City goes extra mile on Fairview

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Drivers gnashing their teeth as they’re held up by

construction on Fairview Road should know the city is doing a good deed,

a city engineer said.

For the first time, the city will reuse its old pavement instead of

tossing it into nearby dumps -- which has costly economic and

environmental impacts.

The city pays more than $22 for each ton of refuse it throws into

landfills. And that’s without accounting for shipping, which can cost

much more.

“Right now, we’re making a bit of a mess,” joked Assistant City Engineer

Ernesto Munoz. “But the road was beyond maintenance. It needed to be

replaced.”

Not only will cars cruise smoothly on pothole-free pavement when the

project is completed in August, but their wheels will be rolling on tons

of concrete and ground-up tires that otherwise would have been piled high

in landfills.

“This will really make a difference,” said Donna Thierault, the city’s

recycling coordinator. “Anything that can be kept out of landfills is

welcome.’

Road crews also will widen the intersection at Fairview Road and Baker

Street, allowing for turning lanes which should allow traffic to flow

more freely, Munoz said.

Munoz said construction would be halted during the Orange County Fair in

July.

The roughly 40,000 tires that will be shredded for the pavement will

create a longer-lasting, quieter, blacker driving surface, allowing water

to run off better than regular asphalt, Munoz said.

As for the recycled pavement, a giant pulverizing machine will pound the

existing asphalt into bits, mixing it with wet concrete and laying it

down as a foundation for the new, rubberized surface.

“We just hope the utilities don’t touch it once we’re finished,” Munoz

said. “When you start cutting, you’ve destroyed the whole thing.”