Line Out the Job for Your Roller Operators
BY John Ball
We’ve talked before about the importance of lining out the job—whether that’s with string or paint—so you pull all the passes correctly. You want to know which lane to pave first, how many tons should be placed in each lane, and which lane to pull on the way off the project. It’s just as important to have the roller operators following a pattern that’s easy to see. Especially if you have a new roller operator, it’s vital to mark the pattern for him or her to make sure a wide mat gets compacted correctly.
Notice in these pictures that the foreman has painted a dotted line so the roller operator will know where there’s a v-joint in the mat. About 17 feet in front of the garage doors, the crew graded a trough in the subbase. The slope to that point is 6 percent.
On the other side of the v-joint, the slope of the 10-foot pass is 3 percent. The garage owner wanted to be sure no water got into his establishment. The foreman who painted the dotted lines wanted to be sure the roller operator stayed on either side of the v-joint while compacting the binder course. Both goals were met because the crew took the time to mark out the job carefully.
John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving & Training, Manchester, N.H. He provides personal, on-site paving consulting services around the United States and into Canada. For more information, contact him at (603) 493-1458 or tqpaving@yahoo.com.
In this picture, you can see the roller operator compacting the binder course on the garage side of the v-joint. About 17 feet in front of the garage doors, we made a trough in the subbase. By painting the dotted line along the joint above the trough, the foreman has made it easy for the roller operator to stay on either one side or the other of the v-joint while working longitudinally.