Apparently, officials in Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation weren't so keen on them. PennDOT has its own name for South Broad-- State Highway Route 611--and when it turned up on a list of roads to repave this July, maintenance crews saw the bricks not as an urban enhancement but as a maintenance nuisance. They ripped out the expensive bricks one crosswalk at a time until Rendell, who is now governor, found out and ordered the work to cease.
It's not every day that a governor intervenes in a road-paving project, but then again, Philadelphia really loves its bricks. James Kise, the architect who designed South Broad's streetscape, called PennDOT's brick bumbling "an act of vandalism." PennDOT chief Allen Biehler apologized for the department's aesthetic insensitivity and promised to rebuild the crosswalks as they were. The brickwork won't be done until the middle of September--at a cost of $280,000.
Cities and towns across the country are going bonkers for brick these days, sprucing up their downtowns with brick crosswalks, sidewalks and even entire brick streets. And although the trend isn't popular with road crews, which generally would prefer to stick with easy asphalt, downtown businesses think brick's a hit. According to Kise, Philadelphia's brick helps give the Avenue of the Arts an identity that makes it an appealing place to visit. "It's there to say, 'Yes, this is a black asphalt world, but by the way, this is a special part of the city.'"
Ionia, Michigan, has practically bricked over its entire downtown. Ionia's business district used to have all-brick streets, but most of the bricks were removed in the late 1950s and the last in 1989. But over the past decade, Ionia has used a mix of city, state and federal money to gradually go back to brick. The new brick roads are much sturdier than the original ones and the brick blocks are engineered to maintain skid resistance for auto safety even as they wear down over time. The brickwork cost about twice as much as paving with asphalt, city manager Tom Wieczorek notes, but it is expected to last much longer. "The last brick road made it 90 years," Wieczorek says. "Hopefully, this one will last another 90."
Albuquerque, New Mexico, also got on the brick bandwagon this year, installing 120 brick crosswalks at intersections downtown. But as in a growing number of U.S. cities, Albuquerque's bricks are fakes. Instead of hand-laying clay bricks, road crews simply poured concrete and stamped it in a brick pattern. Then they sprayed the concrete with a dye to color it red.
The crosswalks were intended not only to boost businesses downtown but also to improve pedestrian safety. At the same time the fake bricks went in, one-way streets were converted to two-way; both changes have encouraged more pedestrians to cross at the light. Joe Luehring, construction coordinator for the public works department, says the crosswalks slow drivers down because they are easier to see.
But fake brick has some problems, too. Some dyes quickly fade from red to pink. In addition, when dyed concrete chips, it exposes the bare gray surface underneath. Albuquerque has also had trouble with tires smearing black grime on the fake brick. Luehring says the city has tried power-washing the crosswalks, but the grime always comes back. "The bricks have received a very mixed public reaction," Luehring says. "Some think it's very nice. Others think it's a big waste of money."
