Does diesel and such cause serious damage to the tarmac so they have to resurface it, or is that just easier than trying to ensure it’s all cleaned up? Seems a little extreme for something which wasn’t on fire.
trevHCS:
Does diesel and such cause serious damage to the tarmac so they have to resurface it, or is that just easier than trying to ensure it’s all cleaned up? Seems a little extreme for something which wasn’t on fire.
Diesel does wreck the tarmac, tarmac is petroleum based, as is diesel, so a soaking in it softens the tarmac and it’ll just tear up in chunks if driven over, fruit juice etc is also bad for tarmac due to the acidic content.
For getting into drains and water courses, milk is the worst, whereas diesel & oil although not good, they can be skimmed off the top of the water, milk on the other hand readily mixes with water, and if enough, kills off every living thing in it.
Tarmac contains large amounts of bitumen which becomes soluble when in contact with fuels such as petrol, imagine cleaning you’re paint brushes with white spirt diesel has the same effect on the road surface, hence the need to resurface.
I also thought it was a skid hazard, particularly for motorbikes.
As for milk, if I remember right, it strips all the oxygen from the water, suffocating anything that lives there.
It’s odd why milk tankers do not need to comply with any ADR regulations , but can do a lot of damage to wildlife if one goes off the road in a crash .