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posted by on Thursday December 08 2016, @04:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-for-multiple-types-of-cracks dept.

The Denver Post reports

At first glance, Littleton, [Colorado,] looks like ground zero for Halloween pranksters this year--toilet paper is strewn across street after street and block after block.

The messy look prompted a few irritated inquiries from residents on the city's Facebook page this week, like this one from Madison Lucas: "This is UGLY!! All over Littleton!!" Or from Stephanie Gregory : "My kids and I thought it was vandalism."

But the TP'ing scheme is actually the work of the city itself. Littleton is using bathroom tissue as part of an effort to seal the myriad cracks that plague road surfaces in this city. It is tackling 120 streets with this bottoms-up tactic.

[...] The TP, applied with a paint roller, absorbs the oil from freshly laid tar as it dries, keeping it from sticking to people's shoes or car and bike tires. With the paper's protective abilities, asphalt isn't tracked all over the city or splattered on wheel wells. And the biodegradable paper breaks down and disappears in a matter of days.

[...] Kelli Narde, a spokeswoman for Littleton, said the real benefit of using toilet paper is that it allows traffic to retake the road right after a crack is filled.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by number11 on Thursday December 08 2016, @05:18AM

    by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 08 2016, @05:18AM (#438626)

    Budget-conscious cities have been doing this for years to cover the tar sealant. The 2002 Minnesota "Asphalt Pavement Maintenance and Field Guide"http://www.mnltap.umn.edu/publications/handbooks/documents/asphaltfield.pdf [umn.edu] specifies either fine sand or toilet paper, while Michigan (1999) specifies "toilet paper, talcum powder, lime, sand, [or] limestone chips" http://www.deeryamerican.com/PDF/News_Library/Reference%20Material/manual_Michigan.pdf [deeryamerican.com]. But it's a fun hook for a story on a slow news day.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @07:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @07:54AM (#438661)

    Yeah. TFS was shortened a bit.
    The Original Submission mentioned a Nebraska town doing it previously.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Kromagv0 on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:26PM

    by Kromagv0 (1825) on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:26PM (#438712) Homepage

    Came here to say just that. Last summer my kids asked me why there was toilet paper on the road and I explained it to them. Later in the summer they saw a road crew sealing some cracks and saw a guy with the roll applying it over a freshly patched crack.

    --
    T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @02:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @02:30AM (#438974)

      Because TP and cracks just go together.

  • (Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:00AM

    by toddestan (4982) on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:00AM (#439494)

    I was about to say they have been doing this for years where I live (Minnesota). I had assumed this was fairly standard practice everywhere but I guess not.

    The real news to me is that it is actually toilet paper they lay down. I had somehow convinced myself that the paper, while looking exactly like TP, was actually some special paper used for sealing cracks and not actually TP.