 |
| Milling Machine |
On Monday July 27, a large machine to mill the asphalt arrived and within about 45 minutes the street was mainly comprised of asphalt grindings. It is a massive machine that is a wonder of mechanical design. Both front and rear wheels turn, and it was sufficiently nimble that it could make it around the cul-de-sac bulb with but one little back up to reposition. The price for such a machine is above $300,000. I guess it beats the old way of a front end loader breaking up the asphalt and loading it in a truck. That same day, they did some grading and compacting to allow the grindings to be more easily driven on. If they had not compacted the grindings I could see a little Toyota easily getting stuck. A little boy from the street nearby came to watch the operation I think he was quite fascinated by the equipment. We were fascinated by watching him on his little chair watch the heavy equipment. The following day they came to grade out some of the millings which took pretty much the whole day. They would grade the millings to the center and a front end loader would load them to a dump truck for for transport and likely to once again be used in asphalt. Asphalt is comprised of aggregate and a petroleum product. Given the work Tuesday, I think many residents were hoping for a repaved street by the weekend.
 |
| A Man and his "Crayon" Marking Undercut Area |
In the best of worlds, that would may have happened. On Thursday about 12:45 pm, they started what is called proof rolling, taking a large dump truck filled with dirt and driving along the roadway. Experts, so to speak, watch the rear wheels for deflection in the street to determine soft spots for undercutting. A very scientific method, isn't it? Almost the full length of the odd numbered side of the street at a width of about 6 to 8 feet had to be undercut, as well as much of the cul-de-sac bulb. There were probably about two areas of 50 feet in length along the even side. I suspect the amount of undercut for this small street was probably a surprise. They spent Thursday afternoon and and all of Friday doing and refilling the undercut areas. They first dropped in breaker run, large hunks of stone about 6" or so with the fines. On top of that normal gravel was leveled off, to a few inches below the top of gutter.
 |
| Under cut Excavation |
A thirty year old street poses a few issues. The first thing, after having worked in local government is the quality of the inspection of the street improvements. Inspectors are necessary to avoid mistakes, and short cuts. I recall a subdivision in Fitchburg, about 20 years ago, where a contractor poured a half mile of sidewalk. When they inspected the sidewalk they found it was only 4" thick and not the required 5". The city would not accept the sidewalk, and the full half mile was ripped out and re-poured to the specifications. The Public Works Director at the time thought it was purposeful, and noted the amount of material and money saved in a 4" 5' wide verse 5" 5' wide sidewalk over a half mile. However, many issues are never caught, like a poorly installed water curb stop, which happened to me and cost me a few grand to get repaired a number of years ago. Or, the depth of gravel, the proper setting of water and sewer lines, and the proper back fill. Then there is the street grading and placement of the sub-base gravel.
Looking at the road undercut the contractors did on Friday, two things struck me: first, the blue-grey clay that was down to a depth of 2 to 2.5' below the gravel, second was the lack of proper gravel base in some areas for the road way. As the backhoe operator said to me, "you could line a swimming pool with that stuff." When I asked one of the workers if the increased rainfall added to the need for additional undercutting due to wet soils, he said he did not know about that, but that there was a lack of gravel sub-base in many areas. Another contractor indicated to a neighbor that one of the issues is the size and weight of garbage trucks. They no longer use the type where a person rides on the back and lifts and dumps a garbage can into the back. No they have massive trucks with lifts operated by the driver. No manual labor, but still a dirty job. I can see the weight of vehicles making a difference, but I think, since most was on one side of the street, it also comes down to improper clay removal and lack of good sub-base of gravel. If it was the weight of the garbage trucks did most of the even side of the street not require undercutting?
 |
| Blue-Gray Clay being cut out |
The lack of good construction and inspection at initial offset of the project can lead to public costs later on. The village is finding that out on this street. Thank goodness they did the proof roll, or the new pavement would be alligatoring, in a few years time.
 |
| Filling and leveling Under Cut Areas |
The little boy, perhaps 4 years of age, would bring a chair down to watch some of the construction, and on Wednesday when nothing was going on he said to his mom: "I guess you were right mom, they are probably somewhere else today." Although, I am not sure who was more impressed with the heavy equipment, the little boy or my wife. My wife commented commented on the heavy equipment, perhaps on Tuesday and later when they parked it for the weekend in front of a fire hydrant. She also noted, when they were with the spray cans marking the curb and areas of the street for undercutting, that it was boys and their crayons. This may get to the issue of the only difference between men and boys is the size and price of their toys. Think Fire Departments. Anyway, on Friday they worked from 6:30 am to about 5:00 pm, with no breaks, eating lunch and getting water was had during those negligible times when there was a short wait for a dump truck load of gravel to arrive, and no other task required their attention.
 |
| Curb Marked for replacement |
Last year the village marked a great deal of curb and gutter, which I thought was accomplished to prepare plans for possible replacement. They did not mark curb this year, and so no curb replacement was anticipated. However, when doing the proof rolling they marked sections of curb that will likely be replaced. I noted to the contractor, as he awaited the rest of the persons for the proof roll the one section of curb along my property that was in bad shape. It was in bad shape because the home builder decided to save 8" of cost on the driveway approach and leave the drive cut 8" short of the original gutter/curb joint. This allowed water to get in, freeze and break the gutter. A few other places along the road have a similar situation. Road builders are not the only ones that may do a short cut. Today, this would not occur, as most curb heads are removed by a large horizontal saw, and not removed and replaced, as thirty years ago, with a driveway approach.
 |
| Proof Rolling, the Cone is to mark a Manhole |
Villages and cities are often under attack and receive criticism from developers about costs of inspection, which in most cases the developer pays for. I heard that often, and with increasing frequency in my last years of work. The public works director, at the time, received little backing from Administration. Yet, this one street is evidence of the costs the village, meaning taxpayers, will need to bear with poor construction and inspection. Road construction ahead, can also mean more expenditures than anticipated lie ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment