I was told once it’s because cities project the job to take say 5 weeks, so they rip it up the first week, leave it for 3 weeks, then repave the last week. And they do this so everyone gets a paycheck for the full 5 weeks. Surely there has to be a different reason?
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Depends. 2 types
1 resurfacing. You need to grind the road and then pave it. So crew 1 has the grinding machine. Crew 2 has the paving equipment. The wait is the time between when Crew 1 gets done and when Crew 2 is free. PLUS any weather delays.
2. Repair. Dig a hole. For example a culvert or pipe replacement. Now you fill in the hope, but the fill isn’t compacted. So you let people drive over it for a week. Fill compacts. You add more gravel. Then you let people drive over it for another week. Add more gravel. Let people drive over it again.
Eventually the gravel is compacted and the paving crew is free. If you just paved it the fill would shift and the road would break up.
Dirt work takes a long time to settle and if it’s rushed the road will fail.
I would say 3 reasons:
1. Equipment and personnel availability. Not every town has a paver so they might have to pull the road when the people are available and repave when they can.
2. Other contractors. Might need to move poles or put in other work such as gas lines or water mains. Don’t want to pull up a road twice.
3. Weather. We have the paver for this day and it rains or it’s too cold. We have to wait for it to be available again.
Might be others but these are the main ones.
After the big 1994 Northridge earthquake, California did a unique bidding process with incentives/disincentives for contractors to complete the work quickly. Repairs across multiple freeways and bridges that that were expected to take years were done in months.
One example:
“The incentive/disincentive clause created a stir on the Santa Monica Freeway, when contractor C.C. Myers Inc., of Rancho Cordova, California, pulled out all the stops to complete the reconstruction of the Interstate 10 bridges in a blistering 66 days-or a whopping 74 days ahead of the original contract, earning a $14.8 million bonus.”
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/northridge-earthquake-rebuilding-project-crisis-3434
Aside from the different crews argument, the ripping up has multiple phases: the rough cut, the detail work, the patching of trouble spots, etc.
That said, my small town does their projects in a week, and any affected street is only left torn up overnight.
>And they do this so everyone gets a paycheck for the full 5 weeks.
Construction work like repaving roads is done by a contractor who bid (and outbid others) on a project that the city put out. When they bid the project the city would have already included completion dates and a rough schedule is in place. If the contractor isn’t finished by that deadline they often have to start giving money back.
The contractor is getting paid whether they finish in 2 months or 2 days. I probably oversimplified the process but I hope that makes sense.
Since you’re ripping out the pavement you may as well call utility companies to inspect their equipment and do any necessary maintenance, since it’s usually a bunch of companies this may take weeks.
Not saying that’s true everywhere, but in some cities it is.
I visited my hometown after 40 years of being away. Same potholes still there. I remember a handful from when I was learning how to ride my bicycle.
governments have extensive rules and regulations regarding purchases and public works contracts. they have to bid them out to the lowest bidder along with getting approval from the board or jury for the original contract and any amendments or change orders. add to that weather delays and other logistical problems and it explains why projects take so long
I watched a street outside my condo in japan get widened by 1 foot in about 3 days once. Full repaving, not just the new stuff.
I thought it was for the cars and trucks to dislodge and loose material so that when they did the paving they would have a good solid substrate for the asphalt to adhere to.
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