'Tar Wars' technology touted in the fight against Staten Island's potholes
"We are losing this fight, and it's my believe that if we continue to use conventional weapons we will lose more ground year after year," Oddo said of the ongoing pothole battle. "At this point we have nothing left to lose --the City Council delegation has put $3 million the last two years to more resurfacing."Oddo suggested the DOT purchase at least one of the trucks to run a pilot program on the Island to see if Filion's claims bear out.
"We're always looking at new technology," said Monty Dean, a spokesman for the DOT. "And we're always interested in different ways to incorporate it." But officials declined to make any sort of a commitment yesterday.
The $150,000 truck could effect between $250,000 and $350,000 worth of repairs in its first year, Filion said.
The major sayings come from labor costs, as it takes only two workers to operate the truck and repair a pothole in about 20 minutes, as was demonstrated.
The truck has a 48-square-foot propane heater attached to the back and is lowered flush with the surface to heat the asphalt in about six minutes. A worker rakes the edges smooth and applies new asphalt from the hopper on the truck; the patch is leveled and compacted with a small hand roller.
Spartanburg Community College faculty, students show off their talent at campus
Jason Bagwell, Kevin Parris and Jay Moore, better known as the SCC horticultural trifecta, have been busy planning out some new gardens on campus.
Recently the three unveiled their newest garden, the Cabeana Gardena, outside of the main campus library. The garden is named from a play on words of the coffee shop just inside the library.
“We wanted to create an area for the students to hang out in and relax,” Moore said. “So we created an outdoor meeting room.”
The idea for the garden grew out of a visit Parris made to Roan Mountain, Tenn. Parris saw ornamental grasses planted as a main ingredient with conifers rising out of the grasses.
The garden is made up of mostly native plants that are pretty tough. The horticulture department grew 95 percent of the plants in the garden. The only plants that were purchased were the large Kentucky Coffee Trees. The 10-foot trees will form a canopy over the water feature.
The perfect complement to the native planting is the rock chosen as hardscaping. There is a dry stack wall that ties into the rocks.
