This seemingly inferior blacktop or cement would gain frost heaves first but when it all comes up it spells out a hidden word like "pave." That way you have a visible reminder a few months or a year before the whole road goes kaput. No longer will the condition of the road be up for arguement.-- sartep, May 19 2003 How Frost Heave Works http://www.concrete...and_foundations.htmHow Frost Heave Works [popbottle, Oct 12 2015] So, this has nothing to do with a barfing snowman?-- thumbwax, May 19 2003 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (+)-- Shz, May 19 2003 from web page see link
"How Frost Heave Works
The volume increase that occurs when water changes to ice was at first thought to be the cause of frost heave, but it is now recognized that the phenomenon known as ice segregation is the basic mechanism.
Water is drawn from unfrozen soil to the freezing zone where it attaches to form layers of ice, forcing soil particles apart and causing the soil surface to heave. Without physical restraint there is no apparent limit to the amount of heaving that may occur. (Movements in excess of 4 in. developing under basement floors in only three weeks have been recorded.)
Where restraint in the form of a building load is present, heaving pressures may or may not overcome the restraint, but they can be very high: 19 tons/sq ft has been measured, and a seven-story reinforced concrete frame building on a raft foundation was observed to heave more than 2 in."
inches of movement / 19 tons per square foot / and gap left when the thing melts
not just roads but buildings
Something that bleeds red when pressures are abnormally high ?-- popbottle, Oct 12 2015 If you squeeze a human's neck really, really hard, their nose sometimes bleeds. Would that do ?
// Water is drawn from unfrozen soil to the freezing zone //
How ? Subsidised public transport, cheap drinks at happy hour, two for one offers, what ? How do you attract water ?-- 8th of 7, Oct 12 2015 It remembers where it's been before?-- absterge, Oct 17 2015 random, halfbakery