用公路廢料建房子

A lot of us take the highway home every day， and our next homeowners actually did. They took 600，000 pounds of concrete and steel and recycled it into their very own home.

This is the leafy suburb of Lexington， but on one corner of this historic Boston suburb， you’ll find a home with an unusual past. It was built out of an old highway， but not just any old highway. This house was recycled from the leftovers of America’s costliest and most complex highway construction project. “The Big Dig，” as it was called， tore down a highway in downtown Boston and built a tunnel in its place. Paul and Cristina Pedini are civil engineers. Paul worked on the Big Dig.

Paul： We had been directed to remove pieces of the Big Dig on behalf of the state， and they suggested to us that we would put them in a landfill and they’d pay us to do it， and I suggested that maybe they give us the materials and save the money. We needed a house， so， put two and two together.

…and got six levels， a 1）sumptuous kitchen， a two-story living room， two bedrooms， a working studio， two bathrooms and a Japanese garden on top of the garage. In all， 4，200 ft2 of luxury supported by 30 steel beams and by 13 2）slabs of concrete 3）salvaged from the old interstate.

Paul： We get the people that just walk in and go“Wow！”， and they get it. And then there’s other people that walk in and shriek because they can’t believe that you leave pipes exposed and “What’s that cement up there， that concrete？” They’re horrified by it.

The massive 4）wide flange beams allow the kitchen to cover an incredible 1，200 ft2 without any supporting walls. You’d never find that in a regular house.

Up on the next level is the two-story great room， all held up by recycled bits of the Big Dig.

Paul： This beam is one of the largest beams you can buy. Its former life it was a 5）strut inside the tunnel. So these guys actually were put between the tunnel walls as we were building them， and held them from coming in， so this， having performed that duty， was cut apart and painted and put in the house. Now it’s holding the floors up.

But one man’s road is another man’s ceiling， and Paul knows where every last piece of that ceiling came from.

Paul： This is the 6）cantilevered pieces of the slabs. This is one of the places where you can see， on the underside of the slab， the identification marks for each of the slabs when they functioned as parts of the I-93 roadway， and you can also see stamps up there telling you where they were bought， where they were made. It centers around the fact that these materials aren’t just material. They’re a pre-fabricated product， and what you’re doing when you crush them up and throw them away， is you are 7）squandering all of that labor that was originally put into that piece.

It has a lot to do with who’s controlling the materials. You know， in our case， I was fortunate enough to…to be the person who was tasked with throwing it away.

What an incredible home！ Not only is it a 8）prototype of how to recycle heavy materials， but it’s also a great example of what you can recycle if you put your mind to it.

很多人每天回家的時(shí)候都會(huì)走高速公路，而我們接下來(lái)要介紹的這棟住宅的主人卻把高速公路帶回了家。他們把60萬(wàn)磅（約27萬(wàn)公斤）重的鋼筋水泥回收并用這些建造了他們的家。

這里是樹(shù)木茂盛的列克星頓市郊，在這個(gè)具有歷史意義的波士頓郊區(qū)的某一角，有一座住宅有著不同尋常的過(guò)去。它用一條舊高速公路的材料建成，而且還不是普通的高速公路。這棟房子的建材是從美國(guó)最昂貴，也是最復(fù)雜的高速公路建設(shè)工程回收而來(lái)。這項(xiàng)被稱(chēng)為“大挖掘”的隧道工程拆除了原本行經(jīng)波士頓市區(qū)的一條高速公路，并在原地建造了一條地下隧道。保羅·皮迪尼和克里斯廷娜·皮迪尼夫婦是土木工程師。保羅曾為這個(gè)隧道工程效力。

保羅：我們受州政府委托清除隧道工程的廢料。他們建議我們將廢料送到垃圾掩埋場(chǎng)，他們會(huì)付錢(qián)給我們來(lái)做這個(gè)事情。我建議他們把廢料給我們，并省下那筆費(fèi)用。我們需要一棟房子，那么綜合起來(lái)，正好利用那些現(xiàn)有的建材。

他們建成了一座六層樓高的房子。里面有一間奢華的廚房、兩層樓高的客廳、兩間臥房、一間工作室、兩間浴室，還有位于車(chē)庫(kù)上的日式花園。這所面積為四千兩百平方英尺（約390m2）的奢華住房由30根鋼梁和13塊混凝土板支撐，建材全部來(lái)自那條舊州際公路。

保羅：有人一進(jìn)來(lái)就會(huì)發(fā)出驚嘆，他們很喜歡；另外有人一進(jìn)來(lái)會(huì)尖叫，因?yàn)樗麄儾桓蚁嘈盼覀兙棺尮艿劳饴?，?huì)問(wèn)：“上面的水泥是怎么回事，還有那些混凝土？”他們覺(jué)得很可怕。

有了這些巨大的寬緣梁，一千兩百平方英尺（約111m2）的廚房就不需要任何承重墻。這是一般住宅絕對(duì)做不到的。

往上一層樓是兩層樓高的大客廳，全憑隧道工程回收的舊建材支撐。

保羅：這條是你能買(mǎi)到最大的橫梁了，它的前生是隧道里的支柱。我們?cè)诮ㄔO(shè)隧道時(shí)，這些鋼梁是放在隧道墻之間防止墻坍塌的支柱。它們?cè)谕瓿赡莻€(gè)使命之后被我們切割、上漆并放進(jìn)屋里，支撐著整個(gè)樓面。

不過(guò)，昔日的道路，現(xiàn)在已成了天花板。保羅知道天花板的每一部分來(lái)自哪里。

保羅：這是舊路面伸出的懸臂。在混凝土板下方，你可以看到當(dāng)它們還是93號(hào)州際公路的一部分時(shí)，每段路面的識(shí)別標(biāo)志。你還能看到一些記號(hào)，說(shuō)明它們之前從哪里購(gòu)得、在哪里生產(chǎn)。這表明這些物料不只是物料，它們是預(yù)制件。如果你把它們壓碎丟棄，就是在浪費(fèi)人們之前投入的辛勤勞動(dòng)。

這事跟誰(shuí)在管理物料很有關(guān)系。就我們的例子而言，我很幸運(yùn)的是，他們把處理廢物料的任務(wù)交給了我。

這真是不可思議的住宅！它不只是如何回收重型物料的范例，更是你只要用心就能實(shí)現(xiàn)回收的最佳典范。

The Big Dig即波士頓中心隧道工程（The Central Artery/Tunnel Project ，簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)CA/T），主要是把原來(lái)縱貫波士頓市中心的地面高架路改為長(zhǎng)約5.6公里的地下隧道。工程從上世紀(jì)的1991年開(kāi)始動(dòng)工，直到本世紀(jì)的2007年12月結(jié)束。這個(gè)曠日持久的城市改造工程被當(dāng)?shù)厝朔Q(chēng)為“Big Dig（大挖掘）”。這是美國(guó)歷史上規(guī)模最大、耗資最多、工期最長(zhǎng)的城市交通道路改造項(xiàng)目，在造價(jià)與工期上都是史無(wú)前例的，官方公布的工程費(fèi)用為146億美元。

文中提到的I-93，即93號(hào)州際高速公路，它是美國(guó)東北部的一條主要公路，北始佛蒙特州的東北部，南至馬薩諸塞州的坎頓，全程超過(guò)三百公里。這個(gè)隧道工程便是93號(hào)高速公路的其中一段。