Yellowstone's Old Faithful Geyser Offers Visitors An Ecological New Pathway - Unravel Travel TV

Old Faithful, one of the world's most iconic natural wonders, now has an even more ecofriendly surrounding thanks to the installation of a newly paved walkway that creates a porous, clean and flexible surface that uses recycled Michelin tires along with other materials. Unlike asphalt, the new pavement, called Flexi-Pave by KBI, is a durable and permeable surface that is being used to help preserve groundwater flow and better control erosion in the area. The project was completed last week and is already being traversed by visitors who come from around the globe to see the infamous geyser that was first discovered by an expedition to the area in 1870. While the most important benefit of this new pavement material is the porous surface, it is also heat tolerant and durable with low maintenance requirements. In addition, much of the material comes from recycled Michelin tires used by the park's fleet of vehicles. Importantly, this repurposed tire rubber and other components create a stable material that does not leach oil—as asphalt can—into a sensitive area. The new path, which used 900 end-of-life Michelin tires, covers 6,400 square feet in the park. Interestingly, those same tires were donated to Yellowstone by Michelin for use on their vehicles several years ago. After 100K miles, the tires were then recycled for use in this new path.

The project was made possible through a partnership between Yellowstone National Park, park concessioners, the Yellowstone Park Foundation, KBI (FlexiPave) and Michelin, which has been a Yellowstone Park Foundation corporate partner since 2008. In fact, Michelin, which donates about $300,000 worth of its tires and maintenance expertise to the Yellowstone National Park fleet every year, flew in employees from across North America to help complete the path's construction in late August 2015.

As a major corporate sponsor of the Yellowstone Park Foundation, Michelin donates and helps maintain thousands of tires to equip Yellowstone National Park's fleet of more than 800 vehicles and equipment, which includes everything from electric carts, patrol cars and garbage trucks to giant earthmoving vehicles, rotary snow plows and large load-hauling tractor trailers.

Through the partnership Michelin's goal is to help Yellowstone National Park reduce its operating expenses and significantly lower the consumption of raw materials, mostly through the implementation of Michelin's industry leading green tire technologies that save fuel and reduce emissions. These sustainability goals for tire performance are significant given that, on average, these vehicles collectively travel 3.75 million miles per year on the park's more than 420 miles of roadways.

Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles. The company also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides, maps and road atlases. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America http://www.michelin-us.com employs about 22,700 and operates 20 major manufacturing plants.

The Yellowstone Park Foundation (YPF) has served as Yellowstone National Parks official fundraising partner since 1996. Its mission is to fund projects and programs that protect, preserve, and enhance the natural and cultural resources, and the visitor experience of the Park. YPF has raised more than $92 million, and funded more than 325 important projects and initiatives since 1996 that include wildlife research, cutthroat trout restoration, trail maintenance, and youth education.

http://www.ypf.org

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