Miles of quieter concrete lanes now are opening in the Twin Cities,>including on new sections of Interstate 694 and Highway 100.>

"It's a different hum, much better," said Bernice Swanberg of Golden>Valley, who regularly drives the new stretch of Highway 100. She said>when she recently drove over the old-fashioned grooved concrete on>Interstate 35, "I thought 'What in the world was wrong with my car?'">

The right texture was found after three years of testing. One formula>offered good traction at first, but then wore down. On the next try,>researchers made the surface so rough that it could withstand years of>snow plowing, Rettner said.

"What we have out there now, if you were riding a bike and fell on it,>it would rip all the meat off your bones. It is very skid resistant"