Early Spring Road Maintenance

[ovrszd]

We got 1.75" over the past 24hrs. That'll stop my rock haulers until mid week. It's forecasted to rain again Wednesday so next week may be a wash.....

 

[cuttin edge]

You will drive yourself crazy trying to follow and enforce every little detail that they want you to do on a job site, every jobsite is different and everybody involved doing the work are not robots they are human and we make mistakes and **** happens, nobody can for see a incident that turns into something bad happening, you just can do what's called "reasonable within the circumstances", just make sure your paperwork is filled out to the letter, in the end that is all they are concerned about, it seems they couldn't care less what happens on a jobsite just as long as the paperwork is filled out right and the work gets done, this keeps the upper management from getting fined, so they think, you look after number 1.

20/80 I see your fellow Nova Scotian is cleaning up on Jeopardy. I never watch it, but the radio station and news talks about her a lot.

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

We ended up getting an 1.80 and I pulled shoulders on 2 miles that didn’t turn out the best starting to dry now hopefully get out and rework it and get it packed in before the next rain here is picture of road after rain just took blade out windrowed slop off so it was passable.

 

[ovrszd]

I've done similar a few times. The only time the weatherman predicts less than what you get is when you do this.

My rock haulers are getting closer. Gonna get rained out tonight. Should finish late next week.

Our weather is going to turn from cool Spring to hot Summer. Today it's 57F. Sunday will be 78F. Tuesday will be 88F. 80Fs all next week with no rain. The farmers will be in a hurry by Monday.

 

[20/80]

20/80 I see your fellow Nova Scotian is cleaning up on Jeopardy. I never watch it, but the radio station and news talks about her a lot.

Yes, she's doing all right, over half a million now she has made, 22 rounds and counting, she will get knocked off soon I.m afraid though.

 

[20/80]

We ended up getting an 1.80 and I pulled shoulders on 2 miles that didn’t turn out the best starting to dry now hopefully get out and rework it and get it packed in before the next rain here is picture of road after rain just took blade out windrowed slop off so it was passable.View attachment 258703

Lol, that happens, you will be surprised how quick that will dry up though, won't take much to fix that up, thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[20/80]

Was on one of my roads today that's 15 miles long into the wilderness, it is a wide road 20 meter that was built for log trucks in the 60's, a few settlements in the back end of the road, very remote, we put new gravel on half the road last fall before winter works, this was my first time grading it, recovered the gravel build up on the shoulder from the plow wings, graded it up and put around a 5% crown in the road, was a very nice day, here's some pics.

 

[cuttin edge]

Very nice. That's a funky looking slope meter. Looks like degrees on top and % on bottom. I think it works out to because 9% crossfall is 5 degrees. So according to your meter, that's an 8.5% crown. No water on that puppy

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

Got my road that I pulled the shoulders in on got it to turn out really good hard as asphalt now

 

[20/80]

Very nice. That's a funky looking slope meter. Looks like degrees on top and % on bottom. I think it works out to because 9% crossfall is 5 degrees. So according to your meter, that's an 8.5% crown. No water on that puppy

Lol, for the life of me I never thought of that, not use to the gauge never had on my H series, I like checking my crown now to see where i'm at for a %, a narrower road would not be at 8.5%, alot of our new graders have these gauges, lol, thanks

 

[20/80]

View attachment 258796 View attachment 258797 View attachment 258798 View attachment 258799 Got my road that I pulled the shoulders in on got it to turn out really good hard as asphalt now

That turned out really nice, great job

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

This is the slope meter I have in my machines I run 4 to 5% crown on my roads had great success with that I figure a half inch of crown for every foot of road you have

 

[20/80]

This is the slope meter I have in my machines I run 4 to 5% crown on my roads had great success with that I figure a half inch of crown for every foot of road you have View attachment 258805

I have been putting in a crown now by eye without a gauge for so long that this gauge is showing me where I have been at all these years, I can't watch the gauge all the time when i'm spreading and put a crown in that way, everything is still by eye and checked afterwards now with the gauge, just old school I guess.

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

I have been putting in a crown now by eye without a gauge for so long that this gauge is showing me where I have been at all these years, I can't watch the gauge all the time when i'm spreading and put a crown in that way, everything is still by eye and checked afterwards now with the gauge, just old school I guess.

I do the same as you also I put my crown in all by feel and the eye I just have the slope meter for a reference point and it’s nice when doing finish work.

 

[guest]

Good looking job. Same here used feel and eye asked for slope meter but foreman said not necessary. I was doing finish work before seal coat I would use magnet torpedo level on window frame to give me ideal how close I was (poor man has poor ways). One grader driver would make 3 passes one from each side to middle then last pass blade straight down middle he called it "flat blading" his roads worst in county full or pot holes water wouldn't run off road. Always hated when others would blade my assigned roads and cut my crown out. I miss running grader but not the drivers that would not listen or want to do better job. Our engineer told me to stay at it like an ant I told him I live like a grasshopper.

 

[ovrszd]

Great pics and dialogue gentlemen. I love it.

I've never used a slope meter, just seat of the pants. My terrain varies so much that I can't slope all of my roads the same. Sometimes I'm the dog, sometimes I'm the fire hydrant in my guessing.

I've never had an opportunity to maintain roads with as much material as 20/80s pics. I'd have a large smile on my face the whole time.

Cat 140s road turned out awesome. I'm more familiar with that combination of dirt/gravel.

On 50% of my roads I need more maintenance right of way. By law I only have 40ft. You can't build much of a road with the drainage ditch, road bank and road bed all within 40ft.....

Where land owners give me the space I am using more like 60ft. But then you have land owners that will stand in the middle of the road and measure out 20ft and build a fence.....

 

[ovrszd]

Good looking job. Same here used feel and eye asked for slope meter but foreman said not necessary. I was doing finish work before seal coat I would use magnet torpedo level on window frame to give me ideal how close I was (poor man has poor ways). One grader driver would make 3 passes one from each side to middle then last pass blade straight down middle he called it "flat blading" his roads worst in county full or pot holes water wouldn't run off road. Always hated when others would blade my assigned roads and cut my crown out. I miss running grader but not the drivers that would not listen or want to do better job. Our engineer told me to stay at it like an ant I told him I live like a grasshopper.

I grade using the 3 pass method. But I leave loose material under my blade on the last pass, which leaves a crown. And leaves my gravel in the center. Most of my roads have one set of tracks right down the middle.

I am an "ant". Repetition rather than plowing a road a couple times a year. My roads get bladed an average of 10 times a year.

Here's an example of a narrow one.

 

[20/80]

I grade using the 3 pass method. But I leave loose material under my blade on the last pass, which leaves a crown. And leaves my gravel in the center. Most of my roads have one set of tracks right down the middle.

I am an "ant". Repetition rather than plowing a road a couple times a year. My roads get bladed an average of 10 times a year.

Here's an example of a narrow one.

View attachment 258861

I have lots of roads like that in your picture, we own 33ft from center on each side for our right of way, some roads are more, the gravel in the pics was 20 years of waiting and grading without, I wish all my roads were graveled like this, the gravel you see in the pic is some of the best I worked with, But the next road may be done with gravel that's 1 point off being rejected which would be just garbage, different contractor wins the bid we get gravel from another pit in most cases are trash, here's a pic of a little rock that was in the middle of the one of my roads sticking up from the frost pushing on it, was about 6" high out of the road that I pulled out, I have lots of rocks like this to deal with.

 

[ovrszd]

So you generally have a 66ft right of way. That would be a great improvement for me.

Us Grader guys always want more!!!!

 

[20/80]

So you generally have a 66ft right of way. That would be a great improvement for me.

Us Grader guys always want more!!!!

Yes that's correct, some roads have more of a right a way, I get alot of property owners that extend their lawns right to the edge of the road, some fill in the ditches for their lawns, then they like to phone and bitch when the road in front of their house is flooded with water and mud, they really don't like what I do to fix that, lol, that's why we have a right away in place.