Highway roadwork and reconstruction in Lanark County by Thomas Cavanagh Construction

Our roads have been falling apart. There are heavy, heavy trucks on the roads all the time. We need paved shoulders, and that will be good for the danged cyclists.

Lots of reconstruction was called for, and a good place to use our tax dollars!
It was a long, slow process. Some drivers still don't get it. I want to say THANK YOU to all those drivers who were respectful, and slowed down properly. Others, gunning their engines, are just stupid. These are our sons and daughters working on these crews, to ensure that we have well-built roads on which to travel.

Road Construction Update for the NER @511ONNortheast @OPP_NER #SlowDown in the #ConeZone https://t.co/PdSmOsnJaG pic.twitter.com/NrDi9Bh2VM

— T.D.R.S.C. (@TDRSC2013) June 18, 2016

Firstly, the pylons and the marking of the buried lines.

April 26th 

 After this, the culverts were the first to be replaced. Rehabilitation of county Rd. #1Note the signage: NO PASSING!!!! This has been ignored by some, so dangerous for the flaggers. You'll note the flagger with a heavy coat. This was begun in April, done by the end of June.


Then, they take off the old asphalt. The machines are amazing.


Next, put down new gravel, level and water it . This part is a convoy dance. There are three of the gravel trucks in a row, all lined up, dumping it and watering it.


I dressed bear up in hard hat and shovel. My back aches just watching them stand there for so long. I cannot either sit or stand for long periods of time. I'm sure other back sufferers feel the same. I always wave at the flaggers as I drive by. And the traffic. There is so much!


I love work, I could sit and watch it for hours!


As I said, it's a dance. Sadly, some important people don't bother to respect the dancers, or read the signs provided by the caller.

There were three incidents I heard of.

1. One dude pulled up over the hill, and smashed into a stopped car, lined up behind the flaggers.
2. Another incident, a woman didn't stay in line, but passed two cars on the supposed single lane traffic (no passing sign abound) and then was stopped by the flagger, who waited for the OPP.
3. The third incident, a motorist charged towards a flagger, into the stop sign.

Our driveway needs doing... you don't suppose?! Not a chance. The contract is per metre!

It is a busy, busy road. OPP sends 500 men and women to recertify on the nearby shooting range.

The day finally arrived. Later we found out this is only the bottom coat. 
The V-shaped trucks have bottom rollers, which moves the hot asphalt into the Shuttle Buggy. The dump trucks dump it in. One worker has a gun-like tool that takes the temperature of the asphalt as it goes into the Buggy. The Buggy holds it for the third vehicle, the actual paver and they have a dance along the road as the asphalt is moved from one to the other.. Then the roller compresses it all. They clean the truck after their load is dumped.


It is a 'cast of thousands' with many doing different jobs. The next day, they removed the vehicles at 6:30 a.m., which they'd left across the road at 7 p.m. last night. It is a long, long day, and they eat on the go, drinking lots of water. Some vehicles are air conditioned, others are not! They josh one another about that!

Lanark County

It is a huge process, with tenders begun in February, 2016.

• Lanark County’s 72 kilometers of roads rehabilitated or treated
• total construction budget for this year is almost $7.2 million (Federal gas tax and OCIF, covering $1.8 million). 
•  Lanark County Public Works oversees more than 560 km of roads, 82 bridge and culvert structures. 
• County Road 1:  Thomas Cavanagh Construction Limited will complete warm mix rehabilitation of 5.7 km in May and June at a cost of $1,385,320.

At the end of the long day (6:30 -  8:00), I left a cooler of beer. Good workers, working for a large company. Sadly, the spiffy road now seems to encourage some drivers to speed up! Which is how we lost our dear deer. Too many going too fast.

Finally, the day came when they did our little driveway. These smaller sections require smaller machines, and a different crew. One of them rolled over their coffee cup, which had fallen out of the truck. I went over to pick it up. (We're always getting stuff in our ditches, it's what a do three times a year.) One of them workers insisted he'd take it, as it was their garbage! I didn't mind, but they do have an excellent work ethic. Nary a cuss word, unlike our roofers!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We had lots of questions, about the process, when they thought they'd be done, and when it was safe to drive on the new asphalt, which they took time to answer.

It's been quite a process. We now have an excellent shoulder for people biking. This will be a good thing.  All of my videos are here, Road work videos: it's a choreographed dance! in the previous post, in case you like these honking big machines. Many do!  My garbage truck video, little Josee waving to the worker, has had 7000 views!

Thomas Cavanagh Corporate Video
screengrab

Thomas Cavanagh Corporate Video screen grab