A city in Colorado has landed upon a novel way of sealing cracks in its roads - by topping them up with toilet paper. 

Authorities in Littleton say toilet paper is proving to be the perfect final touch to newly-sealed cracks, as it absorbs oil from freshly laid tar and prevents it from sticking to shoes and car tyres. 

Using toilet paper has also allowed maintenance crews to reopen roads to traffic the moment resealing is done, improving traffic flows and reducing commuter inconvenience, authorities there have said. The biodegradable paper disintegrates within a few days, the Denver Post reported.

Littleton is not the first US city to roll out toilet paper to paper in its tarmac cracks, with that honour belonging to Lincoln, Nebraska - where authorities learnt the hard way that only single-ply tissue paper will do.  

When double-ply tissue is used, the upper layer does not absorb tar and ends up blowing away, authorities discovered.

With no shortage of cracks and fissures on Maltese roads, will we eventually see local road maintenance crews reaching for the single-ply? 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.