Road Construction in your area

showcrop · Oct 9, 2016

How fast do they work? It struck me that where they started removing trees last spring on a four mile stretch of 93 here in NH, There is now grass growing on the slopes and they paved before the end of September. There was a lot of ledge to be blasted too. So from trees in April to new paved road for two miles in just six months. I have noticed construction projects in other parts of the country where you would have to set up two sticks and sight along them to see if anyone is moving.

old · Oct 9, 2016

Had a friend who when he applied for work with the local road dept they asked if he could handle long times of waiting and doing nothing while wait for some one else to make up there minds as how to do this or that. Yep road construction is a job that takes for ever because 3 guys can never agree which thing to do first then how to go about doing it. Or like the hwy job I worked on years ago. They came in and said we where 1 inch above grade take it down then the next week a different guy comes in and says we are 1 inch below grade put it back. 2 week to do both at a big cost of $50 per hour per truck on 12 hour days 6 days of the week. 10 trucks by the way

Billy NY · Oct 9, 2016

Most around here seem to move right along, we had some major work on the complex arrangements of ramps/arterial's/bridge that crosses the Hudson River via I-90. There have been quite a few projects in this area in the last 10 years, all seemed to have moved at a fast pace. Look at the progress on the Tappan-Zee Bridge on 87 South, that is an incredible project. One year ago I counted over 30 cranes on the job, most of them on barges and the big one that sets entire spans with a capacity of 1800 ton or something like that. It reminds me of the huge Blue Lampson crane that was in Elizabeth NJ in '99-'00 at the refinery.

rrlund · Oct 9, 2016

Depends on who's doing it. There's a road on the way to the stockyards,county road through two counties. A few years ago,I went with a load of cattle. I met a truck with the asphalt grinder on it,the crew was getting ready to put up barrels and barricades. A week later when I went,the road was repaved and lines all painted.

Where the road in front of my house gets in to town,they've had it torn up for well over a month and a half now. Not more than half a mile. I don't know when they plan to have that done. I haven't been to town much in all that time.

Billy Shafer · Oct 9, 2016

I wish we had our Mexican road crews around here. At least they know how to build a road. Unlike the crews we have now.

coshoo · Oct 9, 2016

The construction along Interstate 5 in Tacoma, WA have been going on, literally, since before I can remember. I haven't kept track, but would be willing to bet some of the earlier changes have been built, and then torn out, without ever finishing the project.

TomH in PA · Oct 9, 2016

"Or like the hwy job I worked on years ago. They came in and said we where 1 inch above grade take it down then the next week a different guy comes in and says we are 1 inch below grade put it back."

That sounds to me like someone noticed there was money left in the budget. Use it or lose it.

SweetFeet · Oct 9, 2016

Took them 3 months to tear out and replace a small bridge along my commute to work on a 2-lane road... three FULL months.

I had figured they'd have it done in less than half of that time. Rain probably slowed them somewhat - but it still seemed like it took a lot longer than I'd anticipated.

Greg1959 · Oct 9, 2016

Around here, they usually do road construction from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. so they will not
disrupt road traffic for people going to work.

paul · Oct 9, 2016

County got a bridge lifted, pilings refurbished and new hinges, and back together a week ahead of schedule, in a rainy summer here. Less than
4 weeks.

State projects seem to take 2-3 years to get anywhere. They are putting in a 4 lane, using the old 2 lane as one side. Even so they have had to
shut down the 2 lane state road some of last year, and most of this year? Goofy. Should build the new two lanes, and then switch, work on the
old 2 lanes.... Road stays open mostly. But, govt in inaction..... Monnesota does a very poor job of keep rural roads clear of snow in winter,
county roads are much better winter driving.

So, depends which govt you are talking about?

Paul

Delawaresurfman · Oct 9, 2016

Here in Delaware road construction is on almost every corner of the State. Major reconstruction taking years, almost obsolete when finally
completed to curb and sidewalk jobs. Nothing moves fast at all. If it were not for road construction our state would have over 15%
unemployeement. Good for the blue collar guys, not so much for businessmen and women, other than Flaggers. Just out of high school I
worked several years on a I95 project. 70-80 hours a week. Boss got a huge million plus bonus for early completion. Easy for him to pay OT.
Now it seems the state wants it to continue for years just to keep people working. I get off at 3 pm now and the crews are already shutdown on
the big jobs with only the fuel truck driver greasing and fueling. I don't get it.

gene bender · Oct 9, 2016

The problem is with local govt who do they let the contracts to and does anyone ever get the data on how long it will take to get done not with the workers on the job. I agree it shouldnt take forever to do a small job but who let the contrac didnt they now anything about a reasonable time to do a job.

fixerupper · Oct 9, 2016

Some projects sit and wait for an inspector to show up. For the past three years road projects in my neck of the woods have not progressed the way they had planned because of our above average rainfall.

Our county road graders and trucks have GPS on them now. If the grader sits still for a certain amount of time someone comes out to check up on him. A couple of years ago the grader was going by when I was mowing alongside the road and he stopped to chat. After we chatted awhile He started acting like the conversation should end so we went our separate ways. Not long after a county pickup drove by. Since then when he goes by with the grader we wave and he keeps going.

Adirondack case guy · Oct 9, 2016

I guess it depends on the Challanges of the job. A bridge repair around here (new paint and minor structural repairs) requires total containment of dust and debries from sandblasting and then repainting. It takes a lot of time to enclose half of a bridge and set up a vacumn system to contain all the debries and load it into trucks to take to a "proper dumpsite". Then they have to move all the containment system to the other side of the bridge. The actual repairs don't take that long, BUT!!!. Also many government burocrocies involved also, and we all know how they work.
The State DOT contracted a 15 mile streach of US Rt 20 here to be repaved here this summer. (4 lane divided hwy), and sholders. The contractor came in with a paver which placed black top on driving lane and had a flex wing for the sholder on their first pass, and then a day later a ridgid paver followed paveing the LH lane. They had trucks transporting blacktop from two different plants to keep up with the paveing machines.
I was totally amaised how fast they were moveing and the finished pavement is increditably smooth.
Loren

Adirondack case guy · Oct 9, 2016

I forgot to add that the contractor also had a semi automated truck with a driver and two people on the back that placed trafic cones within the worksite, and safey bumper trucks moveing with the paver, plus another truck and crew removeing cones as they progressed.
Loren

flying belgian · Oct 9, 2016

Paul, what in the world is taking them so long up at Nicollet? They have been done for 6 weeks where it goes through my farm. I'm told the hold up is the by-pass at Nicollet.

Rollie NE PA · Oct 9, 2016

Anybody that travel's on interstate 81 in Northeast PA knows that there is no end to the construction. There is a bridge replacement taking place near me. The bridge in on a two lane rural road and is over a 30ft wide stream. It has been a year since the work started and the contractor just asked for more time to complete the project.

cool hand · Oct 9, 2016

Around here road crews "working" is a continual joke. Has been for decades. Recently there were a number of county trucks and equipment at the bottom of a hill with men standing around doing nothing. I told my brother "they must be working on the hill--there's a flurry of INactivity going on there!"

Mark - IN. · Oct 9, 2016

My job still takes me into Illinois quite a bit and I can tell you that there are stretches of highway that they've been working on for about four years now that are nowhere being complete. Stretches ONLY a couple of miles long. My joke is that back in the early 1900's they put up the entire Empire State building in about a year. A hundred years later with modern equipment that puts everything a hundred years ago to shame, they can't complete redoing a four lane road four years after they started that is only a couple of miles long horizontal, not vertical. I'm not saying that we don't have roads and bridges in America that need work, but when I hear politicians speak about it, I take it as code that we don't have jobs in this new America beyond hotdog boilers and hamburger flippers that won't make a mortgage or raise a family, so they will "create" road and bridge repair projects at the expense of the dwindling amount of taxpayers...to create government funded jobs that will be milked until the cows come home. Sounds good when the "news" media pipes it into our homes, they just omit the important shell game part in their "reporting".

Mark

showcrop · Oct 9, 2016

(quoted from post at 14:43:15 10/09/16) I guess it depends on the Challanges of the job. A bridge repair around here (new paint and minor structural repairs) requires total containment of dust and debries from sandblasting and then repainting. It takes a lot of time to enclose half of a bridge and set up a vacumn system to contain all the debries and load it into trucks to take to a "proper dumpsite". Then they have to move all the containment system to the other side of the bridge. The actual repairs don't take that long, BUT!!!. Also many government burocrocies involved also, and we all know how they work.
The State DOT contracted a 15 mile streach of US Rt 20 here to be repaved here this summer. (4 lane divided hwy), and sholders. The contractor came in with a paver which placed black top on driving lane and had a flex wing for the sholder on their first pass, and then a day later a ridgid paver followed paveing the LH lane. They had trucks transporting blacktop from two different plants to keep up with the paveing machines.
I was totally amaised how fast they were moveing and the finished pavement is increditably smooth.
Loren

I was talking with a friend a few days ago that has a truck and hires on paving with a big asphalt company. The big company that he works for just got a new piece of paving equipment that goes between the paver and the trucks. The trucks dump their whole load at one time into this new machine so they are not feeding the paver. The paver gets a constant feed from the new machine with no changeover between trucks. They move along faster and get more done in a day.

RBoots · Oct 9, 2016

Somebody called in on my crew one time, said we were standing around not doing anything. Apparently they didn't think we should be able take our half hour lunch.

RBoots · Oct 9, 2016

ALL of our county equipment has GPS on it,
the tractors, trucks, graders, if it moves,
it has GPS on it. The GPS pings every 15
seconds. It works well to prove to people
that claim we haven't plowed their road that
day (in high winds, it can look like I was
never there in under an hour), but they can
look it up on the GPS and tell them what
time it was that I went by on their side of
the road, and then the time I went by their
place on my return trip, as well as my speed
at both passes.

gwstang · Oct 9, 2016

I have never understood why they tear up 25-30 miles of Interstate and it will stay like that for a year or several years or more? The speed limit gets screwed up and there is nothing going on/no one working/no one around for all that time. I85 into Atlanta is the worst for that. Lane shut down for what reason? Why don't they just do a couple of miles at one time instead of ripping everything up and leaving it forever. Just looks to me like somebody has their finger up their behind and just doesn't know what they are doing? Around here, in the big city close by, it's very annoying when they do work on the big roads, it seems they take forever and then come back and screw it up some more just to add turn lanes etc.

JMS/.MN · Oct 9, 2016

A few years ago I went to Paynesville on MN 55...passed a work crew. Something seemed odd about it...then I realized it was not MNDOT, but a private contractor. What made it odd? Everyone was working! Not one person standing around. Like the old joke about the county guys forgetting their shovels...called back for instructions. They were told to lean on each other til the shovels got delivered.

huntingreen2day2 · Oct 10, 2016

They are working on a stretch of 41A near me converting it from 2 lane to 4 lane. been working on going on 3 years. not a hill in sight. Spent most of 2 years moving gas, water and sewer lines. Haven't laid a foot of asphalt yet but they may be getting close.

oldtanker · Oct 10, 2016

(quoted from post at 12:49:40 10/09/16)
Road stays open mostly. But, govt in inaction..... Monnesota does a very poor job of keep rural roads clear of snow in winter,
county roads are much better winter driving.

So, depends which govt you are talking about?

Paul

You noticed that too? I can leave here to go the Alexandria MN. 2 miles on unplowed state highway, then 30 on county and township roads that are already plowed. And the bad part is that the state trucks only do this highway, no other state highways close enough. Yup our tax dollar at work!

Rick

JML755 · Oct 10, 2016

In college, I worked for one of the largest paving contractors in Michigan. They're even bigger now. We WORKED when on the job. The owner would drive by in his car and you'd better not be leaning on a shovel unless you were waiting for an asphalt truck.

Years later I watched as a Wayne County Road Commission crew pave a one mile stretch in front of the company I worked for. My desk had a window on the street and I could watch them NOT work. It took them ALL summer to pave that stretch. They'd show up about 8 or 8:30, sit in their trucks until 9:00, take a half hour break at 10, lunch at 11 until about 12:30, wrap up at 3 or 3:30. There were always 2 guys standing around watching one guy work. It was disgusting. A private contractor would have had that job done in a couple of days, maybe a week.

A buddy of mine confirmed the pace because he worked on a Wayne County crew during college. He said they continually told him to "slow down", "take a break", "you're making us look bad", etc. Absolutely no work ethic at all on those County crews. And people wonder why privatization in government saves money.

M-MAN · Oct 10, 2016

You're lucky. Around here when they are actually working they move pretty well but it's only in small spurts. Bridges have become terrible. To replace them you are
looking at 9 months(wood bridge) to two years. Most of the time they will work a few weeks tearing out the old and let it set for six month's. Then they do the foundation
work and let it sit six month's again. Then the actual bridge which has to settle another six month's before they finish paving the tie to the highway. A few years ago a
bridge washed out on the road to my sons house. It took two and a half years to replace this small bridge over a creek.

1948CaseVAI · Oct 10, 2016

Here is depends on how it was bid. There is one large company that will do work on a time-available basis and they do it pretty cheaply because whenever they have full price work they let the low price work sit.

The largest local company moves very fast - there is noticeable progress on most of their projects every day. They have some huge projects that take two or three years to finish, but there is daily progress.

Dr. Walt · Oct 12, 2016

LOL !

Road Construction in your area

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