Above--Kurt Kelley buried by Baxter on the Cat Stabilizer/Reclaimer while mixing fly ash. Above Left--_Emmet Frese in the Backhoe and John Cleppe in the Trencher, Tama Co. Left--Jeremy Rucker in the Trencher Bottom Left --Kevin Fowler on the Shoulder Machine and Brian Morrison installing outlets. Bottom--The Wirtgen Stabilizer/Reclaimer being pulled out near the Jordan Creek Mall

    Well another season is coming to a close. At the time of writing this article we need an additional 3 weeks to finish subdrain with 2 crews running. That finish date runs right up to Christmas if mother nature will hold off the rain and freezing temperatures. The season was pushed back with all the rainfall this year and several projects grew substantially with added work. The added work isn't a bad thing unless your schedule is all ready full. This is what happened and is now pushing us to the limit on construction. I realize this puts the crews in some nasty weather conditions at times, but hope we can finish before the real cold stuff comes in. Its a tough business when you have to deal with working outside. I hear it every year, early spring and late fall sucks due to the weather. Attitudes go south and tempers grow short. This is the time you need to step back, take a minute to think and then move on. Working this way distracts you from the task at hand. This is how safety incidents rise because of not being aware of your surroundings.

    The Sealcoat / Stabilization crew has had a full year and then some. Over all the total amount of sealcoating was down some, but we had several projects tied with stabilization that filled the voids. 22,000 tons of fly ash were mixed into various projects this season. A couple of the larger projects were completed in Tama County 12,215 ton and Jasper County using 6620 ton. This process is gaining very good results in sub-standard subbase materials and more engineers are looking to use fly ash for next year. This crew also has the equipment to inject asphalt emulsions as a stabilizing agent and the city of Jefferson contract was one such project that doubled in size after it was started. A total of 182, 000 gallon was mixed into the existing sealcoat streets.

    After they parked the sealcoat equipment around the first of October, they jumped on the second set of subdrain equipment to help Bob and his crew's schedule. They moved around Jasper, Lee, Davis and currently Benton County to install subdrain. If the weather holds and they can complete Benton County they will have helped place 152,500 feet of subdrain.

     Next year has a large grading and stabilization project in Jasper County on the books. It is in several of the small towns that the county is responsible for the road maintenance. It involves pulverization of the existing roadway and then stabilizing with fly ash. This will take around 8,000 ton if locations allow and cover a work period of at least 2 months. Another large project that will cover a month is down at Lake Thunderhead in Missouri. It is approximately 20 miles south of Centerville on highway 5. It involves 14 miles of lake roadway to add rock, some fly ash work and then double sealcoat.

    Bob and his crew have just steadily trenched all season with a few shoulder stone projects thrown in. As usual this means covering all corners of the state. They too have had some projects grow in size after the initial contract. It added an additional 120,000 feet to a full schedule. They kicked out April 12th and I hope they can be done by Christmas also. Looking back at production records, the month of August stands out as they placed 158,000 feet in one month! As of December 4th they have placed 864,158 feet. Combining what the sealcoat crew has placed and what both crews are to finish this month will make a total for the year at 1,078,081 feet! This kind of volume has not been seen in along time. Next years schedule already has a good start to it as we have an approximate 275,000 feet on the books.