The environmental impacts of various sidewalk repair methods.
Impact of concrete grinding: Not all walkway repair methods are equally green. Grinding, a common means to pulverize concrete lifts uses a variety of large machines to chip, scrape and grind down trip hazards resulting in large amounts of rock dust which not only dirty’s the surrounding areas but the silica dust can be harmful to the health of people. Large amounts of energy are also wasted by this process leaving a larger carbon footprint.
Impact of concrete grinding: Not all walkway repair methods are equally green. Grinding, a common means to pulverize concrete lifts uses a variety of large machines to chip, scrape and grind down trip hazards resulting in large amounts of rock dust which not only dirty’s the surrounding areas but the silica dust can be harmful to the health of people. Large amounts of energy are also wasted by this process leaving a larger carbon footprint.
Impact of the remove & replace method: A second way to repair walkways is to remove the hazardous concrete with jackhammers and earthmovers, then pour new slabs in their place. Traditional removal and replacement creates large amounts of waste concrete that must be taken to landfills but also produces dust during the removal and requires the largest amount of energy to complete, thus with the largest carbon footprint.
Impact of concrete slicing: A third method of repairing walkways is concrete slicing which creates the least amount of dust, produces only tiny amounts of waste concrete, and has the smallest carbon footprint. Concrete slicing is the newest of these methods and has been growing in popularity over the past two decades.
Read a full comparison of the pros and cons of each of these 3 methods.
Impact of concrete slicing: A third method of repairing walkways is concrete slicing which creates the least amount of dust, produces only tiny amounts of waste concrete, and has the smallest carbon footprint. Concrete slicing is the newest of these methods and has been growing in popularity over the past two decades.
Read a full comparison of the pros and cons of each of these 3 methods.