There’s a new tool in the tool box for road maintenance. This is a carbide tooth grader blade. This will be used primarily for gravel roads
but it can also be used in the winter to break up icy surfaces. The blade has replaceable “teeth” that rotate.
In the past year or so the city has been attempting to
better the surfaces of gravel roads.
Rather than grading them flat we are trying to establish and maintain a
crown in the center of the roadway. This
helps with drainage and to some extent limits some erosion of the roadway surface. Water is able to shed to the side of the
roadway rather than running down the road.
A packer was also acquired that mounts on the back of the grader. With the packer downward pressure is applied
on the newly graded surfaces to help it maintain the crown and stabilize it. This change in approach has also helped
minimize the need to grade as often as the surface seems to be more
durable.
Taking this to the next step is where the carbide tooth
blade comes in. With the tooth design
gravel can be stirred up to create a “fresh” surface. The fine materials that typically float on
the surface can be incorporated into the gravel and a new surface is
established using the existing road bed materials. With replaceable rotating teeth resistance on
the blade is minimized saving fuel and allowing for the breakup of larger rocks
that may be part of the road materials.
With these new approaches being added we hope to further minimize the
need for repeated grading becoming more efficient with road maintenance and
resulting in better overall surfacing.
These changes to the roads will take some time to see the
benefit. Roadways were traditionally
bladed somewhat flat so it will take some time to build the crowns and reclaim the
surface. All in good time improvements
are being made to operations which will eventually translate to better roadway
surfaces.
As a side benefit to this new tool it gives us an option to
break up ice covered roads. Generally
you think of salt to accomplish ice removal on roadways. This is a traditional approach that works
most of the time. This doesn’t however
work well when temperatures are below about 15 degrees. The sun can help but
breaking up the surface somewhat with groves provides for better traction while
weakening the icy surface. Having this
texture also allows for salt to stay on the roadway longer giving that time to
work when temperatures rebound.
We applaud the Public Works crew for constantly looking at
new approaches to find solutions that better operations and performance of the roadways
that serve the public.
