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Cold winters ravage roads requiring repairs

Detroit is one of the three worst cities in the US for poor weather, along with Chicago and Toledo For Metro Detroit the winter of 2013-14 was the second snowiest season on record, bested only by the winter of 1880-1881. This had a terrible effect on the city’s roads and in the suburb of Southfield, officials assessed the poor state of the asphalt and concrete streets and realised the conventional patch and fill programme would not be sufficient.Instead the contract was modified to cover mill and resurfacin
January 7, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Asphalt Paving Allied Consruction RP195e Paver
Contractor Allied Construction has used its new RP195e paver to help repair winter damaged roads in a Detroit suburb

Detroit is one of the three worst cities in the US for poor weather, along with Chicago and Toledo

For Metro Detroit the winter of 2013-14 was the second snowiest season on record, bested only by the winter of 1880-1881. This had a terrible effect on the city’s roads and in the suburb of Southfield, officials assessed the poor state of the asphalt and concrete streets and realised the conventional patch and fill programme would not be sufficient.Instead the contract was modified to cover mill and resurfacing the numerous asphalt and concrete roads throughout the city. Local contractor Allied Construction was brought in to carry out the work within a short timescale.

The contractor was given a list of project streets at the beginning of the month with the mandate to keep traffic flowing and to minimise the time at each location. As the company completed the first projects on budget and within the 15-day completion windows provided, the authorities extended the contract and added new sites to the repair/reconstruction list. When winter returns and the firm has completed its work, the company will have worked on an approximate total of 60-plus major patches and 10 street location sites. The majority of the roads are residential streets, although there are a number of collector roads as well. The work involved milling the damaged area to a depth of 51-76mm and then adding a new 76mm layer of asphalt.

The firm used its 1252 Roadtec RX-700e half-lane cold planer to mill the road surfaces, followed by its new Roadtec RP-195e rubber-track paver for all the road paving. The 3m class machine was equipped with a Carlson ER-R2-10 rear mount screed. This features heating elements in direct contact with the upper surface of the main screed plate and is designed to deliver even, controllable heat. With the thicker mats the firm has been placing on the Southfield streets, the Carlson screed, with vibration turned up, helped achieve the density requirements.

The contractor said that the machine was able to deliver a good mat smoothness while the machine’s sophisticated Guardian Telematics System also helped ensure any downtime was minimised. For the City of Southfield street repair/rehab project, Allied Construction used a range of materials from Marshall Mixes to Low Volume Superpave (LVSP), depending on the road traffic.

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