New Construction Technology

[kernals12]

I agree it is a great idea, but actually growing enough timber to pull this off is going to be nearly if not impossible. It is however a great concept.

Why do you assume that? Wood is probably our most easily obtained natural resource. It literally grows on trees.

[hotdogPi]

Is this new wood fire resistant?

[kernals12]

They say it is.

[bwana39]

I agree it is a great idea, but actually growing enough timber to pull this off is going to be nearly if not impossible. It is however a great concept.

Why do you assume that? Wood is probably our most easily obtained natural resource. It literally grows on trees.

If we could make it out of leaves and pine straw, that would be completely accurate. Mostly true for poison oak.

While trees are natural and they do replenish themselves, the growth cycle for trees for complete boards is too long for the volume needed for these usages.

Truly, what we need to do is make sure we keep metals out of the landfills.  Recycled steel is a far less environmentally unsound process than is making virgin steel.

[SectorZ]

Is this new wood fire resistant?

I would love to know if carpenter ant/termite resistant as well. I presume it would be since I doubt those buggers could burrow thru steel.

[kernals12]

I agree it is a great idea, but actually growing enough timber to pull this off is going to be nearly if not impossible. It is however a great concept.

Why do you assume that? Wood is probably our most easily obtained natural resource. It literally grows on trees.

If we could make it out of leaves and pine straw, that would be completely accurate. Mostly true for poison oak.

While trees are natural and they do replenish themselves, the growth cycle for trees for complete boards is too long for the volume needed for these usages.

Truly, what we need to do is make sure we keep metals out of the landfills.  Recycled steel is a far less environmentally unsound process than is making virgin steel.

I've been told hemp is pretty good for this.

[odditude]

I agree it is a great idea, but actually growing enough timber to pull this off is going to be nearly if not impossible. It is however a great concept.

Why do you assume that? Wood is probably our most easily obtained natural resource. It literally grows on trees.

If we could make it out of leaves and pine straw, that would be completely accurate. Mostly true for poison oak.

While trees are natural and they do replenish themselves, the growth cycle for trees for complete boards is too long for the volume needed for these usages.

Truly, what we need to do is make sure we keep metals out of the landfills.  Recycled steel is a far less environmentally unsound process than is making virgin steel.

I've been told hemp is pretty good for this.

are you implying that hemp is good for making boards (let alone wood as strong as steel), or are you drifting off-topic?

[sparker]

Hemp is exceptionally strong with high long-chain tensile strength.  It can also be finely shredded and added to conventional wood particles to make a relatively light and exceptionally strong (and dense!) workable material.  The audio company Grado (out of Brooklyn) designed and built a limited-run set of headphones out of a composite of hemp and maple particles; the material is dense enough to withstand about 1800psi pressure while being completely nonresonant.  The company that compounded the material for them is the process of testing it for domestic construction material.  Disclaimer: I own a pair of these headphones; my business also sells Grado products.  But compounds such as these are likely to emerge as alternative materials for multiple commercial uses.

And I haven't even started on carbon fiber as a construction material (gotta do something with all that coal besides burn it up!). 

[HighwayStar]

Something like 80% of homes in the United States are made of wood and you guys are acting like this new wood will never work.

Not comparing apples to apples. Homes are made from wood because it works and you can go extremely cheap. There are a host of reasons why it would not serve well for this kind of infrastructure. And until this country gets its ass in gear and buries the environmental movement once and for all it will be a serious barrier to building anything.

[US 89]

And until this country gets its ass in gear and buries the environmental movement once and for all

This will never happen... and for good reason. Sure they do have some outsized influence at times but we should absolutely not throw environmental restrictions to the wind.

[Max Rockatansky]

And until this country gets its ass in gear and buries the environmental movement once and for all

This will never happen... and for good reason. Sure they do have some outsized influence at times but we should absolutely not throw environmental restrictions to the wind.

Environmental extremism isn't a good thing but protection of certain areas is.  Take a look at stuff like how a total lack of environmental concern worked out for the Tulare Lake and Owens Lake watersheds.  Even the Dust Bowl is a really well known example of over exploiting a resource.

[jakeroot]

I'm one of the few here who would actually like to see something like this investigated further.

Here in the PNW, while we certainly love our forests, and we have certainly made a name for ourselves protecting them, we have come to learn that forest management and some level of deforestation is necessary to prevent widespread destruction from fires. Given this, there is no expectation that industries like logging, nor large forestry corporations like Weyerhaeuser, will suddenly disappear. Wood will likely remain a primary building material well into the future; frankly, I don't think wooden infrastructure would even register much in terms of increased timber application, as it would still pale in comparison to usage for housing or fuel.

If they can actually make it fireproof (and I'm sure there is much testing to do), and it's very light, and easier to build with, and maybe even cheaper, I don't see why we wouldn't see it tried at some point. Maybe as a pedestrian bridge first, and then a single-lane overpass second, and then on from there.

[HighwayStar]

I agree it is a great idea, but actually growing enough timber to pull this off is going to be nearly if not impossible. It is however a great concept.

Why do you assume that? Wood is probably our most easily obtained natural resource. It literally grows on trees.

If we could make it out of leaves and pine straw, that would be completely accurate. Mostly true for poison oak.

While trees are natural and they do replenish themselves, the growth cycle for trees for complete boards is too long for the volume needed for these usages.

Truly, what we need to do is make sure we keep metals out of the landfills.  Recycled steel is a far less environmentally unsound process than is making virgin steel.

I've been told hemp is pretty good for this.

That's because the people that told you were smoking it too.

[kernals12]

Something like 80% of homes in the United States are made of wood and you guys are acting like this new wood will never work.

Not comparing apples to apples. Homes are made from wood because it works and you can go extremely cheap. There are a host of reasons why it would not serve well for this kind of infrastructure. And until this country gets its ass in gear and buries the environmental movement once and for all it will be a serious barrier to building anything.

Did you not read the part about this particular wood being stronger than steel?

[jakeroot]

Did you not read the part about this particular wood being stronger than steel?

"Stronger" or "as strong"? Now you've said both.

I'm not sure we need anything stronger than steel...yet. As-strong-as is more than enough.

[kernals12]

Did you not read the part about this particular wood being stronger than steel?

"Stronger" or "as strong"? Now you've said both.

I'm not sure we need anything stronger than steel...yet. As-strong-as is more than enough.

For a given weight, this stuff is much stronger than steel.

[hotdogPi]

Do you have numbers? This list (ultimate tensile strength on Wikipedia) gives different numbers for a whole bunch of materials. You probably want to look in the yield strength column.

[kphoger]

Some people may protest but there's not much they can do to stop a logging boom.

Do you think booms happen apart from what people want?

[kernals12]

After a successful trial in Cumbria, Britain's Department for Transportation has approved MacRebur's asphalt, made from waste plastic, for general use. It's not only good for the environment but it lasts longer, being more resistant to the damage caused by extreme temperatures. With less money spent repairing highways, we can spend more on building new ones.

[Rothman]

Coating the world in plastic doesn't sound good for the environment, especially as the pavement degrades over time.

[bing101]

I heard of glass concrete and plastic asphalt brought up in other places in the world but that was in debate at the time though when I last saw an article on these things.

[kernals12]

Coating the world in plastic doesn't sound good for the environment, especially as the pavement degrades over time.

So does Bitumen

[thspfc]

Coating the world in plastic doesn't sound good for the environment, especially as the pavement degrades over time.

You realize that kernals12 thinks climate change is a good thing, right? He says that warmer winters in Boston outweigh the huge list of negatives such as entire islands full of people being underwater. Maybe hurting the environment is the whole reason he's obsessed with this.

[seicer]

Aspahlt, though, is the most recycled material in the world. Plastic is not and can only certain types - once cleaned - can be recycled only once or twice in their lifecycle. I do wonder how recyclable this pavement is at the end of its lifespan.

[Road Hog]

The UK must've renamed their cabinet post because previously it was Ministry of Transport (MOT) and was almost universally cursed for its stringent smog tests.