How many bluetops do you guys think you can set in a day?
Dirt surface, 26' wide, at centerline and each shoulder, 50' interval?
Include water breaks, not TDD style.
btw, I wonder what happened to Ted. did he make 'em mad and get kicked off?
I liked hearing his blowing. Well, some of it, anyway...
Also, What about slope stakes on both sides at even stations (100' interval)?
When I had a crew (at the paving company) that was used to the work, we could get 300 to 350 hubs a day in the ground. At "5 across" that probably equates to a half mile or so.
I can remember slope staking at 100' stations and getting a mile or better a day; it depends entirely on the terrain.
Many years ago I was rodman on a 3-man county highway crew, and we set about a mile a day at 50' intervals, on both shoulders. I don't recall that we set C/L bluetops, so that was about 200 bluetops a day in a little over 6 hours on site (we worked a straight 8 hour day and had to drive both ways).
The roads were gravel, which of course is harder to pound hubs in than dirt. The existing grade was generally within 0.2, which helped a good deal. There were already grade lath along the shoulders, so no chaining was needed. There were very few curves. The guy on the sledge was 25 years older than me, but could really swing it. Of course these and other circumstances can have a big effect on production.
The Union Pacific laid 19 miles of track in a day, while building the transcontinental railroad. That's a lot of road grade......
To continue the thread hijack -
That image is from the west side of Promontory Summit, the Central Pacific side.
The record feat was laying ten miles of track (on previously prepared grade) in one day, by the Central Pacific.
One fascinating aspect of the endeavor is how the subsidies and land-grant incentives led to hundreds of miles of parallel grading, where both the Union Pacific and Central Pacific each prepared their own grade side-by-side, but only one grade ever actually got tracks.
GB
Blue tops? Who uses those anymore? Around here, everybody uses grade trimmer machines that can trim stone to grade to a nat's aze. Well, closer than a road grader could ever do....
Haven't set a blue top since 1988....
Haven't blue topped in years, and yes where is TDD.
Our buddy Ted is safe and sound, right where he should be:
Occident and Orient
A riddle, a puzzle to find our friend Ted.
In southern Mongolia there's a town it is said,
Named Alxa Zuoqi with roofs of red.
From this point you will travel west
Thirty Seven kilometers, then you rest.
By the numbers this is where Ted hides his cash.
But the numbers are wrong...by only one dash.
EASY - I THINK
BUENA VISTA, COLORADO?
Should have been easy, but it didn't come up in Wikipedia, and the first entry on Google got me a map service that SAID coordinates of center of map, but really gave me coordinates of a corner of the map. So I got an answer in Texas and didn't believe it. Second try agrees Colorado, where I thought I remembered he was.
Just last Friday I staked 2700 feet 3'O/S E/P, Blu-top at E/P, and Blu-top at centerline with one helper. I'm showing 6.5 hours on the time sheet, drive time not included. I think that's not bad for a one-eyed old fat man.
> .... and yes where is TDD.
Ted was banned for quite a while, and Wendell gave all of the banned guys a reprieve one day (last year). Ted lasted for only a day (I think) again before he got himself re-banished.
I can't believe someone can't refrain from all the bad-mouthing and bloviating if it means they are just going to get booted again. Oh well, what a character. a typical old-school loudmouthed crew chief at least from the guys I first started working with.