They've been busy working on my road

[boomerang]

We got back from spending the winter in Florida on the 30th of April. On our return our road was littered with orange and white traffic pylons for several miles. Some pothole patching had been done and in one area about the length of a typical car they had removed about four inches of asphalt and made a ramp at each end. The ramps were about 10 inches long and if you didn’t slow down, you were going to have your head bounced off the ceiling. I feel sorry for people coming through in the dark that were not aware that it was there.

A few days after we returned, they came by and picked up the pylons. A week or so after that they returned the pylons and a few days after that, you guessed it, they removed the pylons. No work was done during this period.

Then, they returned the pylons. They also filled in the area with the ramps. They then removed the pylons.

When the pylons were in place there typically was no work performed. They showed up, sat there and then they were removed.

Shortly afterwards they came out and restriped the road. The yellow line in the center and the two fog lines on either side. They did a real nice job.

The pylons returned for a few days and then they were picked up again.

Soon after, they returned and some sections were repaved which obliterated the nice new fresh paint lines. The pylons went away.

Then, they sent a crew out to tar over all the cracks in the road. These guys were busy and they were on scene for about a week. When they were done, the road was rougher than a cob. At fifty five, the car was impossible to keep headed in any direction because the tar strips going all helter-skelter over the cracks steered the car to and fro.

Today, they are repaving the road. The entire road.

Soon, I’m guessing they will restripe the road.

I'm kind of missing the orange pylons but am figuring they will return.

My tax dollars at work.

 

[Linflas]

Shovel ready jobs.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Road construction is the most frustrating thing to watch, it's like if they get together and try to figure out the most inefficient way of getting the job done, then they do the job like 5 times over the course of several years.

My street badly needs to be redone, every year they mark everything, so I figure they'll finally do it, but they never do. At random, they decided to build a sidewalk, there never was one before and it's a school area so there should have been, well 40 something years later they decided to put one in. When they do finally decide to redo the road I'm guessing they'll tear out the brand new sidewalk too.

It's not the fault of the workers, but the fault of the ones making ridiculous inefficient decisions.

 

[mpo]

We got back from spending the winter in Florida on the 30th of April. On our return our road was littered with orange and white traffic pylons for several miles. Some pothole patching had been done and in one area about the length of a typical car they had removed about four inches of asphalt and made a ramp at each end. The ramps were about 10 inches long and if you didn’t slow down, you were going to have your head bounced off the ceiling. I feel sorry for people coming through in the dark that were not aware that it was there.

Curious, which road was this?

 

[NoCreativity]

LOL. They did the same thing at the main road by my sub last year. Came in and painted some nice fresh lines. The following week they came in and replaced the top layer of asphalt.

 

[boomerang]

Hey, I was wrong. They're not paving it, they are graveling it. I just walked out to the road and its gravel. They are laying gravel on top of the asphalt road surface. It appears that some type of binder has been applied prior to application of the gravel. You can see it because the gravel has not provided 100% coverage.

I just called the road commission and they have no clue what is going on. Only the foreman for the area knows and they said they will inform him that I have a question. I guess I'm wondering if I've gone from living on a paved road to a gravel road.

 

[zinfamous]

Hey, I was wrong. They're not paving it, they are graveling it. I just walked out to the road and its gravel. They are laying gravel on top of the asphalt road surface. It appears that some type of binder has been applied prior to application of the gravel. You can see it because the gravel has not provided 100% coverage.

I just called the road commission and they have no clue what is going on. Only the foreman for the area knows and they said they will inform him that I have a question. I guess I'm wondering if I've gone from living on a paved road to a gravel road.

well, there goes your home value.

 

[kranky]

Any chance they did what's called a tar and chip surface?

 

[lxskllr]

Any chance they did what's called a tar and chip surface?

That's what it sounds like to me. Stone doesn't get placed over asphalt unless they run the most fucked up organization in the world :^D

 

[boomerang]

Any chance they did what's called a tar and chip surface?

I don't know. I watched them put it down on my side of the road right in front of the house and there was no tar smell and no swirling vapor cloud. They used equipment I have never seen before. Not that it was weird or unusual, just that it was not the typical paving equipment I'm used to seeing.

The machine that applied the material was linked to a dump truck of sorts. They moved in tandem. At one point the rig was backed up and either more was applied or the rig was moved over to get coverage in an area that it was not wide enough to cover on the initial pass. I am not sure which.

I have never heard of a tar and chip surface. To my knowledge I have never driven on one. I have never seen a surface like this and I have never seen equipment like this before. If this is the finished surface I'm wondering how it's expected to hold up to snow plows. But hey, maybe they're not done and they'll be back tomorrow?

I could probably take a picture but I'd better do it before "rush hour" starts. It's semi-rural out here but we do get an increase of traffic at certain times of the day.

What do you think? A closeup?

 

[clamum]

Sounds about like the typical road construction job I see too (Michigan here as well). Horribly fuckin slow.

 

[Red Squirrel]

well, there goes your home value.

And taxes are still going to go up!

 

[mpo]

I don't know. I watched them put it down on my side of the road right in front of the house and there was no tar smell and no swirling vapor cloud. They used equipment I have never seen before. Not that it was weird or unusual, just that it was not the typical paving equipment I'm used to seeing.

The machine that applied the material was linked to a dump truck of sorts. They moved in tandem. At one point the rig was backed up and either more was applied or the rig was moved over to get coverage in an area that it was not wide enough to cover on the initial pass. I am not sure which.

I have never heard of a tar and chip surface. To my knowledge I have never driven on one. I have never seen a surface like this and I have never seen equipment like this before. If this is the finished surface I'm wondering how it's expected to hold up to snow plows. But hey, maybe they're not done and they'll be back tomorrow?

I could probably take a picture but I'd better do it before "rush hour" starts. It's semi-rural out here but we do get an increase of traffic at certain times of the day.

What do you think? A closeup?

That surface treatment is typically called a chip seal. The contractor will lay down the bituminous emulsion at a relatively low temperature. They will then spread the rock chips down over the material. Depending on the spec, they may put another layer of emulsion then a second layer of rock.

They will then set the stone with a rubber-wheeled roller. After that, they'll sweep up any excess stone.

No, you don't live on a gravel road now. It is still a paved road. The binder material will help keep water out of the base of the road. The stone chips will help keep up the friction of the road surface.

Chip seals should last 2 or 3 winters before you see some significant wear. The plows will pull away the chips in the middle of the lane. You typically don't drive in that portion of the road, unless you are on a motorcycle.

Some rural areas will do a similar chip seal treatment on gravel roads. It is poor-man's asphalt. Monroe County in SE Michigan has tons of mileage of chip seal over gravel.

 

[boomerang]

That surface treatment is typically called a chip seal. The contractor will lay down the bituminous emulsion at a relatively low temperature. They will then spread the rock chips down over the material. Depending on the spec, they may put another layer of emulsion then a second layer of rock.

They will then set the stone with a rubber-wheeled roller. After that, they'll sweep up any excess stone.

No, you don't live on a gravel road now. It is still a paved road. The binder material will help keep water out of the base of the road. The stone chips will help keep up the friction of the road surface.

Chip seals should last 2 or 3 winters before you see some significant wear. The plows will pull away the chips in the middle of the lane. You typically don't drive in that portion of the road, unless you are on a motorcycle.

Some rural areas will do a similar chip seal treatment on gravel roads. It is poor-man's asphalt. Monroe County in SE Michigan has tons of mileage of chip seal over gravel.

Thanks!

The shoe is purposeful for scale.

It's Grange Hall Rd. in Oakland County.

 

[mpo]

All major roads are rated over a two-year cycle in Michigan. We just gave Grange Hall Road its biennial condition assessment on Wednesday. Was out in Holly, Ortonville, and Clarkston that day.

 

[Spacehead]

well, if it's anything like where i live(Pa), in a couple week they'll be along to tear up a portion of the road to fix a waterline, drainage line or whatever else might run under the road.


They've been doing that chip seal here for years.

Wonder if those guys were getting payed by the cone?

 

[skyking]

The neighborhood road out front is paved, but the main road connected to it has never been paved. It was truly a cowpath that went up and down, around big trees. They graded and graveled it for years before my time here, and then got it good enough and hard, and chipsealed it. I do construction, and you can see that it was not paved nor prepared for hard surfacing with stakes and a design.
Same went for the road in front of our childhood house, except it was designed and straight. Just never paved.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That road looks like it would start to break up pretty quickly. Water will pool in those rocks, freeze, expand, pop the little rocks out, and just keep working it's way and breaking it over time. Then again even normal asphalt seems to suck, they really need to come up with a better road surface that can actually last. The roads here are terrible. I remember as a kid when they redid the whole highway, now it's a huge mess. Roads should last longer than that.

 

[MrPickins]

Thanks!

The shoe is purposeful for scale.

It's Grange Hall Rd. in Oakland County.

Ugh. I still have scars on my knees from falling off my bike onto that crap as a kid.

 

[boomerang]

Now they're paving over it. They got about half of the stretch done yesterday and they are evidently trying to finish up today. They just went by on my side of the road a few minutes ago.

 

[Spacehead]

Fix potholes - pave - chip seal - pave again
Might be when they're all done you'll have an elevated road in front of your house.
Are they putting down a transition into everyone's driveway?

Any "cone-heads" around?