clothing stores, and cultural venues. In Washington, D.C., 17th Street and P Street are well known as epicenters of

684-539: A city. For example, Yonge Street divides Toronto into east and west sides, and East Capitol Street divides Washington, D.C. into north and south. Some streets are associated with the beautification of a town or city. Greenwood, Mississippi 's Grand Boulevard was once named one of America's ten most beautiful streets by the U.S. Chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America. The 1,000 oak trees lining Grand Boulevard were planted in 1916 by Sally Humphreys Gwin,

798-559: A combination of tram lanes or separate alignments are used, sometimes on a segregated right of way . Signalling and effective braking reduce the risk of a tram accident . Often, a curb ( British English : Kerb ) is used to separate the vehicle traffic lanes from the adjacent pavement area and where people on bicycles are considered properly are used to separate cycling from traffic as well. Street signs , parking meters , bicycle stands , benches , traffic signals , and street lights are often found adjacent to streets. They may be behind

912-480: A dialectical meaning of "straggling village", which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads and these settlements often became named Stretton . In the Middle Ages , a road was a way people travelled, with street applied specifically to paved ways. The street is a public easement , one of the few shared between all sorts of people. As a component of the built environment as ancient as human habitation,

1026-524: A few hours or a day, in order to make it possible for the inhabitants to use their street for recreational activities. Cities implementing this initiative include Kolkata Madurai , Visakhapatnam and Bangalore . In the United States, "open street" events have been arranged in Detroit and New York City . Paved road A road surface ( British English ) or pavement ( North American English )

1140-561: A floor beaten or rammed down, through Old French pavement . The meaning of a beaten-down floor was obsolete before the word entered English. Pavement, in the form of beaten gravel , dates back before the emergence of anatomically modern humans . Pavement laid in patterns like mosaics were commonly used by the Romans. The bearing capacity and service life of a pavement can be raised dramatically by arranging good drainage by an open ditch or covered drains to reduce moisture content in

1254-669: A given period of time. Pavement design methods are continuously evolving. Among these are the Shell Pavement design method, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 1993/98 "Guide for Design of Pavement Structures". A mechanistic-empirical design guide was developed through the NCHRP process, resulting in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), which

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1368-751: A gravel road or not often hinges on traffic volume. It has been found that maintenance costs for gravel roads often exceed the maintenance costs for paved or surface-treated roads when traffic volumes exceed 200 vehicles per day. Some communities are finding it makes sense to convert their low-volume paved roads to aggregate surfaces. Pavers (or paviours ), generally in the form of pre-cast concrete blocks, are often used for aesthetic purposes, or sometimes at port facilities that see long-duration pavement loading. Pavers are rarely used in areas that see high-speed vehicle traffic. Brick , cobblestone , sett , wood plank , and wood block pavements such as Nicolson pavement , were once common in urban areas throughout

1482-412: A heavy weight is dropped on the concrete to induce cracking, then a heavy roller is used to seat the resultant pieces into the subbase. The main difference between the two processes is the equipment used to break the concrete pavement and the size of the resulting pieces. The theory is that frequent small cracks will spread thermal stress over a wider area than infrequent large joints, reducing the stress on

1596-417: A layer of large rocks, covered by a layer of smaller gravel. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, new methods of highway construction had been pioneered by the work of two British engineers: Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam . Telford's method of road building involved the digging of a large trench in which a foundation of heavy rock was set. He designed his roads so that they sloped downwards from

1710-520: A main street, these lanes may be separated by intermittent lane lines , marked on the street pavement. Side streets often do not have centre lines or lane lines. Many streets, especially side streets in residential areas, have an extra lane's width on one or both sides for parallel parking . Most minor side streets allowing free parallel parking do not have pavement markings designating the parking lane. Main streets more often have parking lanes marked. Some streets are too busy or narrow for parking on

1824-465: A manner similar to metals ), the damage done to pavement increases with the fourth power of the axle load of the vehicles traveling on it. According to the AASHO Road Test , heavily loaded trucks can do more than 10,000 times the damage done by a normal passenger car. Tax rates for trucks are higher than those for cars in most countries for this reason, though they are not levied in proportion to

1938-442: A port on the south coast of the island, which had side drains, a 200 mm thick pavement of sandstone blocks bound with clay - gypsum mortar , covered by a layer of basaltic flagstones and had separate shoulders . This road could be considered superior to any Roman road . Roman roads varied from simple corduroy roads to paved roads using deep roadbeds of tamped rubble as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as

2052-484: A process called milling . This pavement is commonly referred to as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). RAP can be transported to an asphalt plant, where it will be stockpiled for use in new pavement mixes, or it may be recycled in-place using the techniques described below. Bituminous surface treatment (BST) or chipseal is used mainly on low-traffic roads, but also as a sealing coat to rejuvenate an asphalt concrete pavement. It generally consists of aggregate spread over

2166-516: A research facility near Auburn University , the NCAT Pavement Test Track , that is used to test experimental asphalt pavements for durability. In addition to repair costs, the condition of a road surface has economic effects for road users. Rolling resistance increases on rough pavement, as does wear and tear of vehicle components. It has been estimated that poor road surfaces cost the average US driver $ 324 per year in vehicle repairs, or

2280-597: A social function, allowing neighbors to meet and interact on their walks. They also can foster economic activity, such as window shopping and sidewalk cafes . Some studies have found that shops on streets with sidewalks get more customers than similar shops without sidewalks. An important element of sidewalk design is accessibility for persons with disabilities. Features that make sidewalks more accessible include curb ramps , tactile paving and accessible traffic signals. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires accessibility improvement on new and reconstructed streets within

2394-462: A speed limit of 30 km/h, for the purpose of traffic calming . One popular measure is to use brick paving - the noise and vibration slows motorists down. At the same time, it is not uncommon for cycle paths alongside a road to have a smoother surface than the road itself. Although rarely constructed today, early-style macadam and tarmac pavements are sometimes found beneath modern asphalt concrete or Portland cement concrete pavements, because

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2508-429: A sprayed-on asphalt emulsion or cut-back asphalt cement. The aggregate is then embedded into the asphalt by rolling it, typically with a rubber-tired roller . This type of surface is described by a wide variety of regional terms including "chip seal", "tar and chip", "oil and stone", "seal coat", "sprayed seal", "surface dressing", "microsurfacing", "seal", or simply as "bitumen". BST is used on hundreds of miles of

2622-517: A street, despite its name, and locals are more apt to refer to the "street" outside than the "road". A desolate road in rural Montana , on the other hand, may bear a sign proclaiming it "Davidson Street", but this does not make it a "street" except in the original sense of a paved road. In the United Kingdom the inhabitants of many towns will refer to their main thoroughfare as the High Street (in

2736-425: A street, is often paved and used for travel . However, a street is characterized by the degree and quality of the street life which it facilitates, whereas a road serves primarily as a through-passage for road vehicles or (less frequently) for pedestrians . Buskers , beggars , boulevardiers , patrons of pavement cafés , peoplewatchers , streetwalkers , and a diversity of other characters are habitual users of

2850-408: A street; the same people would not typically be found on a road. A stroad is a thoroughfare that mixes - often unhappily - the characteristics of a street and a road. In rural and suburban environments where street life is rarer, people frequently use the terms "street" and "road" interchangeably. Still, even here, what is called a "street" is usually a smaller thoroughfare, such as a road within

2964-495: A total of $ 67 billion. Also, it has been estimated that small improvements in road surface conditions can decrease fuel consumption between 1.8 and 4.7%. Road surface markings are used on paved roadways to provide guidance and information to drivers and pedestrians. It can be in the form of mechanical markers such as cat's eyes , botts' dots and rumble strips , or non-mechanical markers such as paints, thermoplastic , plastic and epoxy . Sanitary sewer A sanitary sewer

3078-500: A traffic volume where the annual average daily traffic is 1,200 vehicles per day or less. There is some structural strength if the road surface combines a sub base and base and is topped with a double-graded seal aggregate with emulsion. Besides the 4,929 kilometres (3,063 mi) of granular pavements maintained in Saskatchewan, around 40% of New Zealand roads are unbound granular pavement structures. The decision whether to pave

3192-505: A treatment plant. Force mains are typically constructed of welded steel or HDPE jointed to resist pressures within the pipe. Force mains are substantially different from pressure sewers which serve individual properties or groups of properties and provide a means of injecting sewage into a local gravity main. Effluent sewer systems, also called septic tank effluent drainage (STED) or solids-free sewer (SFS) systems, have septic tanks that collect sewage from residences and businesses, and

3306-578: Is aggregate -reinforced thermoplastic which can be heat applied to the top layer of the brick-pattern surface. Other coating materials over stamped asphalt are paints and two-part epoxy coating. Roadway surfacing choices are known to affect the intensity and spectrum of sound emanating from the tire/surface interaction. Initial applications of noise studies occurred in the early 1970s. Noise phenomena are highly influenced by vehicle speed. Roadway surface types contribute differential noise effects of up to 4 dB , with chip seal type and grooved roads being

3420-680: Is a low-cost road surface using a 16–30-millimetre-thick ( 5 ⁄ 8 – 1 + 1 ⁄ 8  in) mixture of bitumen and crushed rock. Gravel is known to have been used extensively in the construction of roads by soldiers of the Roman Empire (see Roman road ) but in 1998 a limestone-surfaced road, thought to date back to the Bronze Age , was found at Yarnton in Oxfordshire, Britain. Applying gravel, or " metalling ", has had two distinct usages in road surfacing. The term road metal refers to

3534-418: Is a pumped sewer that may be necessary where gravity sewers serve areas at lower elevations than the sewage treatment plant, or distant areas at similar elevations. A lift station is a sewer sump that lifts accumulated sewage to a higher elevation. They may also be used to prime an inverted siphon used to cross underneath rivers or other obstructions. The pump may discharge to another gravity sewer or directly to

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3648-537: Is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater ) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an overall system called a "sewage system" or sewerage . Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas may also carry industrial wastewater . In municipalities served by sanitary sewers, separate storm drains may convey surface runoff directly to surface waters. An advantage of sanitary sewer systems

3762-847: Is applied at temperatures over 150 °C (300 °F) with a free floating screed . Warm mix asphalt is applied at temperatures of 95–120 °C (200–250 °F), resulting in reduced energy usage and emissions of volatile organic compounds . Cold mix asphalt is often used on lower-volume rural roads, where hot mix asphalt would cool too much on the long trip from the asphalt plant to the construction site. An asphalt concrete surface will generally be constructed for high-volume primary highways having an average annual daily traffic load greater than 1,200 vehicles per day. Advantages of asphalt roadways include relatively low noise, relatively low cost compared with other paving methods, and perceived ease of repair. Disadvantages include less durability than other paving methods, less tensile strength than concrete,

3876-607: Is complicated by making provisions to receive lateral flows without accepting undesirable infiltration from inadequately sealed junctions. Some sewers have tall vent pipes to release foul gases well up away from people. Common names for these pipes are stink pipe, stink pole, stench pipe and sewer ventilation pipe. Sanitary sewers evolved from combined sewers built where water was plentiful. Animal feces accumulated on city streets while animal-powered transport moved people and goods. Accumulations of animal feces encouraged dumping chamber pots into streets where night soil collection

3990-440: Is done quickly on the wearing course, potholes will form. The freeze-thaw cycle in cold climates will dramatically accelerate pavement deterioration, once water can penetrate the surface. Clay and fumed silica nanoparticles may potentially be used as efficient UV-anti aging coatings in asphalt pavements. If the road is still structurally sound, a bituminous surface treatment, such as a chipseal or surface dressing can prolong

4104-402: Is needed (otherwise more pumps would be needed in the water distribution system) and rainwater is not polluted because it no longer mixes with polluted water. Rather, it is immediately absorbed by the earth. A previous disadvantage was that they had a higher initial cost and could be more time-consuming to construct. This cost can typically be offset through the long life cycle of the pavement and

4218-399: Is perhaps a street's most visible use, and certainly among the most important. The unrestricted movement of people and goods within a city is essential to its commerce and vitality, and streets provide the physical space for this activity. In the interest of order and efficiency, an effort may be made to segregate different types of traffic. This is usually done by carving a road through

4332-481: Is required to prevent inappropriate connection of cellar, yard, and roof drains to sanitary sewers. The probability of inappropriate connections is higher where combined sewers and sanitary sewers are found in close proximity, because construction personnel may not recognize the difference. Many older cities still use combined sewers while adjacent suburbs were built with separate sanitary sewers. For decades, when sanitary sewer pipes cracked or experienced other damage,

4446-506: Is that they avoid combined sewer overflows . Sanitary sewers are typically much smaller in diameter than combined sewers which also transport urban runoff . Backups of raw sewage can occur if excessive stormwater inflow or groundwater infiltration occurs due to leaking joints, defective pipes etc. in aging infrastructure. Sewage treatment is less effective when sanitary waste is diluted with stormwater, and combined sewer overflows occur when runoff from heavy rainfall or snowmelt exceeds

4560-408: Is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic , such as a road or walkway . In the past, gravel road surfaces, macadam , hoggin , cobblestone and granite setts were extensively used, but these have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete laid on a compacted base course . Asphalt mixtures have been used in pavement construction since

4674-435: Is to use rubber imprinting tools to press over a thin layer of cement to create decorative concrete . Another method is to use a brick pattern stencil and apply a surfacing material over the stencil. Materials that can be applied to give the color of the brick and skid resistance can be in many forms. An example is to use colored polymer-modified concrete slurry which can be applied by screeding or spraying. Another material

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4788-548: Is used on secondary highways with low traffic volume and minimal weight loading. Construction involves minimal subgrade preparation, following by covering with a 50-to-100-millimetre (2–4 in) cold mix asphalt aggregate. The Operation Division of the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure in Saskatchewan has the responsibility of maintaining 6,102 kilometres (3,792 mi) of thin membrane surface (TMS) highways. Otta seal

4902-662: The Alaska Highway and other similar roadways in Alaska , the Yukon Territory , and northern British Columbia . The ease of application of BST is one reason for its popularity, but another is its flexibility, which is important when roadways are laid down over unstable terrain that thaws and softens in the spring. Other types of BSTs include micropaving, slurry seals and Novachip. These are laid down using specialized and proprietary equipment. They are most often used in urban areas where

5016-705: The American Midwest , starting in 1914 west of Malta, Illinois , while using concrete with the specified concrete "ideal section" for the Lincoln Highway in Lake County, Indiana , during 1922 and 1923. Concrete roadways may produce more noise than asphalt from tire noise on cracks and expansion joints. A concrete pavement composed of multiple slabs of uniform size will produce a periodic sound and vibration in each vehicle as its tires pass over each expansion joint. These monotonous repeated sounds and vibrations can cause

5130-624: The Indus Valley Civilisation on the Indian subcontinent from around the same time. Improvements in metallurgy meant that by 2000 BC stone-cutting tools were generally available in the Middle East and Greece allowing local streets to be paved. Notably, in about 2000 BC, the Minoans built a 50 km paved road from Knossos in northern Crete through the mountains to Gortyn and Lebena ,

5244-653: The United States and Canada it would be called the Main Street —however, occasionally "Main Street" in a city or town is a street other than the de facto main thoroughfare), and many of the ways leading off it will be named "Road" despite the urban setting. Thus the town's so-called "Roads" will actually be more like streets than like road. Some streets may even be called "highways", even though they may carry no highway designation at all: This may arise when an historic road that

5358-466: The Ōtemachi subway station, the elevated pedestrian skyway networks of Minneapolis and Calgary , the underground cities of Atlanta and Montreal , and the multilevel streets in Chicago . Transportation is often misunderstood to be the defining characteristic, or even the sole purpose, of a street. This has not been the case since the word "street" came to be limited to urban situations, and even in

5472-462: The "destination" districts, when the volume of activity outgrows the capacity of private passenger vehicles to support it. A feature universal to all streets is a human-scale design that gives its users the space and security to feel engaged in their surroundings, whatever through traffic may pass. Despite this, the operator of a motor vehicle may (incompletely) regard a street as merely a thoroughfare for vehicular travel or parking . As far as concerns

5586-522: The 1920s. The viscous nature of the bitumen binder allows asphalt concrete to sustain significant plastic deformation , although fatigue from repeated loading over time is the most common failure mechanism. Most asphalt surfaces are laid on a gravel base, which is generally at least as thick as the asphalt layer, although some 'full depth' asphalt surfaces are laid directly on the native subgrade . In areas with very soft or expansive subgrades such as clay or peat , thick gravel bases or stabilization of

5700-547: The Latin strata (meaning "paved road" – an abbreviation from via strata ); it is thus related to stratum and stratification . The first recorded use of word stratæ referring to the road has been made by Eutropius . Ancient Greek stratos means army: Greeks originally built roads to move their armies. Old English applied the word to Roman roads in Britain such as Ermine Street , Watling Street , etc. Later it acquired

5814-584: The US. In most jurisdictions, bicycles are legally allowed to use streets, and required to follow the same traffic laws as motor vehicle traffic. Where the volume of bicycle traffic warrants and available right-of-way allows, provisions may be made to separate cyclists from motor vehicle traffic. Wider lanes may be provided next to the curb, or shoulders may be provided. Bicycle lanes may be used on busy streets to provide some separation between bicycle traffic and motor vehicle traffic. The bicycle lane may be placed between

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5928-412: The amenities of street life in shopping malls where vehicles are forbidden. A town square or plaza is a little more like a street, but a town square is rarely paved with asphalt and may not make any concessions for through-traffic at all. There is a haphazard relationship, at best, between a thoroughfare's function and its name. For example, London's Abbey Road serves all the vital functions of

6042-400: The automobile age, is still demonstrably false. A street may be temporarily blocked to all through traffic in order to secure the space for other uses, such as a street fair , a flea market , children at play, filming a movie, or construction work. Many streets are bracketed by bollards or Jersey barriers so as to keep out vehicles. These measures are often taken in a city's busiest areas,

6156-698: The beginning of the 20th century and are of two types: metalled (hard-surfaced) and unmetalled roads. Metalled roadways are made to sustain vehicular load and so are usually made on frequently used roads. Unmetalled roads, also known as gravel roads or dirt roads, are rough and can sustain less weight. Road surfaces are frequently marked to guide traffic . Today, permeable paving methods are beginning to be used for low-impact roadways and walkways to prevent flooding. Pavements are crucial to countries such as United States and Canada , which heavily depend on road transportation. Therefore, research projects such as Long-Term Pavement Performance have been launched to optimize

6270-548: The broken stone or cinders used in the construction or repair of roads or railways , and is derived from the Latin metallum , which means both " mine " and " quarry ". The term originally referred to the process of creating a gravel roadway. The route of the roadway would first be dug down several feet and, depending on local conditions, French drains may or may not have been added. Next, large stones were placed and compacted, followed by successive layers of smaller stones, until

6384-540: The center of the city's French Quarter . Similarly, the Bowery has at various times been New York City 's theater district , red-light district , skid row , restaurant supply district, and the center of the nation 's underground punk scene . Madison Avenue and Fleet Street are so strongly identified with their respective most famous types of commerce, that their names are sometimes applied to firms located elsewhere. Other streets mark divisions between neighborhoods of

6498-461: The centre, allowing drainage to take place, a major improvement on the work of Trésaguet. The surface of his roads consisted of broken stone. McAdam developed an inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (known as macadam ). His road building method was simpler than Telford's, yet more effective at protecting roadways: he discovered that massive foundations of rock upon rock were unnecessary, and asserted that native soil alone would support

6612-501: The city's (relatively small) gay culture. Many cities have a Radio Row or Restaurant Row . Like in Philadelphia there is a small street called Jewelers' row giving the identity of a "Diamond district". This phenomenon is the subject of urban location theory in economics . In Cleveland, Ohio , East 4th Street has become restaurant row for Cleveland. On East 4th is Michael Symon 's Lola Bistro and other restaurants. A road , like

6726-417: The cost of their removal at the time of renovation would not significantly benefit the durabilty and longevity of the newer surface. There are ways to create the appearance of brick pavement, without the expense of actual bricks. The first method to create brick texture is to heat an asphalt pavement and use metal wires to imprint a brick pattern using a compactor to create stamped asphalt . A similar method

6840-440: The damage done. Passenger cars are considered to have little practical effect on a pavement's service life, from a materials fatigue perspective. Other failure modes include aging and surface abrasion. As years go by, the binder in a bituminous wearing course gets stiffer and less flexible. When it gets "old" enough, the surface will start losing aggregates, and macrotexture depth increases dramatically. If no maintenance action

6954-427: The developed world, sewers are pipes from buildings to one or more levels of larger underground trunk mains, which transport the sewage to sewage treatment facilities. Vertical pipes, usually made of precast concrete , called manholes , connect the mains to the surface. Depending upon site application and use, these vertical pipes can be cylindrical , eccentric , or concentric . The manholes are used for access to

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7068-422: The driver, a street can be one-way or two-way : vehicles on one-way streets may travel in only one direction, while those on two-way streets may travel both ways. One way streets typically have signs reading "ONE WAY" and an arrow showing the direction of allowed travel. Most two-way streets are wide enough for at least two lanes of traffic. Which lane is for which direction of traffic depends on what country

7182-444: The economics of concrete paving so that a well-designed and placed concrete pavement will be cheaper in initial cost and significantly cheaper over the life cycle. Another important advantage is that waterproof concrete can be used, which eliminates the need to place storm drains next to the road and reduces the need for a slightly sloped driveway to drain rainwater. Avoiding rainwater discharge by using runoff also means less electricity

7296-498: The effluent that comes out of the tank is sent to either a centralized sewage treatment plant or a distributed treatment system for further treatment. Most of the solids are removed by the septic tanks, so the treatment plant can be much smaller than a typical plant. In addition, because of the vast reduction in solid waste, a pumping system, rather than a gravity system, can be used to move the wastewater. The pipes have small diameters, typically 1.5 to 4 inches (4 to 10 cm). Because

7410-405: The expected service life of the repair. Another popular method for replacing aged or damaged lines is called pipe bursting , where a new pipe, typically PVC or ABS plastic, is drawn through the old pipe behind an "expander head" that breaks apart the old pipe as the new one is drawn through behind it. These methods are most suitable for trunk sewers, since repair of lines with lateral connections

7524-424: The higher cost of bitumen. Concrete pavement can be maintained over time utilizing a series of methods known as concrete pavement restoration which include diamond grinding , dowel bar retrofits , joint and crack sealing, cross-stitching, etc. Diamond grinding is also useful in reducing noise and restoring skid resistance in older concrete pavement. The first street in the United States to be paved with concrete

7638-590: The hydraulic capacity of sewage treatment plants . To overcome these disadvantages, some cities built separate sanitary sewers to collect only municipal wastewater and exclude stormwater runoff, which is collected in separate storm drains. The decision to build a combined sewer system or two separate systems is mainly based on the need for sewage treatment and the cost of providing treatment during heavy rain events. Many cities with combined sewer systems built their systems prior to installing sewage treatment plants, and have not subsequently replaced those sewer systems. In

7752-568: The investment cost for simplified sanitary sewers can be about half the cost of conventional sewers, the requirements for operation and maintenance are usually higher. Simplified sewers are most common in Brazil and other developing countries. In low-lying communities, wastewater is often conveyed by vacuum sewer . Pipelines range in size from pipes of 125 millimetres (4.9 in) in diameter up to 280 millimetres (11 in) in diameter. Vacuum sewer systems use differential atmospheric pressure to move

7866-468: The joints between the underlying concrete slabs, whether from thermal expansion and contraction, or from deflection of the concrete slabs from truck axle loads , usually causes reflective cracks in the asphalt. To decrease reflective cracking, concrete pavement is broken apart through a break and seat, crack and seat , or rubblization process. Geosynthetics can be used for reflective crack control. With break and seat and crack and seat processes,

7980-500: The life cycle of different road surfaces. Pavement , in construction, is an outdoor floor or superficial surface covering. Paving materials include asphalt , concrete , stones such as flagstone , cobblestone , and setts , artificial stone , bricks , tiles , and sometimes wood. In landscape architecture , pavements are part of the hardscape and are used on sidewalks , road surfaces , patios , courtyards , etc. The term pavement comes from Latin pavimentum , meaning

8094-473: The life of the road at low cost. In areas with cold climate, studded tires may be allowed on passenger cars. In Sweden and Finland, studded passenger car tires account for a very large share of pavement rutting . The physical properties of a stretch of pavement can be tested using a falling weight deflectometer . Several design methods have been developed to determine the thickness and composition of road surfaces required to carry predicted traffic loads for

8208-431: The liquid to a central vacuum station. Sanitary sewer overflow can occur due to blocked or broken sewer lines, infiltration of excessive stormwater or malfunction of pumps. In these cases untreated sewage is discharged from a sanitary sewer into the environment prior to reaching sewage treatment facilities. To avoid such overflows, maintenance is required. Blockage prevention campaigns or regulations (e.g. requiring

8322-447: The loudest, and concrete surfaces without spacers being the quietest. Asphaltic surfaces perform intermediately relative to concrete and chip seal . Rubberized asphalt has been shown to give a 3–5 dB reduction in tire-pavement noise emissions, and a marginally discernible 1–3 dB reduction in total road noise emissions when compared to conventional asphalt applications. As pavement systems primarily fail due to fatigue (in

8436-510: The main shopping precinct is located around Queen Street and Karangahape Road . Streets have existed for as long as humans have lived in permanent settlements (see civilization ). However, the development of modern civilization in much of the New World was driven by transportation provided by motor vehicles. In some parts of the English-speaking world, such as North America, many think of

8550-475: The major advantages of concrete pavements is they are typically stronger and more durable than asphalt roadways. The surface can be grooved to provide a durable skid-resistant surface. Concrete roads are more economical to drive in terms of fuel consumption, they reflect light better, and they last significantly longer than other paving surfaces; but they have a much smaller market share than other paving solutions. Modern paving methods and design methods have changed

8664-521: The majority elsewhere (though not in Japan; see Japanese addressing system ) are given a street or road name , or at least a number, to identify them and any addresses located along the streets. Alleys , in some places, do not have names. The length of a lot of land along a street is referred to as the frontage of the lot. A street may assume the role of a town square for its regulars. Jane Jacobs , an economist and prominent urbanist, wrote extensively on

8778-855: The middle for motorists, reserving pavements on either side for pedestrians; other arrangements allow for streetcars , trolleys , and even wastewater and rainfall runoff ditches (common in Japan and India ). In the mid-20th century, as the automobile threatened to overwhelm city streets with pollution and ghastly accidents, many urban theorists came to see this segregation as not only helpful but necessary in order to maintain mobility. Le Corbusier , for one, perceived an ever-stricter segregation of traffic as an essential affirmation of social order—a desirable, and ultimately inevitable, expression of modernity. To this end, proposals were advanced to build "vertical streets" where road vehicles, pedestrians, and trains would each occupy their own levels. Such an arrangement, it

8892-523: The non-homogeneous expansion and contraction with non-rubber components. The application of rubberized asphalt is more temperature-sensitive and in many locations can only be applied at certain times of the year. Study results of the long-term acoustic benefits of rubberized asphalt are inconclusive. Initial application of rubberized asphalt may provide a reduction of 3–5 decibels (dB) in tire-pavement-source noise emissions; however, this translates to only 1–3 dB in total traffic-noise reduction when combined with

9006-529: The north of England, from 1765, when Parliament passed an act authorising the creation of turnpike trusts to build toll funded roads in the Knaresborough area. Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet is widely credited with establishing the first scientific approach to road building in France at the same time as Metcalf. He wrote a memorandum on his method in 1775, which became general practice in France. It involved

9120-410: The only option was an expensive excavation, removal and replacement of the damaged pipe, typically requiring street repavement afterwards. In the mid-1950s a unit was invented where two units at each end with a special cement mixture in between was pulled from one manhole cover to the next, coating the pipe with the cement under high pressure, which then cured rapidly , sealing all cracks and breaks in

9234-498: The other components of traffic noise. Compared to traditional passive attenuating measures (e.g., noise walls and earth berms), rubberized asphalt provides shorter-lasting and lesser acoustic benefits at typically much greater expense. Concrete surfaces (specifically, Portland cement concrete) are created using a concrete mix of Portland cement, coarse aggregate , sand , and water. In virtually all modern mixes there will also be various admixtures added to increase workability, reduce

9348-430: The overlying asphalt pavement. "Rubblization" is a more complete fracturing of the old, worn-out concrete, effectively converting the old pavement into an aggregate base for a new asphalt road. The whitetopping process uses Portland cement concrete to resurface a distressed asphalt road. Distressed pavement can be reused when rehabilitating a roadway. The existing pavement is broken up and may be ground on-site through

9462-425: The pavement may designate the meter corresponding to a parking space. Some wide streets with light traffic allow angle parking or herringbone parking . Sidewalks (US usage) or pavements (UK usage) are often located alongside on one or usually both sides of the street within the public land strips beyond the curbs. Sidewalks serve a traffic purpose, by making walking easier and more attractive, but they also serve

9576-617: The pavements subbase and subgrade . Wheeled transport created the need for better roads. Generally, natural materials cannot be both soft enough to form well-graded surfaces and strong enough to bear wheeled vehicles, especially when wet, and stay intact. In urban areas it began to be worthwhile to build stone-paved streets and, in fact, the first paved streets appear to have been built in Ur in 4000 BC. Corduroy roads were built in Glastonbury , England in 3300 BC, and brick-paved roads were built in

9690-445: The pipe. Today, a similar method using epoxy resin is used by some municipalities to re-line aging or damaged pipes, effectively creating a "pipe in a pipe". These methods may be unsuitable for locations where the full diameter of the original pipe is required to carry expected flows, and may be an unwise investment if greater wastewater flows may be anticipated from population growth, increased water use, or new service connections within

9804-601: The population to be served over the anticipated life of the sewer, per capita wastewater production, and flow peaking from timing of daily routines. Minimum sewer diameters are often specified to prevent blockage by solid materials flushed down toilets; gradients may be selected to maintain flow velocities generating sufficient turbulence to minimize solids deposition within the sewer. Commercial and industrial wastewater flows are also considered, but diversion of surface runoff to storm drains eliminates wet weather flow peaks of inefficient combined sewers. A force main or rising main

9918-403: The required amount of water, mitigate harmful chemical reactions, and for other beneficial purposes. In many cases there will also be Portland cement substitutes added, such as fly ash . This can reduce the cost of the concrete and improve its physical properties. The material is applied in a freshly mixed slurry and worked mechanically to compact the interior and force some of the cement slurry to

10032-430: The road and traffic upon it, as long as it was covered by a road crust that would protect the soil underneath from water and wear. Size of stones was central to McAdam's road building theory. The lower 200-millimetre (7.9 in) road thickness was restricted to stones no larger than 75 millimetres (3.0 in). Modern tarmac was patented by British civil engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley , who noticed that spilled tar on

10146-465: The road surface was composed of small stones compacted into a hard, durable surface. "Road metal" later became the name of stone chippings mixed with tar to form the road-surfacing material tarmac . A road of such material is called a " metalled road " in Britain, a " paved road " in Canada and the US, or a " sealed road " in parts of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A granular surface can be used with

10260-525: The roadway kept the dust down and created a smooth surface. He took out a patent in 1901 for tarmac. Hooley's 1901 patent for tarmac involved mechanically mixing tar and aggregate prior to lay-down, and then compacting the mixture with a steamroller . The tar was modified by adding small amounts of Portland cement , resin , and pitch . Asphalt (specifically, asphalt concrete ), sometimes called flexible pavement since its viscosity causes minute deformations as it distributes loads, has been widely used since

10374-407: The roughness and loose stone associated with chip seals is considered undesirable. A thin membrane surface (TMS) is an oil -treated aggregate which is laid down upon a gravel road bed, producing a dust-free road. A TMS road reduces mud problems and provides stone-free roads for local residents where loaded truck traffic is negligible. The TMS layer adds no significant structural strength, and so

10488-571: The sewer pipes for inspection and maintenance, and as a means to vent sewer gases. They also facilitate vertical and horizontal angles in otherwise straight pipelines. Pipes conveying sewage from an individual building to a common gravity sewer line are called laterals. Branch sewers typically run under streets receiving laterals from buildings along that street and discharge by gravity into trunk sewers at manholes. Larger cities may have sewers called interceptors , receiving flow from multiple trunk sewers. Design and sizing of sanitary sewers considers

10602-410: The side. Sometimes parking on the sides of streets is allowed only at certain times. Curbside signs often state regulations about parking. Some streets, particularly in business areas, may have parking meters into which coins must be paid to allow parking in the adjacent space for a limited time. Other parking meters work on a credit card and ticket basis or pay and display . Parking lane markings on

10716-737: The sidewalk, or between the sidewalk and the curb. There may be a road verge (a strip of grass or other vegetation) between the carriageway (North American English: Roadway) and the pavement on either side of the street on which Grass or trees are often grown there for landscaping . These are often placed for beautification but are increasingly being used to control stormwater . Although primarily used for traffic, streets are important corridors for utilities such as electric power; communications such as telephone, cable television and fiber optic lines; storm and sanitary sewers ; and natural gas lines. Practically all public streets in Western countries and

10830-404: The street as a thoroughfare for vehicular traffic first and foremost. In this view, pedestrian traffic is incidental to the street's purpose; a street consists of a thoroughfare running through the middle (in essence, a road ), and may or may not have pavements (or sidewalks ) along the sides. In an even narrower sense, some may think of a street as only the vehicle-driven and parking part of

10944-400: The street is located in. On broader two-way streets, there is often a centre line marked down the middle of the street separating those lanes on which vehicular traffic goes in one direction from other lanes in which traffic goes in the opposite direction. Occasionally, there may be a median strip separating lanes of opposing traffic. If there is more than one lane going in one direction on

11058-568: The street sustains a range of activities vital to civilization . Its roles are as numerous and diverse as its ever-changing cast of characters. Streets can be loosely categorized as main streets and side streets . Main streets are usually broad with a relatively high level of activity. Commerce and public interaction are more visible on main streets, and vehicles may use them for longer-distance travel. Side streets are quieter, often residential in use and character, and may be used for vehicular parking. Circulation, or less broadly, transportation ,

11172-635: The street. To the readers of the Metro section, vehicular traffic does not reinforce, but rather detracts from, the essential "street-ness" of a street. At least one map has been made to illustrate the geography of naming conventions for thoroughfares - comparing and contrasting "avenue", "boulevard", "circle", "road", "street", and other labels. Streets may be used as cultural spaces, for socializing and street parties , or for public festivals. In India, some cities have designated one or more streets as "happy street" or "fun street", closing them for motor traffic for

11286-415: The subgrade with Portland cement or lime may be required. Polypropylene and polyester geosynthetics are also used for this purpose, and in some northern countries a layer of polystyrene boards are used to delay and minimize frost penetration into the subgrade. Depending on the temperature at which it is applied, asphalt is categorized as hot mix, warm mix, half warm mix, or cold mix. Hot mix asphalt

11400-423: The surface to produce a smoother, denser surface free from honeycombing. The water allows the mix to combine molecularly in a chemical reaction called hydration . Concrete surfaces have been classified into three common types: jointed plain (JPCP), jointed reinforced (JRCP) and continuously reinforced (CRCP). The one item that distinguishes each type is the jointing system used to control crack development. One of

11514-465: The tendency to become slick and soft in hot weather, and a certain amount of hydrocarbon pollution to soil and groundwater or waterways . In the mid-1960s, rubberized asphalt was used for the first time, mixing crumb rubber from used tires with asphalt. While a potential use for tires that would otherwise fill landfills and present a fire hazard, rubberized asphalt has shown greater incidence of wear in freeze-thaw cycles in temperate zones because of

11628-461: The thoroughfare. Thus, sidewalks (pavements) and road verges would not be thought of as part of the street. A mother may tell her toddlers, "Don't go out into the street, so you don't get hit by a car." Among urban residents of the English-speaking world, the word "street" appears to carry only some of its original etymological connotations (i.e., the facilitation of traffic as a prime purpose, and "street life" as an incidental benefit). For instance,

11742-532: The travel lanes and the parking lanes, between the parking lanes and the curb, or for increased safety for cyclists, between curb and sidewalk. These poorer designs can lead to Dooring incidents and are unsafe for cycling. A more sensible design is found in the Netherlands with a Protected Bicycle Path totally separate from the traffic which is safe for cycling. Trams are generally considered to be environmentally friendly with tramlines running in streets with

11856-551: The use of grease interceptors by some customers) may also be necessary. The maintenance requirements vary with the type of sanitary sewer. In general, all sewers deteriorate with age, but infiltration and inflow are problems unique to sanitary sewers, since both combined sewers and storm drains are sized to carry these contributions. Holding infiltration to acceptable levels requires a higher standard of maintenance than necessary for structural integrity considerations of combined sewers. A comprehensive construction inspection program

11970-591: The waste stream is pressurized, they can be laid just below the ground surface along the land's contour. Where it is impossible or impractical to discharge sewage from a property into a gravity sanitary sewer, a pressure sewer may provide an alternative means of connection. A macerator pump in a pumping well close to the property ejects sewage through a small diameter high pressure pipe into the nearest gravity sewer. Simplified sanitary sewers consist of small-diameter pipes, typically around 100 millimetres (4 in), often laid at fairly flat gradients (1 in 200). Although

12084-494: The water would flow out from between the stones and fragments of rubble, instead of becoming mud in clay soils. Although there were attempts to rediscover Roman methods, there was little useful innovation in road building before the 18th century. The first professional road builder to emerge during the Industrial Revolution was John Metcalf , who constructed about 290 kilometres (180 mi) of turnpike road , mainly in

12198-413: The ways that interaction among the people who live and work on a particular street—" eyes on the street "—can reduce crime, encourage the exchange of ideas, and generally make the world a better place. A street can often serve as the catalyst for the neighborhood 's prosperity, culture and solidarity . New Orleans ' Bourbon Street is famous not only for its active nightlife but also for its role as

12312-555: The world, but fell out of fashion in most countries, due to the high cost of labor required to lay and maintain them, and are typically only kept for historical or aesthetic reasons. In some countries, however, they are still common in local streets. In the Netherlands , brick paving has made something of a comeback since the adoption of a major nationwide traffic safety program in 1997. From 1998 through 2007, more than 41,000 km of city streets were converted to local access roads with

12426-655: Was Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1893. The first mile of concrete pavement in the United States was on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan in 1909. Following these pioneering uses, the Lincoln Highway Association , established in October 1913 to oversee the creation of one of the United States' earliest east-west transcontinental highways for the automobile, began to establish "seedling miles" of specifically concrete-paved roadbed in various places in

12540-478: Was adopted by AASHTO in 2008, although MEPDG implementation by state departments of transportation has been slow. Further research by University College London into pavements has led to the development of an indoor, 80-sq-metre artificial pavement at a research centre called Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA). It is used to simulate everyday scenarios, from different pavement users to varying pavement conditions. There also exists

12654-526: Was built to connect distant towns was named a "street" but originally never was in the truest sense. Some roads of this type which later became designated as numbered highways, became identified as said highway and may continue to colloquially be labelled as such from force of habit even if sections of it are subsequently urbanized and become an actual street and has its highway status decommissioned . Hurontario Street in Mississauga , Ontario , Canada (which

12768-458: Was formerly Ontario Highway 10 , but predates it), is an example of this. In some other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, cities are often divided by a main "Road", with "Streets" leading from this "Road", or the cities are divided by thoroughfares known as "Streets" or "Roads" with no apparent differentiation between the two. In Auckland in New Zealand, for example,

12882-409: Was impractical. Combined sewers were built to use surface runoff to flush waste off streets and move it underground to places distant from populated areas. Sewage treatment became necessary as population expanded, but increased volumes and pumping capacity required for treatment of diluted waste from combined sewers is more expensive than treating undiluted sewage. Communities that have urbanized in

12996-436: Was said, would allow for even denser development in the future. These plans were never implemented comprehensively, a fact which today's urban theorists regard as fortunate for vitality and diversity. Rather, vertical segregation is applied on a piecemeal basis, as in sewers , utility poles , depressed highways, elevated railways, common utility ducts , the extensive complex of underground malls surrounding Tokyo Station and

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