How Can We Build Greener Roads? | Jeralee Anderson | TEDxEverett

it had been raining for two days

when hurricane bob came into town

and it's there was so much water that it

started to come in through

and seep into the basement and started

flooding

and i found my dad down there trying to

soak up the water with rags

and like squeezing them one by one into

the bucket

so i started to help him out and after a

while i got bored

and so i ran upstairs and i came back

down with a drinking straw

and stuck it in one of the biggest

cracks and it started to flood

right into the bucket i was 10 years old

and my dad is a rocket scientist

so i've been a problem solver since i

was young and now i'm a construction

engineer

solving bigger problems in our built

environment and my mission in life

is to help people understand and see

what green transportation might look

like in practice

and i believe that we can fundamentally

change the way

that roads are built and that we must in

order to fight a changing climate

so most of you when you think about

transportation you probably think about

the inconveniences you face on your

daily grind

things like noise sitting in traffic

the exhaust how bad all the other

drivers are

maybe you take a different mode of

transportation every day maybe you're

walking or taking the bike

or a bus or a train and

that's the bread and butter of

transportation how we get around and

move from

a to b and it's really about what's on

the surface

there's much more transportation also

drives our economies

in the us we spent about 138 billion

dollars

last year on transportation construction

you might think that that money is going

to having you

or helping you spend less time sitting

in traffic

and it turns out almost 70 percent of

that

is going to pavement and construction

materials

so as it turns out your tax dollars are

going right into the ground

roads also have a substantial

environmental impact

research from the university of

washington shows that one lane mile

of road uses about as much energy as 100

times your family's annual energy bill

that has a carbon footprint of 250

metric tons

per lane per mile

so how many households do you drive to

work

even if you have a zero emissions

vehicle

in the most tech savvy mobile city your

roads still have a footprint

it worries me that research from

the james cook university in australia

shows that 90 percent of new roads are

being built outside of the united states

and developed countries right now

why in the world would we replicate that

business as usual framework

well who's ever heard of a road that's

being built

to improve the environment what about a

road that's designed to reduce its

carbon footprint

wouldn't it be game changing if we

thought about our public investments in

that way

roads can do so much more and i'm

looking forward to showing you

exactly what i mean roads can reconnect

ecosystems in orange county

only the bravest mountain lions dared to

cross

the busy 241 expressway and since 1998

unfortunately 10 of them didn't make it

so the toll agency spent time

and money building a wildlife fence with

a special top

so they can't climb over and so that the

cougars and other critters

can safely go under four brand new

underpasses designed especially for them

so now they can cross safely and you can

travel there more safely too

back here in bothell washington horse

creek

was suffocating underneath the

developing suburb

salmon and other fish had not seen

daylight

in over 50 years so when the city had

the opportunity to rebuild that

road downtown they actually literally

picked up the creek

moved it over to the west and opened it

up and now it's a community centerpiece

roads can create habitat and restore

habitat

in unusual and unique ways

in portland oregon bats have

penthouse view and waterfront property

underneath the selwood bridge it even

has energy efficient mood lighting for

those dark and stormy nights

the best part is that the bat boxes

were designed and built by kids at the

local elementary school

who insisted that the bats would have

free rent

so talk about affordable housing

meanwhile in new zealand imagine that

you are a little lizard

like this guy a copper skink and one day

humans come to your house

knocking on your door and saying that

they need your house to build a highway

and instead of certain doom you your

family

and all your friends are taken to a

fancy lizard resort

on an all expense paid trip where you

stay in style

and as they build the road and then even

better they hand you the keys

to a new safer house safe from predators

that is just up the street from where

you used to live

in north carolina in summertime

it's either humid or hurricane and a

first of its kind road in raleigh

was battered by back to back to back

hurricanes matthew florence and michael

and live to tell the tale and its story

was that it had installed brand new

bioswales

also called rain gardens that are

engineered swales

designed to you capture the water

and treat it using the superpowers of

natural soil and native vegetation

that help remove the pollutants before

it gets downstream into the river

when hurricane harvey battered houston

bagby street bounced back it was one of

the only streets in midtown houston that

did not drown

it had a secret underneath the road in

addition to rain gardens

there were a system of huge pipes that

helped like a pressure valve

release relieve the pressure from all

the water in neighboring

areas and it drained into the bayou back

where it belonged

what if roads could actually treat and

capture water themselves

in auburn washington they installed

something called

porous pavement and you can think of

porous pavement or permeable pavement

like a rice krispie treat of roads

yum right

so the asphalt and or cement

can which is like marshmallows can mix

together with small rocks

are you still with me rice krispies

rescue streets

to create a sturdy structure that you

can drive bike or walk on

and when it rains water filters through

the gaps and

underneath into the soil below and

recharges the groundwater table

roads are recyclable and can also cut

waste

what in the world would you do if you

had

400 toilets

one city engineer had a brilliant idea

of putting the potties

in the pavement a local nonprofit was

replacing 400 toilets and called the

public works department in bellingham

and the local engineer got together with

the concrete company and crushed up the

potties

as an aggregate material to replace

the concrete and rocks going into a

sidewalk

so about 20 percent recycled potties and

there's

now a bike trail in bellingham made with

over 80 tons of recycled

toilets

down in san jose california el camino

real

at monterey highway was notorious in the

state of california

as the noisiest and worst road in the

state

and the politicians were hearing about

it enter the maintenance crews

to save the day they paved over

that all of those potholes with a

asphalt pavement made of recycled rubber

tires

ending up in a smoother quieter ride

they also reused

97 of the existing road saving

23 percent of the cost on a two mile

long project that's enough money to pave

another half mile somewhere else in the

city

meanwhile next door in campbell

california

they put their 90-foot wide two-way

pavement swimming pool

on a diet and they transformed it into a

complete street

with wide sidewalks bike lanes transit

stops

and also used an interesting paving

method called full depth reclamation

which crushes up the existing road and

replaces it

as new they saved about two million

dollars and reduced the carbon footprint

by 33 percent

roads can reconnect communities and

economies

as traffic races through the

grass-covered tunnels that now

form the presidio parkway you and your

family can walk

and have a gentle stroll between chrissy

field and the presidio

the new tunnels also reduce noise in

sensitive areas

like the tennessee hollow watershed

and the national cemetery they also

opened up views

for the iconic golden gate bridge

back here in seattle one of my favorite

parts of the mercer street

project in downtown is that it was built

on contaminated land

from an old gas station and if you

go underneath the road there's a system

of pipes and rocks

that help the soil breathe called the

soil vapor extraction system

additionally the surplus property on

this job

actually recently sold for 143 million

dollars in our high-tech

corridor downtown this almost

paid for the entire cost of the new

corridor

east 40th street in tacoma washington

was recently named the world's greenest

road

it treated 37 acres of nearby

neighborhoods

for storm water that's more than six

times the size of the street itself

they also added a new shared use path

and in partnership with the local

schools

for a public art project tried to tell a

story of what happens when it rains

they use the special coating to paint

poetry into the pavement

adding a little beauty and fun

we are building the transportation

infrastructure of tomorrow

today these are just a few examples

of what roads can do when it comes to

sustainability

so imagine if we replicated these

examples

instead of replicating business as usual

we need a global road revolution

that means rethinking the ways we design

build and buy our transportation

infrastructure from streets and highways

to bridges runways rails and trails

so if we want to connect our communities

we need roads

that revitalize them that create a sense

of belonging

and ownership so we stop taking them for

granted

if we want to protect our ecosystems we

need roads that are restorative

that preserve and protect animals and

plants

that clean the water and that enhance

our connection with nature

if we want to invest in the future and

maybe save a little money

we need to design roads that are long

lasting

resilient materials efficient and

designed with the end in mind

and if we'd like to protect our

economies from the financial

uncertainties of climate change

we need to be measuring and managing

that carbon and energy footprint on each

and every last mile when it gets put

into the ground

so how are we going to do that we need

the private sector and industry

to keep innovating and create green

technologies

products and services that will take us

into the next generation of roads

and come to market we need educators

to inspire students of all ages that

and then show them that sustainability

isn't rocket science

and we need policy makers to challenge

the status quo

and put the environment first into

transportation policies and plans

and if we really want to get serious

about it put them into construction

specifications funding criteria

and capital budgets because those are

our tax dollars

building and putting people to work

building our infrastructure

of tomorrow

it's time to raise our expectations of

what sustainability can look like

in roads the opportunities to take

action

are right in front of our eyes you've

seen it

and now that you believe that we can

fundamentally change the way we build

our roads

the first step starts with you expecting

the roads in your community

to be built green and beautiful and

beyond business as usual

and if you can do that i'm confident

that we can do right by the environment

and future generations

one mile at a time thank you

you