The roads to and through Sisters received a fresh coat of asphalt last week as
crews worked to freshen old pavement and repair sections damaged by heavy
trucks during the rebuild of that section of Highway 20 washed away by winter
storms.
In downtown Sisters, a giant milling machine ground out three inches of old
pavement, according to Jack Boatwright, one of two Project Team leaders in the
Bend construction office of the Oregon Department of Transportation (the other
works on the parkway).
Although the old paving was replaced with brand new, Boatwright lamented there
wasn't money to do more.
"We hope it solves the short-term problem in Sisters. We would have liked to do
this project curb to curb. We did do an extra width of 7 feet from Pine Street
to The Gallery (to merge with new paving which covers the water line trench)...
I wish we could have gone through town that way," Boatwright said.
Asphalt paving is not cheap. The one mile through Sisters and a mile on
Highland Ave in Redmond together cost about $400,000.
The contractor for the project was Roy L. Houck of Salem. Boatwright thought
there were about 20 workers in town including flaggers "plus a crew at the
asphalt plant and a whole fleet of truck drivers."
The asphalt plant was located out between Powell Butte and Prineville. It's a
new plant, Boatwright said, operated by Harney Rock.
That was responsible for a two-day delay in the project, which was intended to
be completed on Monday and Tuesday.
"They couldn't calibrate the plant. They got hold of the manufacturer,
discovered that they might have a computer problem. The plant manufacturer sent
in a new mother board for the computer. Got it installed and calibrated late on
Tuesday," said Boatwright. Which allowed the project to proceed on Wednesday.
"Working with Houck taught Harney Rock what they needed to know about how to do
big paving projects like this. It resulted in a very, very good asphalt mix,"
he said.
"Good asphalt" is defined by the ODOT laboratories in Salem, according to
Boatwright. About 250 pounds of several sizes of crushed rock, plus samples of
the asphalt oil the contractor uses, are sent to the lab in Salem. The lab
tests the various mixes specifies a final paving mix.
"This company produced a mix almost right dead in the middle," said
Boatwright.
A good mix lasts longer, he explained.
ODOT tries to design paving for a 10 to 15 year life. In central Oregon, it is
frequently less because of the use of studded tires and softer rock used in
asphalt mix.
The 4,100 cubic yards of ground up asphalt was trucked out to the state gravel
pit one-mile east of Sisters toward Redmond.
"The county has used it to do shoulder work. It makes a really good base on
the shoulders of county roads. It is stronger than base rock because of the
asphalt binder, but is harder to work with than asphalt binder. It is not
as smooth," Boatwright said.
It is not strong enough to be used as a base on the state highways, he
indicated.
New paint stripes on the road way are scheduled for about the first of May.
