unsealedroads.com newletter

Hello to all.

This is our second newsletter from www.unsealedroads.com a web site all about managing unsealed road networks on limited budgets.

A most recent development on our web site is “My Blogs” which is an update of the projects that I’m running.

Operational Techniques

Grading Techniques
Discuss Grading Issues and Solutions

Over the last 6 years I have been reviewing how Councils crews grade unsealed roads.

One very simple, yet very important thing I have found is that flat or steel drum roller can undermine the good works of the grading process by not taking care of some simple construction practices.

a) Making sure that the drum is clean before rolling. Below is an example of a drum that isn’t clean. This will result in uneven rolling and the picking up of material during the rolling process.

b) Not rolling if the material if it is too wet. As it will pickup the material and cause inconsistency in the surface. The below picture shows an example after the roller has made a pass. As you can see it has pulled out material from the surface.

While we are on the subject of rollers below are comments on the “for” and “against” of different type of rollers that I put together during the completion of the IPWEAQ training course this year. Hope it helps.

Picture	Type	For	Against
	Tyre Roller	Can be used on wet Material. Good Plant Utilization Less Bridging with more Tyres. Tighter surfaces on top can hold surface longer Can be used to slurry the surface.	Equipment body roll. Transportation issues. Not good on large stone size materials.
	Steel Drum (Vibration)	Pushes larger stones into pavement. Breaks downs stones. Faster Compaction. More power. Good on hill sections.	Not good on wet surfaces. Low Plant Utilization issues. Lamination of thin layers.
	Grader Pull Tyre Roller	Ease of Transportation. (Patrol Grading) Better then nothing.	Lacks downward pressure. Damage to graders hydraulics. Grader can’t scarify without removal of roller.
	Combination roller	Best of both. Tyre and Vibration.	New model seems stable. When putting roller on rile, can be unstable. Not Heavy enough. Steel wheel will still pickup on wet surfaces.
	Three point Roller	Less bridging. 16t with water. Pushes rock down well. Stable. Less bridging of material with three wheels	Not good for hills on some model. Low and high range needed. To wet it can pickup.

Regards,

Darren Shepherd.