With the aim of becoming the greenest city in the world, Chicago is moving toward new green infrastructure technologies. The Chicago Department of Transportation has initiated its pilot program to built 550 feet of ‘recycled rubber sidewalk’ over the next year.
It will be built across the street on the West Side of the city starting from the Chicago Center for Green Technology. Explaining the logic behind building the sidewalks with rubber, Sadhu Johnston, with the city’s Department of Environment said,
We’ve all seen video of huge mountains of tires. All of it sitting there for years. Well, here is a productive use of that rubber material.
The recycled material to be used for the sidewalks is certainly good for the environment. In addition, these sidewalks are durable as compared to normal concrete, including the fact that roots under the sheets will not pop up the sidewalks at certain places.
Besides the sidewalks, Chicago will be building its first solar powered bus shelter. This will eventually save the city’s both money and energy. The lights in the shelter will be powered with the help of solar cells.
Next year will see about 100 solar shelters, which will save the city $20,000 in electricity costs, every year, as estimated!
To promote drainage and lessen damage, the city is also testing out a green alley program by using porous material in place of asphalt.
