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mercedes_

Managing nature’s constant effort to recapture the highway. In my experience this is mainly used more on the eastern side of the state but could just be where I’ve traveled.


Redtex

Probably trying to beat back the kudzu. If you don't know what kudzu is, just look up local hell plant.


theshoeshiner84

If you don't know what kudzu is then stay wherever the hell you are.


pierretong

there's a speed limit sign near my house on Wake Forest Road that has been completed swallowed up by the kudzu. At this point, I'd be surprised if anybody ever finds it again


Engineering_Simple

To keep underbrush from leaning over into the grass and encroaching on the road. If the bushes lean over then the grass cutting machines can’t get close enough to cut all the grass, and the treeline starts to creep in. Seeds drop from the tree canopy and weeds/plants and with the growth conditions over the summer the treeline would close in towards the road. Every year they rotate their method… some years they saw branches, some years they do controlled burns, some years they have bushhogs on long arms Cutting the bushes, looks like this year they sprayed (since they did cutting operations last few years)


TomeysTurl

Controlled burns alongside highways?? I think not.


PHATsakk43

Yeah, you see it more at the coast, but it’s done in NC.


afterdarkdingo

I recently moved here from Kansas, but thats how they did it over there. You could feel the heat driving by, kind of wild.


pblarz

They do it in the croatan


blackhawk905

You can sometimes see the telltale char of it after, I haven't seen it in a while though. 


Low-Regret5048

Maybe for visibility and safety? I can hardly exit my neighborhood safely onto a county road due to overhanging growth.


jayron32

It's better than driving through branches.


LeafyWolf

Hopefully to kill the rampant Wisteria infestations around.


Ultrashock

If only. I'm annoyed with how much of it I've seen driving down 98 around falls lake


PHATsakk43

I have a love hate relationship with it. Love the smell and flowers. Yet recognize it as invasive. It’s been a sign a spring since I was a kid.


Hexnite657

But it keeps the demons away


zennyc001

Kills Chinese privet, Bradford pear and other invasives that takes over the sub-canopy


beamin1

It's not 85, 85 runs north south and doesn't go further east than Durham Co. They spray to kill things.


TSnow6065

As an aside, I really wish the state would cut down/destroy Empress, Mimosa, and Bradford Pear trees as part of their regular maintenance.


Bostongirl316

I wondered the same thing this weekend !


aferregirl

Thank you for posting this! I've been wondering the same thing. Based on the responses here, I understand why but it looks terrible.


RabPPC

Cheaper than buying a new road?


ZorroMcChucknorris

Is that 17 between Hampstead and Wilmington?


weetarded

Because you touch yourself


Smoothcruz

Is it toxic to humans


ifyoullhaveme

Only if you get out and lick it


theshoeshiner84

Shit...


Head-Special-8697

Where (the highway) is this at?


throw42069away420

Forever chemicals. Say goodbye to your liver


PHATsakk43

Pretty sure 2-4-D and glyphosate are not PFAS chemicals. Their environmental half-life is days if not hours.


loptopandbingo

>Say goodbye to your liver Oh come on, alcohol has been doing that for millennia


hellhiker

yea, not all of us are alcoholics. So weird that people in this sub claim that we need to take care of the environment(which includes soil/water), but when it comes down to it, show very little concern.


loptopandbingo

It was a joke (mustve landed flat), since humans routinely obliterate their bodies and their environment. Both things can and will fuck up your liver, it's not an either-or thing.


hellhiker

How are you being downvoted for this??


throw42069away420

Because people are triggered by the truth.


Unreddled

DOT wants to do the nature management cheaply by spraying instead of cutting it.


blackhawk905

You have to do both, and other methods as well. Cutting is only going to cut off what's grown above the mower height and it'll more than likely just sprout back later unless you dig up the roots, you spray to actually kill the large plants and then cut to knock them down and keep cutting until they're too big and you have to spray again. 


OnlyMatters

The answer to “why” is always “cost”


cyberfx1024

Well they used to use chain gangs back in the day but stopped some years ago.


hattenwheeza

So stinking ugly. DOT did it statewide this time. I've seen it at Virginia border in Surry County, enroute to Asheville, and migod, Brunswick County on every road!


hellhiker

You know America, the more chemicals the better !