8/9/2006: House made of Big Dig project pieces

[Undertoad]

Another axlrosen find.

The "Big Dig", for you non-USians, is a public tunnel project that basically put the main road through Boston, under Boston. It went way over cost, leaked, and recently killed a woman when it kinda sorta collapsed a little. So when something good comes out of it...

Not all recycling comes from separating your trash. Another method is to reuse the items that are going to be discarded anyway. And that's the vision of Paul Pedini, who used highway materials that were headed for scrap to build his house.

The full story explains:

Pedini wants the home — built using steel and concrete salvaged from Boston's $14.6 billion highway construction project — to be a prototype for recycling.

"These materials are as good as you can get," said Pedini, a 51-year-old civil engineer who spent a decade working on the Big Dig. "We were being paid money to junk this stuff. There's something inherently illogical about it."

So instead of dumping top-shelf materials, recycle them into a public housing project, municipal parking garage, prison, even as a replacement bridge.

It's a fine idea. The only downside is that your public buildings will look like off-ramps, but that's a small price to pay.

Concrete slabs, each about 40 feet long and weighing up to 25 tons, comprise the floors and roof.

The roof! Hope it's not pancakes for breakfast.