Environmental conditions

[rob]

In my current campaign, I picked a rural part of central Pennsylvania, mostly for simplicity on my part (having at least a general knowledge of the area helps). As most of the roads are asphalt with a concrete base, and having driven I-95 through all types of weather, I know asphalt is cheaper than concrete so various Transportation Departments use the asphalt to repair major roads. Using this as a premise, after 150 years, the concrete roads would be in far better shape than asphalt base road beds. I also figure forests would have grown back over old farm fields, school fields, etc. That around heavily nuked sites like major cities, the immediate areas would still be highly radioactive and varying degrees of damage. I have read on some online sites about Chernobyl and Fukushima that nature has come back surprisingly quick in most areas away from the major radioactive locations. In all I figure that nature would have reclaimed most of the human inhabited areas to near pristine conditions, but some things of human would still be around. Thoughts?

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by rob

In my current campaign, I picked a rural part of central Pennsylvania, mostly for simplicity on my part (having at least a general knowledge of the area helps). As most of the roads are asphalt with a concrete base, and having driven I-95 through all types of weather, I know asphalt is cheaper than concrete so various Transportation Departments use the asphalt to repair major roads. Using this as a premise, after 150 years, the concrete roads would be in far better shape than asphalt base road beds.

I am not sure there will be much difference between concrete and asphalt roads after 150 years. With routine maintenance, a concrete road will last about 40-50 years. Asphalt roads last about 30 years with maintenance. Maintenance in these cases include sealing, grinding, etc. with a lot of equipment.

My gut feeling is that the roads that will last the longest in the 150 years after the bombs are tar and chip roads. The maintenance is just putting more tar and pea stone over the top and driving on it. The lifespan of such roads is about 40 years. But given that construction and maintenance of these kind of roads predates steam powered cars, these would be the ones that would most likely be maintained. In fact, I see this being used on the shoulders of Interstates by the survivor to use instead of the decaying and badly broken concrete.

[bobcat]

also i would consider the southern central part of the state radioactive due to the TMI NPP.(and the fact that it gets nuke according to cannon).

to the far north you have Tioga county with it's coal and natural gas. both can be used to keep electricity flowing at least locally. and given the creativity of the locals, the available resources, and 150 years to do the work we could easily be talking about 1940's-1960's level tech by the time the teams wake up.

[RandyT0001]

Highway Engineering, Rural Roads and Pavement by Chatburn on Google Books is 1920's tech. Most is still used today.

Gravel Roads Maintenance and Design Manual US Dept Transportation, Federal Highway Admin

Tennessee's Survey Report of Historic Highway Bridges, Chapter Two, has a good history of road building and development in Tennessee. Maybe there is a similar reference for Pennsylvania.

US Army Manuals include TM 5-623, TM 5-600, FM 5-35, FM 3-34.343 (FM 5-446) are useful resources.