Using a combination of humor and facts, the video makes a strong point in favor of spending money on road repair. At the end, Executive Director Margaret Donahoe urges viewers to contact their legislators.
CPAM hosted an open house at the OK Corral in Jordan, MN on
September 29, 2011, in conjunction with Scott County's unbonded overlay
(UBOL) on County Road 66. The intent of this gathering was to showcase
this project in front of other counties' personnel, who may have similar
projects coming with their own county.
This UBOL project, a concrete overlay over old PCC (18-foot wide;
used to be TH 169), also widened the driving lanes and provided a
concrete shoulder. The depth of the overlay is six inches over the old
paavement (which had several layers of HMA that were milled off), and
then tapered to an eight inch thickness. Because of the tight access
constraints, the contractor -- Shafer Contracting Co., Inc. -- elected to
use a smaller paver and pave one lane at a time for the majority of the
five mile project.
Mitch Rasmussen, County Engineer for Scott County, and Greg Felt,
Project Manager, instructed the participants as to the need for this
project; its cost savings compared to the standard rip-up, regrade and
HMA surfacing; and the project details. Steve Gentz from Shafer also
spoke to the group on the contractor's viewpoint; and Maria Masten, the
MnDOT Concrete Engineer, was available to add comments regarding the
help and availability of her office to assist with these types of
projects. As an added speaker, Kyle Hoegh, a Ph.D. candidate in Civil
Engineering from the University of Minnesota, demonstrated his "black box" (aka MIRA)
that uses ultrasonic tomography to measure concrete depths and placement of tie bars,
dowels, or reinforcing in a non-destructive manner.
The open house included a trip in the field to observe the actual construction.
Minnesota was well represented at the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) 2011 annual conference, held April 17-21 in Minneapolis. CPAM played a major part in the exhibit for the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). Matt Zeller, Bob Paine and Bob McPartlin provided touring engineers a variety of handouts and advice about PCC paving. Most of the conversations were about overlays over existing concrete and blacktop as well as pricing of both types of pavements.
ACPA President Jerry Voigt related the latest on “Modern Pavement Preservation Techniques” at one of the technical sessions.
The conference was well attended. Besides a giveaway item of a peppermint lifesaver (Save-a-Pave: Hard White Economical), many attendees received a can cozy that said, “No Sweat . . . With Concrete.”
Check out the photos! Save-A-Pave Mints