Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Using rubber, they make kinder, gentler sidewalks

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - Pounding the pavement is a little easier on people's knees in some U.S. cities.

For reasons of safety and ease of maintenance, Washington and dozens of other communities are installing rubber sidewalks made of ground-up tires.

The rubber squares are as much as three times more expensive than concrete slabs but last longer, because tree roots and freezing weather won't crack them.

The shock-absorbing surface also is easier on the joints of joggers, and more forgiving when someone falls .

And the rubber sidewalks are considered more environmentally friendly: They offer a way to recycle some of the estimated 290-million tires thrown out each year in the United States, and they do not constrict tree roots the way concrete slabs do.

"This is compromise between having a beautiful and healthy tree and having a safe and passable sidewalk," said Michelle L. Pourciau, acting director of the D.C. Transportation Department.

Rubbersidewalks Inc. of Gardena, Calif., manufactures the small rubberized squares now being used on some sidewalks in more than 60 cities, including Washington.

Since 2001, Rubbersidewalks has been grinding thousands of old tires into crumbs, adding chemical binders and baking the material into sidewalk sections that weigh less than 11 pounds per square foot, or a quarter of the weight of concrete. The panels are available in two shades of gray and a terra cotta orange.

Many of the squares have been installed in areas where damage from tree roots, weather and snow removal have required sidewalk replacement or major repairs every three years, said Lindsay Smith, president of Rubbersidewalks.

The District of Columbia has spent about $60,000 to replace broken concrete with the rubberized panels in a residential neighborhood northeast of the Capitol.

"Maybe we won't have to worry about the cracks in the sidewalk when the seasons change," Charlene Baker said as she walked with her daughter. She added: "If this helps save the trees, that would be a good thing."

[Last modified July 26, 2006, 01:42:11]