Any curb and gutter / concrete guys here? I really need an opinon on something.

[Andy1845c]

Thanks for the replys.

I think part of the problem here is the county highway engineer does not seem to know what he is doing. In our first conversation I was told I could not do any work myself or select a contractor myself and that there work had to be done EXACTLY to their standards. Thats why I couldn't get a permit and hire it done myself, do some of it myself, ect. Believe me, I would have broke it up with a 10 pound hammer and a shovel myself before I paid all that money.

He told me one time I talked to him that he spent a whole day calling other citys and countys to see how they would handle this. That alone made me angry as it does not seem to be a complex task. He seems to want to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Its not really rocket science is it? Isn't it a routine thing in the contracting world?

[grandpa]

well lets put it this way..... if nobody removed curbs we could only put new driveways in when they rebuilt the roadway . Must be a young engineer and dont want to make a mistake. Id still talk to your commissioner, thats the way the world works...good luck.

[Kgmz]

Around here you have to have a special license and post a bond to do curb and gutter, and city sidewalk work. Besides having your normal contractors license.

And around here it is required to cut the pavement back from where you are replacing the curb. The reason for this is sometimes not always there is concrete that flows out from under the form boards, sometimes more than a few inches. You try and lift the curb out without cutting the pavement and it has this finger out under the pavement and you know what will happen.

I got this license back when I was building a lot of homes in the city limits. I didn't like the prices they were charging for it, and I had a very good concrete guy on the payroll that used to do this. So got the license and bond and did all our own stuff, and ended up doing a lot more for others.

But they allowed us to do our own patching of the pavement. They came and inspected it and we never had a problem.

[Andy1845c]

Hey guys. Thank you all for the help. I spoke to the contractor that did the work and he felt that there was no need to cut the asphalt and that the county workers had done a hap hazard job removing the curb.

I then spoke to the county public works director and was able to convince him to drop $500 from the bill.

So, not a great ending, but better then it could have been.

-Andy