Here it is state fair time again. Where did the summer go? Maybe it was because we never had any 95 to 100 degree temperatures for a couple of weeks to drag it out. The cool temps that we do have need to stay away for several more months, for the work load that we have to complete.

The sealcoat crew has been tied up on some large fly ash stabilization projects this summer. Tama county took 6 weeks to complete as it was done single lane width at a time. A total of 12,215 ton of fly ash was mixed in with the base material. From there they did a few sealcoat projects and then jumped back in the spreaders to do one of two Jasper County projects. They stabilized an existing gravel road east of Monroe using 5416 ton fly ash. Both projects where then overlaid with asphalt. This was just completed and now they are back on the sealcoat trail.   

Weather providing they have a couple of weeks worth of sealcoat close to home to complete. Once this is done, they will move up to the city of Jefferson to start a 3 week emulsion stabilization project. At the time of writing this article Virg, Jeremy and the crew have work to complete, scheduled into the first week of October. Some of this is stabilization and the rest is sealcoat. This has me worried about getting it completed in warm weather conditions. Like everyone else the 3 times a week rains have really pushed this crew back.

Bob and the subdrain crew have been steadily working down the schedule completing projects as they come available. As usual they are now all coming in together as the bigger paving projects pave out. We just picked up a couple of large subdrain projects in the August letting. One is in Black Hawk County (135,000 feet) and Cerro Gordo having 186,000 feet. The Gerro Gordo project will be done next year. With this last work coming in, we have 1,008,209 feet to complete for the 2004 season. To date they have placed 442,017 feet in the ground already. Once Virg has parked the sealcoat equipment, that crew will be running the second set of trenching equipment to help complete this work.

Its that time of year where people start to make stupid mistakes in our daily routines on the projects. There should not be any difference in your level of awareness from this time of year compared to the first of May. Our number of incidents are starting to crawl up on these crews and they are all avoidable! Once the cool air of fall comes in, it seems attitudes go looking for how soon lay off is coming. With that comes a lack of concern for safety. We all have a full plate of work to complete this season. Lay off will be late this season. Your safety and health comes first all year long! Keep this attitude at all times. We have a good year going, let's keep it that way with each others help.