Why Concrete?

Home
About Us
Why Concrete?
News
Members
Board of Directors
Industry Resources
Feedback
Search

Why Concrete Pavement?

BUILDING AMERICA:
BEFORE THE "MODEL T"

We were driving on concrete pavement 17 years before Henry Ford. Today, it's the heart of America's surface transportation infrastructure.
Bellfontaine, Ohio, 1889, in the true spirit of American innovation, engineer George W. Bartholomew proposed the idea of concrete pavement to the city officials. Two years later (and a full 17 years before the first mass-produced automobile--the "Model T" Ford) America's first concrete pavement was laid, an 8-foot-wide strip of Main Street along the side of Bellefontaine's Courthouse Square. Wagons and teams of horses were used to haul the cement, gravel and sand to the paving site.
Today, America's legacy-it's greatness-is all about it's highways, streets, roads and airports. It's about this nation's surface transportation infra-structure, a hallmark of civilization and a key to this nation's prosperity.
Automobile, truck, bus and airport traffic is growing every year, and the loads are getting heavier. Today's highways often handle two to three times the traffic they were designed to carry. Heavier loads, increased traffic and higher speeds are creating greater demands on America's overcrowded surface transportation network. But there is good news!
Concrete pavements are the only paving solutions able to carry the load. One hundred and nine years after Bellfontaine, Ohio, concrete is still building America!  MORE>>

 

 

Send mail to support@archwarecs.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2011 American Concrete Pavement Association, Mid-Atlantic Chapter
Last modified: 01/30/12