Road Strips Sound Out 'Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck'

(UPDATED Dec. 22 with the news that although the strips are temporarily out of commission, A&M is in discussion with TxDOT about ways to make this feature permanent in 2017)

As you approached Kyle Field recently on George Bush Drive from the west, you might have heard a familiar beat.

The Texas Aggie Band Association (former band members) pointed out in a recent Facebook post that strips on the roadway were sounding out the cadence Aggies know as "Hullabaloo, caneck, caneck."

The band association gave some great tips: "The trick is left lane for a car and right lane for a pickup truck. Strips are set based on wheelbase."

Also, "The best speed is 40 mph. It works at any speed, just slower."

Nobody knows the proper tempo better!

The strips were between Penberthy and Olsen boulevards, and were installed Nov. 3. The man behind the plan: Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp '72, who took it to an associate vice chancellor with the system (and former TxDOT deputy executive director), John Barton '85.

Barton said Sharp came across the idea of “musical highways” and discussed the topic with him. Road surfaces can be grooved and engineered to produce musical notes, as on the stretch of Route 66 in New Mexico that plays “America the Beautiful,” but that’s an expensive and complicated process, Barton said. To produce the cadence that opens the War Hymn, though, “you don’t have to have notes.” Barton and System colleague Cary Tschirhart ’85 were able to place the pavement tabs themselves within a couple of hours, after getting permission and clearance. Cost was zero, as the two Aggies donated their time and Knife River Corp. donated the tabs.

The bumps that created the beat were temporary pavement markers, stuck down with industrial glue, and they quickly became worn down as Aggies discovered them. On Nov. 22, Barton and Tschirhart spent their lunch hour putting down a new set of temporary tabs, but a cold front and rain that night caused them to detach, and the tabs had to be cleared away the next morning. The temporary tabs would likely only have been effective another couple of weeks, as before.

A&M is working with city and Texas Department of Transportation officials on a way to make the feature permanent, perhaps as soon as early 2017. One option: replacing the tabs with slight grooves in the concrete or a more permanent raised marker just large enough to make the beats noticeable but not enough that drivers would perceive them as a warning.

Barton confirmed that the strips would sound best at about 40 mph, which offers the added benefit of slowing drivers down -- that's the speed limit along that section of road.

Tschirhart, a former Aggie bandsman, said he worked out the math by starting with the fact that the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band marches at 104 beats per minute. To match that tempo, he calculated that a vehicle with an 11.3-foot wheelbase would need to move at 40 mph.

Barton said, “We’re already getting requests to put them down permanently” and suggestions to expand them. University Drive, Texas Avenue and Wellborn Road have been mentioned as possible sites – roads around the central campus that have speed limits around 30 to 40 mph. But before anything like that went into effect, Barton said, they’d work with TxDOT and city officials; “We want to make sure we’re good community citizens,” he said.

Got a private driveway or road you want to make sing? Here are directions from the band association: "Put down a strip, then another at 2x, 3x and 3x where x is the wheelbase. To repeat, add another at 4x then again 2x, 3x, 3x. Anyone with a long driveway can do this."