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Curious Why They Mill Miles of Rural Highway Before Overlay

Birken Vogt

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Nov 30, 2003
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Grass Valley, Ca
I have seen this done a number of times now and it's making me wonder. Why are these rural highways out in the middle of farm fields getting milled 6 inches or more before they place an overlay? They are milling down to the top of some previous year's overlay. There is nothing wrong with the base, just that the top was getting a little worn out. I always thought that in that condition just place another layer and shoulder up the edges. Just curious.
 

lantraxco

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Jan 1, 2009
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Elsewhen
They're recycling the grindings, heat it up, add a little fresh rock and new oil, butter it back down. Also keeps the roads from looking like flood dikes after a few decades, LOL
 

Scrub Puller

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Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . . Do rural roads in parts of the US actually get proper asphalt layed with a machine?

Around here even main highway construction is spray emulsion, tailgate on some 3/8" chip, and roll . . . and the Northbound lane has potholes before they get the topping on the Southbound.

Cheers.
 

lantraxco

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LOL! We used to call that "Chip seal", the auto glass companies loved it when they were laying that down.... I've also seen grader mix, just need rock, grader, asphalt truck and a roller. Lots of counties I think still just windrow asphalt, grade it more or less into shape and run a roller over it. Anybody seen a "Wobble wheel roller" around lately? Used to hate driving on roads laid down with a wobble wheel, make you seasick.... whoa, flashbacks.....
 

CM1995

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Yair . . . Do rural roads in parts of the US actually get proper asphalt layed with a machine?

All of the roads in my county do. Now go over one county to the southwest and whoa! I don't even think they use a grader to put their asphalt down with.:eek:
 

d9gdon

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Feb 12, 2010
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central texas
Yair . . . Do rural roads in parts of the US actually get proper asphalt layed with a machine?

Around here even main highway construction is spray emulsion, tailgate on some 3/8" chip, and roll . . . and the Northbound lane has potholes before they get the topping on the Southbound.

Cheers.

The Farm to Market and Ranch to Market roads are rural roads in our state that have asphalt laid with machine. They are State maintained roads. They usually don't have shoulders on them and the bridges are rated at 58,420 lbs, although I see fully loaded semi trucks on them.

The county maintained roads here are usually just native material, sometimes with chip seal on top.
 

Scrub Puller

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Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . . Thanks fellers. that's interesting.

I suppose a country with twenty three million people and nearly the same land area as your lower 48 has to cut corners . . . you would think it would be worthwhile though to do a "proper job" on Highway One though.

Cheers.
 

crazy-mp

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Oct 3, 2012
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SW MO
one other reason they don't keep doing asphalt overlays is because of guard rail heights, there is a law that says how high the top of the guard rail can be from the driving surface. In some parts of the country the guard rail might be 1-2 miles long if the overlay is 30 miles and there are 6 miles of guard rail, that all adds up as well.
 

Birken Vogt

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Grass Valley, Ca
one other reason they don't keep doing asphalt overlays is because of guard rail heights, there is a law that says how high the top of the guard rail can be from the driving surface. In some parts of the country the guard rail might be 1-2 miles long if the overlay is 30 miles and there are 6 miles of guard rail, that all adds up as well.

Well, this section has very little guard rail (open farm fields mostly) but our state in all its wisdom has been replacing much of its existing guard rail anyway, on accounts of newer crash standards I think. The new stuff is not much different than the old in position and construction but it has some slight new features, however, if I was dictator I would have left the existing alone and replaced with newer standards by attrition such as when it needs to be moved or the wood posts start to rot out or something.
 

crazy-mp

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SW MO
if I was dictator I would have left the existing alone and replaced with newer standards by attrition such as when it needs to be moved or the wood posts start to rot out or something.

There's your first mistake anyone with real power would first order a study of the old guard rail system, then they would put out a bid to repair the old guard rail, while the new guard rail company would be following them around tearing out the old and putting the new one in.

Just like the military will put a brand new motor in a tank drive it out to a range then have a A10 fly over and make swiss cheese out of it.
 

Steve Frazier

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LaGrangeville, N.Y.
Our local town roads were dirt when I was a kid, and starting in the early 70s they started doing what we referred to as "Penetration". A 6" layer of 1 1/2" crushed stone would be laid with a drag box and rolled, then sprayed with a heavy coat of latex oil. The oil would seep down through the 1 1/2 and glue it together. This was followed by a coating of 3/8" stone, sprayed again and another coat of 3/8" stone. Periodically they'd do additional coats of oil and 3/8 as the surface wore. These roads were very durable as they remained somewhat flexible. The EPA got involved and made them change the formulation of the oil to the point where it wouldn't hold up so now all roads are machine laid asphalt, cost many times more and don't hold up as well.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Asphalt millings are valuable. It used to be you could get millings for free or pay the trucking, if you had a place to put it. Works pretty good if you put it down while the weather is hot, water it in and roll it. There is a thread here somewhere on the process and I have put a little of it down.

In my area, State and Local road authorities require the millings be weighed and a credit given back on road projects that are milled. I don't know what the $$ per ton credit is but I know we can't hardly get millings anymore.

Steve I grew up on dirt road as well - made learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels a very fast/painful experience.:rolleyes:

In order to get our road paved, my parents and neighbors had to pay a portion of the cost along with the County providing the rest of the funds. It was a "tar and gravel" road which consisted of a 1' or so compacted base of chert with a layer of #57 stone (3/4 minus), tar and blast furnace slag applied on top. All the layers were rolled in. It is a very durable surface with the chert base, 30 years later the original tar and gravel road is still there with some asphalt and tar/gravel patches.:cool2 Although this is a country residential road with little heavy truck traffic except for local delivery.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 8, 2013
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just over there
From 1987 to about the mid 90s millings were known as hazardous waste. The mill was a good job sometimes if you didn't mind waiting on trucks. Iv noticed that mill and pave operations vary in the USA and usually it revolves around tax base. But I have in areas that obviously had NO money while getting paid close to $50 while the locals were so poor they could barely afford to eat. The government knows how to spend it....
 

drummer

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Oct 3, 2013
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Florence, SC
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Site Contractor
Millings are valuable now because the AC content (Asphalt Cement), petroleum base of course, makes the recycling into DOT jobs a requirement. The makeup in the plant hot mix asphalt of RAP (recycled asphalt product) can be very high, > 25%.
 

BPMfore

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Sep 3, 2011
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Location
Upstate NY
On some jobs where the company has the millings and the asphalt plant the jobs get a credit by the ton for the millings brought back to the plant.
 
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