pavement

In 2020, Phoenix tested reflective roads to cool neighborhoods; pavement was up to 12°F cooler, but midday radiant heat for pedestrians rose

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Representative image of a road with reflective pavement treatment, illustrating the city's 2020 effort to reduce pavement temperatures in heat-baked communities. (AI- generated/ ChatGPT)

Phoenix tried a deceptively simple way to fight extreme urban heat: make its streets reflect more sunlight. The city’s 2020 Cool Pavement Pilot Program coated sections of residential roads in eight neighborhoods with a lighter, more reflective seal. The goal was to reduce the amount of solar energy absorbed by asphalt and, in turn, lower … Read more

For half a century, Massachusetts’ Mill Brook ran beneath a downtown parking lot; Athol has now uncovered it, created 12,000 sq ft of wetlands and turned 53,000 sq ft of pavement into vegetation

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For half a century, Massachusetts' Mill Brook ran beneath a downtown parking lot; Athol has now uncovered it, created 12,000 sq ft of wetlands and turned 53,000 sq ft of pavement into vegetation

For decades, a stretch of Mill Brook in Athol, Massachusetts, was hidden beneath asphalt, largely out of sight beneath what had become a downtown parking area. This month, the small central Massachusetts town celebrated a very different landscape: the stream is flowing in the open again, new wetlands surround it and much of the former … Read more