Los Angeles tests cooling pavement paint to beat heat

[nitpicker]

http://www.france24.com/en/20170814-los-angeles-tests-cooling-pavement-paint-beat-heat

14 August 2017 - 06H40
Los Angeles tests cooling pavement paint to beat heat

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -

Can a splash of gray pavement paint help combat global warming? In Los Angeles, where summer temperatures regularly surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), workers are coating streets in special gray treatments in a bid to do just that. The City of Angels, home to four million people, is the first major city to test the technology.

Normal black asphalt absorbs 80 to 95 percent of sunlight, while the gray "cool pavement" reflects it -- dramatically lowering ground temperature and reducing urban street heat, advocates of the method say. During a demonstration of the technique, Jeff Luzar -- sales director at GuardTop, which markets the product -- showed how applying the paint could drop street temperatures by about 12 degrees Fahrenheit after just one coat.

Los Angeles is the first city in California to test the treatment on a public road, after initial trials on parking lots, according to Greg Spotts, assistant director of the city's Bureau of Street Services. "We're hoping to inspire other cities to experiment with different ways to reduce the heat island effect," he said. "And we're hoping to get manufacturers to come up with some new products. Potentially there could be a huge market for cool pavement products, and in fact, it's part of a much larger economic trend where solutions for climate change could be the next great investments for the future," Spotts added.

The city will also monitor how Angelenos react to the newfangled asphalt -- and how quickly the notoriously thick LA traffic dirties the gray coating.
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