Early Spring Road Maintenance

[colson04]

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

Ahem, *my dad*, ahem. He filled in a ditch and the ends of 2 different culverts between his 2 drives when he paved them, years ago. Now the road and ends of the drives flood with every rain. Being on a short, dead end street doesn't help because you never see the county down there unless they are plowing snow in the winter, or applying chip seal once every ten years. All of the ditches om the south side are due for maintenance and the shoulders have grown up higher than the road. It's gotten bad enough that the water doesn't want to go to the ditch anyways. We have a good county road crew, but there's just a lot of work for them to do on a limited budget so a lot of the lake drives get passed over.

 

[ovrszd]

I am often shocked at how little some people know about the effects of gravity. Gravity is why water doesn't run uphill. They just don't get it.....

I am very Blessed that almost everyone in my township that lives on my roads have a good understanding and a good working relationship with me. I gladly offer to improve their driveways, farm field entrances, drainage areas. But I always lecture them concerning what I'm about to do. Making sure they understand where this is going.

For example, they want to build a new drive that because of drainage requires a culvert. It's sometimes hard for them to understand that if we install a 15" culvert they are going to have at least a 24" deep drainage ditch off both ends of the culvert.

 

[ovrszd]

Ahem, *my dad*, ahem. He filled in a ditch and the ends of 2 different culverts between his 2 drives when he paved them, years ago. Now the road and ends of the drives flood with every rain. Being on a short, dead end street doesn't help because you never see the county down there unless they are plowing snow in the winter, or applying chip seal once every ten years. All of the ditches om the south side are due for maintenance and the shoulders have grown up higher than the road. It's gotten bad enough that the water doesn't want to go to the ditch anyways. We have a good county road crew, but there's just a lot of work for them to do on a limited budget so a lot of the lake drives get passed over.

I've heard stories from grader operators over the years about things like this. Most of those stories, here on HEF. I'm sympathetic with the operator who takes the stand of "he filled in the ditches, that's what he wants, that's what he gets".

Your Dad probably fits in the category I described above. If the county road crew came in with dump trucks and end loaders and cleaned out all the ditches he would probably be upset. So they'll leave it alone until someone complains.

Not picking on your Dad in any way. It's just a common problem.

 

[colson04]

I've heard stories from grader operators over the years about things like this. Most of those stories, here on HEF. I'm sympathetic with the operator who takes the stand of "he filled in the ditches, that's what he wants, that's what he gets".

Your Dad probably fits in the category I described above. If the county road crew came in with dump trucks and end loaders and cleaned out all the ditches he would probably be upset. So they'll leave it alone until someone complains.

Not picking on your Dad in any way. It's just a common problem.

Funny thing is, I dont think he would be mad today if they did that. 25-30 years ago, he might have been a royal ass about it though. Times change, and 25 years of your driveway partially flooding have a way of helping you see what you did wrong.

 

[20/80]

we had a guy bitch and phone the office all the time about the road in front of his property flooding, one of our road engineers finally went out to investigate and found he filled in the ditches and built a garage on our right away, the engineer said he would have to move his garage so we could ditch the road properly for it to drain right, haven't heard from him sense, just a friendly wave now when I grade the road in front of his property,

 

[ovrszd]

we had a guy bitch and phone the office all the time about the road in front of his property flooding, one of our road engineers finally went out to investigate and found he filled in the ditches and built a garage on our right away, the engineer said he would have to move his garage so we could ditch the road properly for it to drain right, haven't heard from him sense, just a friendly wave now when I grade the road in front of his property,

Awesome!!!!!

One time a land owner whom I get along with very well flagged me down as I graded past his property. He wanted to meet me down the road where there was a very steep hill. So I graded myself there and got out to visit with him. He owns on both sides. I barely have a ditch on either side and just rely on the crown to keep the runoff to the outer edges of the road. Fairly steep up banks on each side. Down at the bottom the road is elevated above the surrounding pastures. Heavy rains will wash some gravel to the bottom of the hill where I recover it and push it back up where it belongs.

He said why don't you cut the ditches out onto my property at the bottom so that gravel doesn't end up in the road at the bottom of the hill? I said are you going to put a gateway on each side where these ditches will dump onto your land? He said no. I said then how am I going to reclaim all that gravel out of your pasture? After a pause of staring at me he said I get it, you know better than I, I just thought if you wanted to ditch onto me you could. I told him how much I appreciated his support and suggestion but that we were probably better off to leave it alone. We visited for another 20 minutes or so and parted ways.

 

[20/80]

Sometimes you get somebody that just was wanting to make your life a bit easier when grading roads which is nice, but most times grader guy's takes lots of abuse from these so called arm chair foramens, for some reason think they are are grader experts and are signing your paycheck, but has never sat in the seat of a grader in their life, I don't usually stop anymore unless its a buddy of mine, they just ruin your day, working for the the DOT you can't lose it and explode on these guy's, the department frowns on that. lol

 

[ovrszd]

Many years ago I was grading and went by a farmstead where an elderly couple lived. When I turned around and came back by for the second pass Dean was standing in the middle of the road. I stopped and got out. He started telling me all the things I was doing wrong and how I should be doing it. Wasn't a yelling match, just stern lecture. I pointed at the grader and said "Dean why don't you get in there and finish this road, I'll sit here in your yard and wait for you. Then I'll know how it should be done". He puffed up and said "Richard I don't know how to run that thing!!!". I said "Well Dean why are you trying to tell me how?" He puffed up again and as he stomped away said over his shoulder "Do it however you want then".

 

[ovrszd]

My Rock Hauler called me this morning and said they would be finishing my CART rock today. Had about 100 Tons left to haul.

They started on the 18th of March. 3,100 tons total. What an ordeal it's been.

The local trucks are in a bidding war. Under cutting each other every year. My haul rate is $1 p/ton cheaper this year than last. Now with fuel prices up they are losing money daily. I fear we will lose a few independent owner/operators after this year. Keep it up and we won't have more than a couple trucks left in the County. Pretty sad. I saw this happen in the 80s too.

Can't remember if I mentioned this before. My haul rate is $2.43 p/Ton. A truck/pup combination hauling 27 tons is paid $65.61 p/load. It's 18 miles from the quarry to the center of my township. If they really hustle they can get one load per hour. Don't even need a calculator to know that won't work.

 

[20/80]

My Rock Hauler called me this morning and said they would be finishing my CART rock today. Had about 100 Tons left to haul.

They started on the 18th of March. 3,100 tons total. What an ordeal it's been.

The local trucks are in a bidding war. Under cutting each other every year. My haul rate is $1 p/ton cheaper this year than last. Now with fuel prices up they are losing money daily. I fear we will lose a few independent owner/operators after this year. Keep it up and we won't have more than a couple trucks left in the County. Pretty sad. I saw this happen in the 80s too.

Can't remember if I mentioned this before. My haul rate is $2.43 p/Ton. A truck/pup combination hauling 27 tons is paid $65.61 p/load. It's 18 miles from the quarry to the center of my township. If they really hustle they can get one load per hour. Don't even need a calculator to know that won't work.

Yes everything is going up except for the rate of pay on our paychecks in our department, Rates for private contractors doing work for us will increase for sure, the department will have to pay it or do it ourselves, we just don't have the gear we had years ago to do big jobs anymore, sold a lot of the gear off for big jobs due to cut backs, they are paying through the nose now, I always use my own truck to get to my grader in the mornings, not any more, it cost me $11.35 a imp gallon in Nova Scotia Canada for diesel in my truck, they have to run me to my grader every morning and pick me up in the evening now, you think your fuel prices at the pump are high, lol

 

[ovrszd]

The bid haul rate for my CART rock this year was $2.43 p/Ton. I talked to a local truck about hauling spot rock for me as the Spring progresses. He quoted a haul rate of $6.50 p/Ton.

 

[cuttin edge]

This is what they put on our graders. It's ok. I hade one on my old Champion, and it was dead on. Even had the surveyor check it. Same one on my Volvo works as a guide, but not near as close. The one on the Mauldin graders are tricky with only 4 wheels, as you only have to have one rear wheel on a hole, or on a high spot to throw it off. We are right back into prep season. I am off for first aid yesterday and today. Going to start grading the peat moss bogs Saturday. One location for the next 3 Saturdays. Dusty and hard packed. Checked out a job they are pricing for a road that hasn't been graded in years. Inside the city limits, but no one can agree who's responsibility it is. It fell under federal at one time, as it went to a light house. The light house is gone, and now it's cottages. I told one guy that came out as I was exploring with a pick to look at the material, just stop paying your property taxes. Whoever comes, is the owner of the road. If I can do it cheap enough, most of the home owners are going to chip in and pay. There are a few, that filled in their ditches, that refuse to pay. Why bother if everyone else is going to do it for you right? I figure I can shape it up in 2 or 3 hours if it doesn't get too dry. Roll the snot out of it, pull the foot high windrow of sod in, pick it up with the loader, load it on the truck. One guy wants the fill on site. Add a bit of material for the really bad areas where I won't be able to gather enough to fix it. I suggested some of our milled asphalt. I think 4 of 5 tandem loads will do it. Give it another quick rub, and a roll and boom. No way of crowning it, but like most older roads, one shoulder is higher than the other, so there's that.

 

[20/80]

This is what they put on our graders. It's ok. I hade one on my old Champion, and it was dead on. Even had the surveyor check it. Same one on my Volvo works as a guide, but not near as close. The one on the Mauldin graders are tricky with only 4 wheels, as you only have to have one rear wheel on a hole, or on a high spot to throw it off. We are right back into prep season. I am off for first aid yesterday and today. Going to start grading the peat moss bogs Saturday. One location for the next 3 Saturdays. Dusty and hard packed. Checked out a job they are pricing for a road that hasn't been graded in years. Inside the city limits, but no one can agree who's responsibility it is. It fell under federal at one time, as it went to a light house. The light house is gone, and now it's cottages. I told one guy that came out as I was exploring with a pick to look at the material, just stop paying your property taxes. Whoever comes, is the owner of the road. If I can do it cheap enough, most of the home owners are going to chip in and pay. There are a few, that filled in their ditches, that refuse to pay. Why bother if everyone else is going to do it for you right? I figure I can shape it up in 2 or 3 hours if it doesn't get too dry. Roll the snot out of it, pull the foot high windrow of sod in, pick it up with the loader, load it on the truck. One guy wants the fill on site. Add a bit of material for the really bad areas where I won't be able to gather enough to fix it. I suggested some of our milled asphalt. I think 4 of 5 tandem loads will do it. Give it another quick rub, and a roll and boom. No way of crowning it, but like most older roads, one shoulder is higher than the other, so there's that.

We had those meters on a few of our Champions, not a big fan of the milled asphalt, we call it Rac, I find depending on the mix it will go wash boardie on you, also it wants to go back to the pave state and hardens up into big chunks of pavement again, real pain if you ever have to grade the road again, we use to use alot of Rac on roads, the department thought it was the greatest stuff only because they thought they were saving money, can't count how many roads had to be tore up and the big chunks of asphalt that hardened up hauled away, they now mix 50/50 with gravel to use it up.

 

[cuttin edge]

We had those meters on a few of our Champions, not a big fan of the milled asphalt, we call it Rac, I find depending on the mix it will go wash boardie on you, also it wants to go back to the pave state and hardens up into big chunks of pavement again, real pain if you ever have to grade the road again, we use to use alot of Rac on roads, the department thought it was the greatest stuff only because they thought they were saving money, can't count how many roads had to be tore up and the big chunks of asphalt that hardened up hauled away, they now mix 50/50 with gravel to use it up.

The bad stuff is when they only take a few inches off the top. Depending on the mix. Full depth mill has a lot of material mixed in. The stuff we have has been in the yard for years, and works well for this kind of thing. It packs, but is easily graded. No one wants to pay 30 bucks a tonne for it, so it's great for jobs like this. The road has holes in the center in a few spots that would eat up a full load no problem.

 

[cuttin edge]

Was off for First aid Thursday and Friday. Had asked if they could put the grader on the float at the end of the day Friday, or at the very least have a truck hooked up to a float. Got to the shop yesterday morning at 5:30, and all the trucks hooked to their dump trailers, and the truck I mostly take for weekend work was hooked up to the crusher. Spring weight restrictions lift tonight so I guess they want to start moving the heavier stuff to the Quarry Monday morning. So I got on the road a bit late. Started grading. The material is a hard packed sand stone, and is dusty as all get out. The kind of material that rounds your cutting edge up a good inch after 12 hours of grading. Been really hot out the last 5 days. About an hour into grading, I hit the AC.... nothing. After another hour, I had to open the doors..... By the time I loaded up, and chained up, I was a dirty gritty mess. Glad I picked the dirty truck. Got back to the shop, split the float. I was dirty and tired, and something I never do when I uncouple the float, is lay the air and power cord on the deck. I always put them down in the hole in the deck. My phone rang, and I dropped them. Unhooked, walked back to the grader on my phone, climbed in the grader, and backed over the lines. Crushed the male end of the power cord, and broke the red glad hand. Lucky for me, there was a spare glad hand in the truck so I could move the float from the middle of the yard. I parked in the lineup, put the truck back on the trailer I had found it on, and by the time I got back home, it was 9:45. I have a spare power plug in my father's old tool box. I'll run up this morning and replace the one I broke in case they want the float early. One Saturday down, and one peat moss site graded. Lets hope next Saturday goes better.

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

Here our a few pictures of me pulling shoulders on a mile working up nicely now

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

 

[DMiller]

I take it have Pressure DOWN on rubber roller frame. Readable?? Or by 'Feel'?

 

[Cat 140M AWD]

I take it have Pressure DOWN on rubber roller frame. Readable?? Or by 'Feel'?

I am able to have down pressure on the packer and it’s all by feel it’s pretty easy to tell when you take to much weight off your drives love having packer really speeds up the process

 

[cuttin edge]

Here our a few pictures of me pulling shoulders on a mile working up nicely now View attachment 259359View attachment 259360View attachment 259361View attachment 259362

Will that stuff hold up in the rain? Almost looks like topsoil. Probably dusty and harder than the hubs of hell when dry though. That stuff I beat over yesterday is that tight packed sandstone. The cuttin edge hisses while you go, and all you get are rocks and powder. I work all day to do what I consider a shitty job, but they think it's great. Every now and then you meet one of these babies taking the whole road