Bizarrely, even though Oregon's biggest city, Portland is widely thought to be America's most environmentally friendly city, if their state's Department of Transportation had it their way, there'd be plastic on every street corner!
area when they crossed one of these mats.
Understandably, if these products fail to remain compliant, they cease to be useful to our disabled citizens and will need to be replaced. Since these mats are designed to be placed outside, it would only make sense that they better be able to withstand even the harshest of environments. Composites like fiberglass, plastic, and other various resins and polymers ,even with the inclusion of special additives, are inherently susceptible to UV rays, a lifecycle of any longer than 5 years is impossible.
Scientists, contractors, and engineers typically understand the weaknesses and problems that go along with using plastics outdoors, yet Oregon's Department of Transportation hypocritically has specified to only use plastic products for this purpose on all of their projects.
When questioned about the reason for this wasteful practice, David Polly, the Senior Standards Engineer for the Department of Transportation, said their decision was based on color. Never mind the fact that the Federal Guidelines related to acceptible colors in detectable warnings are easily met with concrete products, the Oregon Department of Transportation want a product in their sidewalks so bright that it has to be made of plastic.
Unfortunately, the tax payers of Oregon will end up paying ridiculously for ODOT's misguided policy on detectable warnings as they bare the cost of replacing every single one of the tiles that has already been installed. That is unless the project is part of the Stimulus Plan, then every American pays for this ignorance. When you consider the 37,744 street corners in just the city of Portland and the fact that 2 $100 mats are needed on every corner, I'm glad for the people of Portland that the Oregon Department of Transportation isn't in charge of choosing what their city decides to use in their sidewalks!
As strange as it may seem, the states of Nevada, New Mexico and even Kentucky(?!) are more environmentally conscious and progressive than Oregon when it comes to selecting the types of products they will install in their streets. This is because after years of putting in plastic products and seeing them fail these states now only allow concrete products. According to one of Nevada Department of Transportation's materials guys, concrete is unique in that it is incredibly resilient to weather, temperatures, and conditions of all kinds. Using a plastic product in this case is like slapping a bandaid on a broken arm and calling it good.
In the interest of fiscal and environmental responsibility please share this article with those people you think might be interested in putting an end to Government waste and helping to make our society more sustainable.
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For information and to sign the petition, please visit www.nonplasticearth.orgAlso check out more information on this topic here..
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