Just a little touching up is needed...
With hand-made carve-outs for the driveway...
Meade took video from the other side of the street:
May 20, 2015
Extruding curbing.
They're making great progress on our street reconstruction with this wonderful machine that extrudes the concrete curb fully formed...
Just a little touching up is needed...
With hand-made carve-outs for the driveway...
Meade took video from the other side of the street:
Just a little touching up is needed...
With hand-made carve-outs for the driveway...
Meade took video from the other side of the street:
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35 comments:
Nice example of a machine that eliminates about ten workers and about a week of time from a road construction job.
I've always liked the word "extrude". Onomatopoeic.
Back in the 60's in Portland, they would dig down about 4 feet, and use plywood forms and some rebar.
You would always hear them blasting with dynamite. I could hear the difference between 1/4 stick, 1/2 stick. and full stick.
Portland is basically sitting on the biggest rock pit known since Fred and Wilma moved to Bedrock...
I guess they dug so far down, as a Union concept (more men, more pay), or maybe for the freeze.
I've always been fascinated by construction equipment and like to watch these things do their work. There are bigger versions that lay down huge swaths of new freeway at a time too.
You know, TosaGuy, these have not reduced costs on large jobs because now the labor dollar is spent on lawyers fighting the environmental challenges and scrutinizing the permitting process.
The men have to work at the pace of the machine (though I assume the speed of the machine can be controlled). So it's like an assembly line that progresses through real space.
That machine is a descendant of smaller extruding machines that do curbs on top of paving (seen in market parking lots everywhere). The drawback with the older ones (and maybe the one shown)is that reinforcing bar cannot be extruded with the concrete thus making the curb unreinforced and, making matters somewhat worse) the concrete begins to cure immediately without the protection of a form. They may cover the concrete with plastic to remedy this shortcoming. Just thought you'd like to know.
One thing I can easily predict: three months after they pave the street, and you are just amazed at how nice it is, another contractor will show up and dig a trench down the middle, to replace the pipes that were too small.
"One thing I can easily predict: three months after they pave the street, and you are just amazed at how nice it is, another contractor will show up and dig a trench down the middle, to replace the pipes that were too small."
Yep. Several examples of that on my 1 mile walk to work.
One of my least productive times at work was when they were putting up a building outside my window. Always something fascinating to watch. Hard to get work done.
Who does the scratching of initials?
Yes, it works quickly, but the concrete used today for curbs and roads is cheap and doesn't last as long as it should.
I have never seen such a fat curb. I understand a tall curb helps contain the rain water. Why would you have a curb wider than 4 inches??
#WarOnWomen #70Cents
I love those machines, I saw them at work in Wisconsin last year. They eat cement and poop curbs. They get quite a bit done in a day.
"You know, TosaGuy, these have not reduced costs on large jobs because now the labor dollar is spent on lawyers fighting the environmental challenges and scrutinizing the permitting process."
You will note that my post said nothing about reduced cost of the project.
I suspect your real estate taxes will be going up.
I have an extruded sailboat mast. Does that count?
Ah, that explains the work currently going on in Cupertino, CA. All the handicap-access curb cuts that were installed in the 80's are being removed and replaced with handicap-access curb cuts. There are minor changes, no doubt justifying the expense and disruption. Also, Cupertino is full of recent immigrant Chinese who probably think the local property taxes are nothing to complain about. The cuts are all being hand-built in the old way, with wood forms, rebar, and the whole 9 yards. No damn auto-form machines involved in these projects, no sir.
Yessir, you gotta love local government. (Though in this case, I suspect there's a Federal mandate in there somewhere.)
[Edit: Boy am I in a sour mood this afternoon. I hurt my back climbing Montebello Road yesterday, and the Advil are not curing it, despite what the Marine Corps has to say about Advil.]
[At least the Althouse robot-detector is easing off on me; I got through with a simple unverified assertion of humanity. I win.]
surfed: No.
Anyway, you should be sailing in a one-design fleet with wood masts, like 470, for instance. [Anyone in the SF Bay Area need a foredeck monkey or mainmast grinder?]
Anybody have a link to a video of the German machine that lays herringbone-pattern road brick pavement? Now, THAT'S cool tech.
They put in a granite curb down the street from me. Better than concrete in every way.
And yet:
Woman 1: "What does your husband do?"
Woman 2: "He's in construction"
Woman 1 (with disappointment) "Oh"
(overheard conversation in the grocery store checkout line about 20 minutes ago)
Our hostess' kind words for nice work the project are appreciated.
As for the rest of you guys, there is not one of you with any idea of what you are talking about.
madAsHell said......Why would you have a curb wider than 4 inches??
So the snow plows stay on asphalt and not destroy the tender curb (no rebar).
Just a guess...
I'm guessing the curb is made wide to allow for more relayering of asphalt over the years.
That looks like an integrated curb & gutter - that is why it is so wide.
If it is the gutter pan you are talking about, it is for carrying street runoff and should be shaped to maximize water carrying capacity. (Though many public works departments do not realize that, and it is no help that neither does the FHWA. Handshaping a good section takes considerable skill, but there is absolutely no reason why the mule on an extruded curb machine should not be properly shaped.)
I do not say that there are no street curbs with rebar in them somewhere, but I have never seen or heard of such, since there is no purpose in it.
Concrete is not cheap, but it is better now than ever and longer lasting. If it isn't, then either someone was not paying attention or was getting paid off. (That happens - particularly not paying attention.)
These days, they do not just add layers of asphalt, but grind down the existing surface, recycle the removed material, and lay down a new surface.
Hagar said...... I have never seen or heard of such
I haven't seen rebar used since they did our neighborhood back in the 60's. Course I haven't paid that much attention since.
Here's a pic, of the kind of rebar I saw, only the forms went below grade.
rebar in curbs (gutter)
That is a valley gutter, which is normally constructed across an intersection. This location looks like something special - half an intersection, and then the gutter continues around the curve.
The reinforcement is very heavy for a valley gutter; in Albuquerque the Standard Details call for 4/4x4/4 mesh.
(Which being New Mexico, does not get properly installed and really does not do much to reinforce the concrete anyway. However, it is policy, and does not have to make sense.)
The Std. Curb & Gutter (out of the picture) was not reinforced, I bet you.
Oh, and yes, I have seen rebar in planter curbs and header curbs, but these are designed by architects.
Oh, and I had a brainfart above. It has been a while since I did City work.
Albuquerque call for 6/6x6/6 mesh, which is absolutely useless in 8" thick, 4000# concrete, even if it was propely installed, but as I said, it is policy, and that is the way we always did it, so that is what we will always do.
"AJ Lynch said...
I suspect your real estate taxes will be going up."
It's Madison, WI. That's a foregone conclusion Carnac.
If so, it should be time for hot tar and pitchforks.
I think AA said before she was paying $10,000 or so in real estate tax, and it made me blink. It is a nice house, but no Hollywood mansion.
Welcome to the future!
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