Belgian Blocks Revealed

Overnight, August 9 – 10, 15th Street north of South Street was milled in preparation for resurfacing.  The old asphalt will be recycled.  Milling reveals a palimpsest of the street’s former surfaces:  a patchwork of old concrete, abandoned trolley tracks, Belgian block.  The historic layers see daylight for a few days or weeks, only to be entombed again.

Update Wednesday August 24: 

Last night a new layer of curb-to-curb bituminous macadam sealed the historic (if fragmented) street surface. The new pavement is a definite plus for center city’s thousands of bicyclists.

About the author

Mike Szilagyi was born in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia, and raised in both Logan and what was the far edge of suburbia near Valley Forge. He found himself deeply intrigued by both the built landscape and by the natural “lay of the land.” Where things really get interesting is the fluid, intricate, multi-layered interface between the two.

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