Posted on 08/27/2011 6:14:06 AM PDT by johniegrad
I grew up in Superior from 1953 to 1971 and then was off for education until 1971. Post graduate medical education and repayment to the Navy from 1979 through 1987 and then back here again to practice.
When I was a kid, there was a legitimate shipping industry out of the ports including grain trucked in from the Dakotas, coal, limestone and other minerals, and, of course, iron ore.
The steel industry has its natural cycles of prosperity and decline and is in the process of finding ways to recreate itself. Grain, however, is being barged down the Mississippi to New Orleans. It must be cheaper to ship this way. The railroads are shrinking here due to reduction in the demand of these industries and the population base is slowly eroding as young people have to go elsewhere to find work.
It is truly amazing to watch the antibusiness attitudes that exist in an area clearly on the decline for decades now. None of it makes any sense.
This is a nice place to live if you have a good income. Good outdoor activities, relatively low cost of living, nice although reserved folks, safe place to raise kids, good schools. Thank God the medical profession has been relatively recession proof throughout my career and that I am now partially retired.
But God help the young folks trying to find work here.
The Georgia company sounds great.
The steamship folks were first class hard working folks, from the oilers on up to the captains.
We bought all of Murphy heavy oils and brought rail tank cars from Mandan and elsewhere plus 50,000 bbl tankers fom Sarnia. Our storage was at the foot of Winter Street on the Cutler-Magner Lime facility. The business was 80 percent N6 fuel or blended N6.
There is a curious, anti-business, almost suspicious attitude toward any kind of commercial endeavor in the north country. I noticed this attitude in the Arrowhead, around the mines where I also did business. It was no surprise that this was solid Wellstone Country.
You found "Hot inplace recycling." There's also a cold inplace recycling process. The difference is in whether the road surface is heated before it is ground off.
I've seen a lot of cold in place recycling here in the south (Florida and Georgia). The results depend on how deep they grind and the quality of the road bed below the road.
The process grinds off the surface of the road, reheats it, mixes it with some new binder material, then feeds that recycled asphalt into a paving machine to reapply it to the road.
This process will never fix underlying issues with the road bed. If you have frost heaves that go down to the road bed, the result will be a smooth wavy surface that follows the damaged roadbed.
Also, the deeper they grind, the better the resulting surface seems to be and the longer it will last. Depending on the machinery and how it is set, it's possible to grind as little as 2 inches off and recycle it, or as much as 6 to 8 inches. Deeper grinding usually results in a better quality result. How deep you can go depends on how thick the pavement is on the road. Obviously, you can't grind off 6" of pavement if that's all there is on the roadbed. Usually, it's not wise to grind more than half the pavement off for the process. If the pavement is only 8" thick, then 4" is about all that can be done.
Sorry, no personal knowledge of the repaving process.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Rochester, NY as my sister is in hospice care in a home within the city. Last Wednesday, everyone had to have their cars off the street so they could resurface it. It sounds like it might be similar to what you have there. The surface is bumpy, and there are still a lot of loose stones after more than a week. When you drive down the streets that have undergone this process, clouds of dust fly everywhere. You have to watch your speed as it feels you are driving on a road of loose gravel, and your wheels slip if you try to accelerate. It’s horrible. I was told they’re using this technique to save money. They might be saving cash, but it’s ruining the finishes on people’s cars. Everyday when I leave the home, my car has a layer of dust all over it.
This sounds a lot like what they’ve done recently to Alabama Route 24 between Moulton and Russellville. And not for the better, I might add. The new surface is so noisy, I drive in the left lane for miles at a time.
Sounds like what they’ve been doing up here in Washington for non-major roadways. They put up signs that they will be doing “chip sealing” and then lay down what my dad called “oil matte”: layer of crushed rock followed by a coat of oil sprayed on it.
Until it gets weathered and worn, it is dusty and the rocks fly up and chip the finish on the cars, not to mention what it does to the undercarriage. They claim it’s much cheaper than full asphaulting. And probably is. Doesn’t last as long, though. First good freeze in the winter and the pot holes start forming when it thaws.
In our county, it was -and has been - well known since way before the 70’s that the “road” funds/taxes are shifted to other purposes, ones that seem to put money into local politicians’, bureaucrats’ and selected contractors’ pockets. (Graft and corruption? No! How could you think of such a thing. It’s Government efficiency and patronage.)
We call the melting in place process “summer” here in Arizona...:^)
108 F in Tucson yesterday...
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