If you think maintaining county roads is a snap, think again.
A good example comes from Covington County, Ala., where, last March, heavy rains washed out almost 30 miles of dirt roads—and all of them must be rebuilt with imported dirt and aggregates.
The price tag of the project totals $6.9 million, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will contribute 75% of that, or $5.17 million. The rest of the money comes from the state and from county matching funds.
Covington County maintains 670 miles of unpaved roads with nine motor graders—eight of them Volvo G940 units (Circle 900).
“We’ll use our existing fleet of eight motor graders to rebuild the dirt roads that were washed away,” said Darren Capps, county engineer.
In 2004 the county bought eight Volvo 720B graders.
“After a year, we turned them all over and bought nine new Volvo G940 graders, which have since been turned over for new Volvo graders,” Capps said. “We like to run newer equipment, and we like to stay within warranty if we can.”
Operating costs confirmed the county’s decision to go with Volvo.
“Depending on the application, we save about 2 gal of fuel per hour with the Volvo graders,” Capps said. “If you add that up over a year, running eight graders, that’s $37,000.”
The eight Volvo G940 motor graders are real workhorses for Covington County, maintaining 670 miles of unpaved roads. The lion’s share of work for the motor graders consists of pulling ditches on the dirt roads. Mike Hughes, road superintendent for the southern part of the county, said he likes the variable horsepower feature of Volvo motor graders.
“You can get moving better from the start and, as your load increases, you can apply more horsepower,” Hughes said.
A motor grader is traction-limited at low speeds, explained Gary Atkinson, regional product manager for Road Products, Volvo Construction Equipment.
“You can only take advantage of as much horsepower as you have weight in the machine,” he said. “That way you reduce tire wear and you don’t waste horsepower that you can’t use efficiently.”
The G940 graders have 11 gears forward and six in reverse. Operator Chris Nelson said he likes the memory gear feature on the Volvo G940.
“If I’m finish-grading something in first- or second-gear forward, then I’ll back up in fifth- or sixth-gear reverse,” Nelson said. “The grader remembers what gears I’m using, and I don’t have to shift through all of the gears every time.”
Five years ago, the county performed a $4.3 million resurfacing project that helped upgrade the paved roads. The Volvo motor graders clip the shoulders on paved roads. Each year the state of Alabama rates the county’s paved roads on a 100-point scale, with 100 being perfect. In recent years, Capps said, he and his team of 56 employees in the road department have succeeded in raising Covington County’s rating from 79 to 93.
“It’s just managing your roads,” said a modest Capps.
—Story by Dawn Buzynski, Two Rivers Marketing, Des Moines, Iowa
