This year marks the massive centennial celebration of the poured-concrete road. We're not kidding. At least not about the 100th anniversary of the poured-concrete road. The celebration is pretty much reserved to this blog post.
Anyway, Detroit's Woodward Avenue, known most recently for the massive summer-time gathering of primer-gray Chevy Novas known as the Woodward Dream Cruise, became the first roadway in the world to use the concrete surface when in 1909 Wayne County laid a mile of the stuff between Six Mile and Seven Mile roads (pictured above). Previously, much of the roadway was contructed of wood blocks covered in asphalt.
Little-known fact: Moments after the concrete section of Woodward dried, Inside Line Editor-in-Chief Scott Oldham said, "Would somebody do a burnout already!"
Check back in 2019 when we will be celebrating the centennial of the first usage of the three-color traffic light, which appeared first on -- you guessed it -- Woodward.
Interested in more? Head down these rabbit holes of all things Woodward:
Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3)
The Detroit News Special Report on Woodward from 2007
The official site of the Woodward Dream Cruise
Photo: Wayne County Road Commission
jjacquot says:
04:27 PM, 12/10/09
Hey, Pund, is that your house there on the right?
seppoboy says:
05:16 AM, 12/11/09
Little-known fact: Moments after the concrete section of Woodward dried, Inside Line Editor-in-Chief Scott Oldham said, "Would somebody fix those potholes already!"
There, I fixed that paragraph for you. Woodward Ave is in Michigan, right?
dougtheeng says:
05:42 AM, 12/11/09
Concrete cures :)
chopperx says:
01:07 PM, 12/11/09
well said seppoboy!
firstwagon says:
03:16 PM, 12/11/09
I can't think of any concrete roads around where I live. Everything is asphalt. Not sure why but maybe concrete breaks up more in the winter.
mohaji says:
09:35 AM, 12/12/09
firstwagon,
concrete certainly doesn't break more in winter. it just costs way way way more than asphalt.
saw on a report somewhere that laying road in concrete is upto 8 to 10 times more expensive than asphalt, but concrete lasts between 13 to 20 times longer. so you would figure politicians would save the budgets and lay road in concrete, right?
fixing asphalt every year for few years would cost more eventually, but the initial investment required for concrete is so great, they don't bother.
we have a highway here that's almost entirely concrete blocks, and i've been living here for 14 years, i haven't seen repair crew doing fixes that often, and we have temperatures reaching -40 around here.
asphalt, on the other hand, even though the city literally re-paves all major road every year, they all break up and cracks during winter.