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1775
Old 6 Road, PO Box 535, Brooklyn, IA 52211-0535 USA |
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Trenching/Subdrain/Stabilization |
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The summer season finally kicked into high gear! Just as I said earlier,
"we'd go from worrying about what we are going to do?, to
worrying how we will get it done!" I'm not complaining
because it’s a lot better worry, than nothing to do! Virg and
the sealcoat crew have been running full-bore keeping ahead of
completion dates. They had a good-sized project in Muscatine
County involving stabilization of one county park road and
several miles of sealcoating. The county engineer decided to add
several miles of stabilization work to this contract and quickly
added another 7 days to a full schedule. From there they
moved to Rathbun Lake and had that project doubled! The schedule
grew by 2 weeks and I didn't really have the room to push
it, but you can't really move away and come back. At the time of
this letter they are getting the second rain delay in Cerro
Gordo county. This is not a good thing when completion dates are
still counting down and you are not on that project. One of those
projects is for Jefferson county. It is a stabilization project
using calcium chloride and then applying a double sealcoat. As we are
getting behind, I went hunting for some good help and was able
to borrow Dick Prusha and a couple of hands from the milling
division. Thanks a ton to those guys and the milling department
for the assistance! We have a large
stabilization project in Jasper county yet to complete and I'm
sure they will be called upon again, if their schedule allows. At the present,
I see the sealcoat crew working up to the 2nd week in October.
That is a lot longer than I like to see them go because of
problems with cooler temperatures.
Ending with that statement, takes me into the stabilization work left to
do. Kurt has been
bouncing all around doing several jobs for L.L.Pelling on the
east side of the state. He just
finished incorporating Fly-ash into the sub-base at the Chariton
airport for the PCC division and then moved to Jefferson county
to scarify the existing road in preparation for the calcium
work. The major project still waiting is the Jasper county work.
The dirt contractor on the project is several weeks behind from
his original estimate of completion.
I'm sure this project will push the envelope on cold
weather on trying to complete as much as possible. If the entire
project was ready, it would take 14 days to complete. Last
estimate to have 3 to 4 miles ready, put it right at the end of
the month or first of October. I'm sure this project will have a
lot of carry over for next year. If the fall comes in early and
wet, I'm sure we will be getting some calls to incorporate
Fly-ash into sub-grades to keep projects out of the mud.
Subdrain work is starting to level out from the first overload of several
projects being completed at the same time. At the time of this
letter, Bob and the crew are down on Highway 92, between
Oskaloosa and Knoxville. This project involves the shoulder
widening of the existing roadway, subdrain, and then being
overlaid with asphalt. Cessford construction of LeGrand is the
prime contractor on this project. The interesting
part of this project is the removal of the 2' widening unit. It
is presently PCC concrete. Cessford is doing the removal of the
concrete, then the subdrain crew comes thru, followed by
Cessford backfilling the trench with asphalt and then opening
back up to traffic that evening. This project is about 13
miles long and gets subdrain continuous, both sides. Its a
good thing they have that many miles to work in, because when
you get all of the crew's equipment and trucks bringing material
in and out, it takes that much area to set up traffic control!
There is 140,000 feet to install so they will be there awhile.
Production was slow at first, but it is coming together and they
have been able to install 9000' per day if all of the situations
come together. At the present
time, contract work should keep this crew busy through October.
I have heard that this winter is going to be pretty much the same as last
year. If that's the case, it will snow early and stay on the
ground for a long time. I'm hoping it isn't too early so we can
still get a full season completed with the unusual late start
this spring. If there is any truth to the old wives tale of when
you hear the locusts start to sing, it will frost around the
last week of September from when I heard the first bug
tuning his song up. Hopefully, it will be well into October
for that! As the fall
push swings into action, we need to take time for safety. Taking
a shortcut of a second or two can cost hours, if not days, of
lost time.We've got a good season going and let's end it
accident free! Remember school
is in season! Watch out for the kids and school buses
stopping on the roads. Cooler weather is coming so make sure to
start checking anti-freeze levels. Also check tire
pressures regularly as ambient temperatures change,
so do tire pressures! STAY FOCUSED! WORK
SAFE! HAVE A LITTLE
FUN ALONG THE WAY! |
