have the skills to pave roads been lost?

[dave_the_nerd]

Shitty work is usually done in-house by the government. Contract work(what you describe) is generally pretty good. I'm guessing they aren't finished.

I have never had a good experience with a contractor.

 

[lxskllr]

I have never had a good experience with a contractor.

Maybe it's the scale of jobs. I do a lot of highway work, and when it's done, it's usually done right. If it isn't, it gets milled out, and done again. Commercial parking lots/road tie-ins are more iffy. They sometimes use less than professional pavers, and it doesn't get checked as close.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Interesting, my street was just repaved and parts of it suck.

Here they really chewed up the driveway curb cuts when they ground off the old pavement. No word if they're going to do anything about it. And the new pavement is nearly 2" higher now, so we get little lakes in front of our driveways now. Can't wait for winter to see how that plays out.

I've thought that when a town/City repaves the road in front of your house they should give an option to repave your driveway. I'm not talking for free I'm saying cost plus 30% or something similar. Just makes sense to have it all done at the same time and the town already has the material andequipment there to do it. Few extra dollars in the towns purse wouldn't hurt either.

 

[DesiPower]

I saw that once in my town, they redid an entire stretch of road, probably 5 to 7 miles and the potholes were in the middle of the road after every 1000 ft or whatever and they were protruding out a good 3 - 4 inches out of the road. As they were in the middle of a 2 lane (in each direction) road, there were no way to avoid them, if were going over 40 - 45 miles you can easily loose control, depending on the vehicle of course. I am not sure how the inspectors (if any) passed it. I was expecting it to get fixed but the builders were done, packed up their shit and left. Weeks later another effort began, not sure if it was the same builder, but they came and uncovered every pothole, chipped away or grinded the top to lower the level of the potholes to the road level and redid that part of the road. I could not believe it...

 

[Anubis]

I've thought that when a town/City repaves the road in front of your house they should give an option to repave your driveway. I'm not talking for free I'm saying cost plus 30% or something similar. Just makes sense to have it all done at the same time and the town already has the material andequipment there to do it. Few extra dollars in the towns purse wouldn't hurt either.

that's only true sometimes

when the town redid the street we live on the dug it down like 10 feet and rebuilt it, because of that they had to mess with the end of most driveways. ours got messed up to the sidewalk, they repoured the concrete sidewalk and repaved the driveway and re-graded it on the other side that went to the street, they did nothing to the rest of the driveway because it was fine

they actually closed the road in front of the house for like 3 months, we had to park a street over and walk

 

[Fanatical Meat]

that's only true sometimes

when the town redid the street we live on the dug it down like 10 feet and rebuilt it, because of that they had to mess with the end of most driveways. ours got messed up to the sidewalk, they repoured the concrete sidewalk and repaved the driveway and re-graded it on the other side that went to the street, they did nothing to the rest of the driveway because it was fine

I was talking about an entirely new driveway.

 

[SSSnail]

Unions, Bob, unions.

 

[feralkid]

grinded

 

[Nashemon]

Seems like it. I think they just use a different type or a poor mix of asphalt sometimes, though. Down south in NC, along I-40, they paved over the white concrete on once with black asphalt, and it was amazing. Still smooth and beautiful today, 15 years later.

The stretch of road between my house and both of my jobs (one in each direction) was torn up and repaved a couple years ago. I was so excited, cause the road was so bad. They redid the lights, too, and made red brick crosswalks. It was so nice. I thought I'll finally be able to have a pleasant drive to work. Not even a year later, the road started developing thousands of cracks, and they patched them, like you would a crack in the drywall, but with a different color and without smoothing it out. So now feels like your driving over rumble strips all the time.

Let's not even talk about the job the plows do on it every year. My local radio station started a promotion where you can have a pothole named after you.

Seen some 6 inches deep. They put a cone in it after a few dozen cars break their axel in it, which just sits there in it for a few months until it gets stolen. Then they'll do a drive by dry-patching which sinks into the ground and creates a dip big enough to give you whiplash.

 

[MrPickins]

I've thought that when a town/City repaves the road in front of your house they should give an option to repave your driveway. I'm not talking for free I'm saying cost plus 30% or something similar. Just makes sense to have it all done at the same time and the town already has the material andequipment there to do it. Few extra dollars in the towns purse wouldn't hurt either.

Around here, all the driveways are concrete. Are the majority asphalt in your area?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Around here, all the driveways are concrete. Are the majority asphalt in your area?

In the Northeast concrete is a bad idea for roads. Something to do with the snow and salt. I've never seen a local home with a concrete driveway other than something that's barely a driveway, like a 4 foot run from street to garage.

 

[Engineer]

Semi serious question. I noticed yesterday driving on a freshly repaved road it sucks, manhole covers far to recessed, two lane road with a bumpy seam in the middle. Then I noticed similar work in a different area that was repaved 2 years ago.
When I first started to drive a friend of mines road was repaved I remember it being very smooth to drive on. My city is working on a large stretch of road it better be smooth.

Skills? Don't know....enough money to do it right? Absolutely lost.

Transportation funds are dropping while repair needs are rising....through the roof.

Nobody wants to pay more to fix it.....so here we are.

Maybe we can import a few more bridges from China to free more money for paving....or even better, sale the roads to foreign countries so that they can take care of them (for a small toll).

 

[cronos]

Skills? Don't know....enough money to do it right? Absolutely lost.

Transportation funds are dropping while repair needs are rising....through the roof.

Nobody wants to pay more to fix it.....so here we are.

Yup. This. And it keeps getting worse.

 

[Imp]

In the Northeast concrete is a bad idea for roads. Something to do with the snow and salt. I've never seen a local home with a concrete driveway other than something that's barely a driveway, like a 4 foot run from street to garage.

Cost is probably a big issue. And finding someone to do it since one is more popular than the other.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Cost is probably a big issue. And finding someone to do it since one is more popular than the other.

In the whole state? Seriously I have never seen a concrete driveway in Massachusetts. I've seen brick but never a normal sized concrete driveway.
I do like the look of concrete highways in Florida.

Edit** I may have seen a few concrete driveways in some old homes in Newton & Brighton but I'm not sure. Again I remember them being pretty small. Regardless they're all asphalt here.

 

[darkswordsman17]

States have cut back big time on this and a lot of municipalities have let it go to shit by letting companies that do shitty work underbid everyone and then do shitty job of it. There's even instances of companies bidding and then contracting out the work to cheaper companies because they can't even actually do it for what they bid on it.

A lot of places aren't taking the time to strip off old bad asphalt and then put in proper foundation and then proper paving over it, they just strip off like the top layer, smooth out what's under it some, and then pave over it. Even when they do strip it down they often don't put in proper foundation or do a stopgap pave job because that's all they get contracted to do. The highway around here has been half-assed big time and already needs repaved.

Bridges are another area that they let go to shit. There was a website where you can check the status of bridges in your state but I can't remember what it was called. After that bridge collapse in Minneapolis a few years back they started to take it a bit more seriously but they still are half-assing it.

 

[Engineer]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-highway-trust-fund-20150520-story.html

Rust corrodes nuts under the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington on April 13. The bridge is one of 61,000 bridges across the country that the Department of Transportation says are structurally deficient and in need of repair. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

Like I said...we don't need to make them here. Make them in China to save money (jobs....we don't need no stinking jobs)....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html

 

[The Boston Dangler]

cost is always an issue, yet some of these roads seem to be perpetual projects. as soon as it's done (poorly) rip it up and do it again.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Mr Dangler have you ever seen a concrete driveway in Mass that's not tiny?

 

[OverVolt]

Its probably more expensive to continually maintain a piece of shit than it is to fix it properly. We've lost sight of stuff like that.

 

[Imp]

In the whole state? Seriously I have never seen a concrete driveway in Massachusetts. I've seen brick but never a normal sized concrete driveway.
I do like the look of concrete highways in Florida.

Edit** I may have seen a few concrete driveways in some old homes in Newton & Brighton but I'm not sure. Again I remember them being pretty small. Regardless they're all asphalt here.

First google hit:
http://www.greatdayimprovements.com/asphalt-vs-concrete-driveways.aspx

Concrete versus asphalt is more than 50% more, but life is double. Probably way more people around doing asphalt. And asphalt sets quicker than concrete unless you throw in a bunch of admixtures?

One of my neighbours used brick. His wheels made some nice pits after a year. The other neighbor used concrete and think they redid it once over more than a decade.

States have cut back big time on this and a lot of municipalities have let it go to shit by letting companies that do shitty work underbid everyone and then do shitty job of it. There's even instances of companies bidding and then contracting out the work to cheaper companies because they can't even actually do it for what they bid on it.

That's what Change Orders are for.

 

[lxskllr]

AFAIC, concrete makes a terrible road. It's noisy, and the sections heave over time making it bumpy as hell. Tha thunk, tha thunk, tha thunk... It also gets tire busting holes with sharp sides. Asphalt gets "smoother" holes.

 

[OverVolt]

AFAIC, concrete makes a terrible road. It's noisy, and the sections heave over time making it bumpy as hell. Tha thunk, tha thunk, tha thunk... It also gets tire busting holes with sharp sides. Asphalt gets "smoother" holes.

Yea but in parts with heavy braking asphalt gets bumpy right when you need the grip.

 

[Engineer]

Yea but in parts with heavy braking asphalt gets bumpy right when you need the grip.

That's why some of the roads here in Lexington are asphalt with concrete intersections (well, not just the intersection...several hundred feet on each side of the intersection).

 

[lxskllr]

Yea but in parts with heavy braking asphalt gets bumpy right when you need the grip.

Asphalt's cheaper, and quicker to put down; If someone does it... :^D

If you have a rural residence, millings make a nice cheap driveway surface. They pack down nice, and is easy to rework when it starts getting bad.