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It is getting that time of year when the construction
season is upon us. It appears that the portable crew will be fairly
busy this season. The first job out of the gate this year will be
from just east of Kellogg to just east of Grinnell on I-80. This
job has 120,000 tons of hot mix on it. To make it a little
challenging, the State of Iowa has limited work from 12:01 A.M.
Monday to 6:00 A.M. Friday with no lane closures over the weekend.
They also added another little twist to the job by designing it with
100 million ESAL mix. This will be the first job in the State to
have 100 Million ESAL mix. There is one other little twist to the
job - there can be no lane closures from June 18th
through September 6th.
I, along with a lot of the crew, can remember back 20
years ago when we overlaid this same stretch of roadway. It just so
happened to be a first then as well. It required 97% density on the
interstate system. That requirement didn’t last very long before
they took it back to 96%. If they wouldn’t have switched it back,
we would not have been able to finish the job because we were in
penalty just about everyday. The State realized that 97% was not an
achievable number and switched back to 96%. During that first
period, our intention is to get half of the job completed and leave
the surface mix until after September 6th.
From the I-80 job, the crew will be off to Hamilton
and Hardin County working on HWY 175 from Ellsworth to Hubbard.
This is a cold-in-place recycle job with a hot mix overlay
consistency of 50,000 tons.
From there they are off to Calhoun County to do three
different County jobs that total 72,000 tons. This work is to be
done by September 6th
so we can be back in Jasper County to finish the surface on I-80.
Earlier, I made mention of some of the challenges put
before us on the I-80 project. I think our biggest challenge for
the project will be to get it done safely. There is a huge traffic
volume on this project, and they will be flying by at 55 MPH plus,
with our workers being out there right next to that traffic. The
trucks delivering the hot mix will have to get in and out of the
single lane of high-speed traffic. Everyone on the project is going
to have to be on his or her toes and alert to the traffic around
them at all times. This is important for all projects, but this one
will be that much more critical.
So please, everyone, work safe and have a great year.
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