Arizona DOT looks after its shoulders

By: Cathy Somers

When maintaining roadways, it’s important to include the shoulders as part of the process. If untreated, the shoulder will deteriorate causing the pavement edges to weaken and allowing moisture penetration into the roadway, ultimately affecting the road itself. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) kept this in mind on one of their recent projects on I-8 outside of Gila Bend, Ariz. ADOT contracted the work out, which consisted of a mill-and-fill of the roadway, construction of guardrails, replacement of bridge dados and other work, including crack sealing the shoulders.

The final item of shoulder repair was awarded to DBA Construction, based out of Phoenix. DBA routed and crack sealed for approximately 2 miles, which came to just under 17,000 linear feet. Their crew consisted of six individuals, divided into two groups. The first group included the person who was running the Crafco Model 200 Pavement Cutter that was used to rout the cracks. Routing cracks before they are crack sealed leads to the repair lasting eight to 10 times longer than sealing without. They also opted to use Crafco’s newer wide hub carbide cutters on the router instead of the standard ones. The benefits of the wide hub cutters include offering a cleaner, smoother cut with less wobble. The wide hub cutters also have a longer life then the standard cutters due to the size of the hub. The first group also had an individual that was blowing out the cracks with a compressor to remove dirt and debris.

The second group was the part of the crew that was doing the crack sealing. To accomplish this they used a Crafco EZ Series II 500, which has a 132-gal capacity tank. This melter also was fitted with an electric hose and wand to keep the material hot until being applied. They opted to flush fill with a sealing disk and squeegee. About 10,000 lb of material was used to repair the cracks on the roadway shoulder for this project.

By treating the shoulders, ADOT expects to add several years to the life of this stretch of interstate.