I've heard several engineers talk about how infamously difficult soil engineering is. And when the soil engineers make a mistake, everything that is build on top is ruined. Always keep the dirt guys happy.
Half of my mandatory college internship was spent in a soil analysis lab. It is indeed VERY complicated and if you mess up once, you don't get the breathing room of designing or working with materials. Finickiest subject of civil engineering, easily.
Can you really build a road on top of nothing but packed sand? I thought you had to add rocks and gravel to make a firm base, because the sand will always sink and erode.
@@taekwondotime I guess you can in relatively dry climates, without freezing periodes. In Norway where I had a course in roadbuilding there was a lot of focus on using different sizes of rocks for drainage, and nets for stability
"I love construction - always have - and when it happens along my commute, I love it even more because I get to see the slow but steady progress each day." This quote is EXACTLY how I feel. Construction is a huge reason why I went into Civil Engineering.
I used to do Gas and Electrical conduit utilities for a about a year and a half and I always found it interesting and alway took pride in my work and I remember when we did a large project on a road putting in about a mile of underground Electrical lines and it took about 8 months but I learned a lot about prepping our trench line for pavement with compaction and road base, I now work at a pontoon boat factory as a forklift driver even tho it's not as interesting I work less hours, make more money, and don't physically wear myself out everyday
As a trucker who has driven about 2m miles, I’ve seen that soil density metering device used so many times, and now I can die satisfied finally knowing what it is . 🤗
Here in Indiana it's slow because 5 old fat guys always stand around watching the one young guy doing all the work. You've been everywhere I'm assuming. Is this true everywhere or just Indiana? Before any old guys get pissed I'm one also.
Actual reason projects take so long. Contractor: During excavation, an existing water-line not shown on plan is interfering with our work. Please see the attached change order request to remove/re-locate. Owner: Please see note 8,273 on page C-807 that reads, "The contractor is responsible for surveying the area pre-bid." *Goes into 6-months of scope negotiations, finally settle on a new scope of work* Contractor: We propose a change order to our contract of (About 10x what it's actually worth). Owner: Ah, I see. We counter offer with $0, because fuck you. *Re-negotiate the scope of work for another 6 months* Contractor: Okay, we propose 1.5x the value of this work. Owner: Alright, well it's only worth 0.5x the value, so let's just agree in the middle. *Comes to an agreement after a year* 2 Weeks later... Random laborer: Hey boss, what do you want us to do with this *second* water-line?
God this reminds my when I was sawing of broken asphalt around holes to have a clean patch and when the excavator took the asphalt there was this cable just below the ground, it was just luck that I didn't put the saw all the way down earlier otherwise I'd cut the cable. We did some investigating and found out that this cable was the main fibre optic cable from a major internet distributor and there was a good chance that like 12% of Iceland would have suddenly lost their internet connection (I live in iceland, 50% of iceland live in Reykjavík and there are only like 4 internet distributors in iceland) All because the people that put down the cable didn't put a cable PROPERLY down in the ground, yikes!
One thing about roads that's always had me curious is how the expected lifespan of a road is calculated and what types of decisions are made to decide how durable a road should be. I imagine the latter is almost exclusively "local and state codes," but a deeper dive into the trade-offs one makes when building an interstate highway versus a residential street seems like an interesting topic to explore.
I'm a civil engineering designer, Generally speaking the expected lifespan of a road usually boils down to achieving lowest cost taking into account initial costs and maintenance. For instance a rural road could simply be compacted subgrade and asphalt seal, this is cheap, however won't last very long. But as the average annual daily traffic is relatively low this is reasonable. Where the design vehicle is typically larger (say a highway or industrial estate) the pavement thickness will be increased to take the loading. This is more expensive but should last longer. Other factors to consider include expected rainfall in the area or the connecting infrastructure.
Is a bit complicated, as anything in engineering, depending of the code used is usually calculated a number of equivalent axis of vehicle traffic from there you can design the multiple layers of materials to resist the forces applied and work with the deformation expected to occur, or you can take some pre-desing, pre-validated solutions.
@@tubester4567 A typical interstate road is built in many different layers and will last many decades without the need of replacement. Starting with the sub-grade (large stone) as a base for all the asphalt, then many layers of asphalt pavement. Normally you see base asphalt with stone up to 1.5" in two 8" lifts, then some binder layers with smaller stone, and finally the wearing layer with the smallest of stones. These roads (at least in my state of Pennsylvania) could be as thick as 24" of asphalt. The small stones make a nice smooth layer which gives a nice ride quality and low tire noise, but over time large trucks and millions of cars putting their weight on and off of the road causes the stones to wear out and break (hence the name wearing course). When you see a resurfacing job, it is to remove this wearing course and replace it. This is expected to last 7 years or so, but due to climate and increased loading on the roads (increased traffic) this number could drop significantly. Resurfacing normally doesn't take too long to complete though, normally 1-2 months where as a total depth replacement might take 1-2 years.
When I was a kid, there was a state highway being built that my dad and I was drove almost every weekend I was with him. I’ll never forget the excitement of seeing how much progress was made since the last time we saw it.
As part of the series can we address. The project management aspect, in particular how these are funded and how that affects scheduling? It is so frustrating to see start/stop activity in these projects.
I've watched your videos for quite a few years now and just wanted to thank you, I have no education in these areas but I absolutely love learning about them this way.
Unfortunately this video doesn't address the fact that every road construction project gets started, then stops for 6-8 months, then starts up again for 2 weeks, then stops for another 9 months, and continues this way for 3 years until over the course of 3 days the entire project just miraculously finishes.
Well I know depending on local climate most asphalt work cannot happen in the winter, but from my experience, that's rarely the stage the work stalls out on so there's probably other human reasons for it.
Depends on if you're being a reasonable inspector or owner with common sense or a dipshit. If we have to explain to the inspector how to do their job properly, it takes a while lol
Arguing with your contractor is unprofessional and totally unnecessary. This is why "the work" is done under contract! (I spent 30 years supervising highway const. for a state DOT, I know).
That was very interesting. For me, the most important information was that soil can only be compacted at 30cm at a time. Now I understand why the same work seems to be happening for days/ weeks at a time on some parts of highways.
As engineers we specify compaction of 95% so it never settles because it is compacted so tightly with the proper moisture content. In that context the asphalt top should never give way.
Soil can be compacted as deep as 2' plus depending on material. A proper size sheepsfoot roller with optimum clay WILL compact 2' !! What happens is engineers and foreman mostly do not know what they are doing ! They are suppose to be leaders, they are mostly ignorant ! Heavy equipment operators can be the same ! Its a very ignorant world we live in now. It didn't use to be that way. Case and point. I was told this same thing, but knew different. I put in two foot plus fill... showed the roller guy how to properly roll. subgrade compaction was 114%, they said it didn't have proper moisture content like the ignorant Norm Ferguson is trying to say. They made us rip it up and add moisture ! It was so hard a Dozer would not touch it, so we got a grader and I scarfired it.. It turned to powder (just like I told them it would)and we added water ! Best compaction then was 85%.. and yes they passed it !The first pass is the most important ! You have to go really slow, if you roll over to fast you will just set the top layer and not compact deep at all and your done. An 84" vibratory roller has 55,000 pounds per square inch force !!! If any smart ass does not believe this, then have them set in one place and hit the vibratory button... it will sink like a rock ! But this is common sense, and the term common sense should not ever apply anymore because its not common, and there is no sense ! I'm a professional Heavy Equipment operator out of Local 103 Indiana 33 plus years. This example is why it takes so long to build a road... its dept of transportation and engineers that do not know what they are doing and doing very stupid things ! Feel free to ask me any questions, or I can give proper demonstrations, and would love it if anyone would like challenge my abilities !!
In my country, fill material are deposited in layers of 150mm compacted depth, and the absolute maximum compacted layer thickness cannot exceed 250mm. As for rockfill in swampy areas, the maximum rockfill layer is 400mm.
That was good information and all, but I swear where I live, road construction takes long because there's always one guy shoveling something while 5 other workers just stand around and watch him
@@plotless7436 that's a good point, but I know for a fact that is not the case, because I used to be one of those people. They get paid by the hour and they're unionized so nobody can touch them.
It is a safety code and there has to be at least 1 person supervising for the engineers to know if anything is gone wrong and so they don’t hit any major pipes/lines
My town is currently re-building/re-paving about a mile of alley that runs down the middle of town. It's not a road, it's an alley between buildings, normally used only by trash trucks and a few deliveries. While miles and miles of public street are in ruin.
Portland likes to tax (edit: everyone including) the outer areas of the city to pay for the inner area roads. There people living on gravel roads that are so potholed you can barely drive on them who are paying to replace seemingly fine roads in places they'll never drive.
There is an actual reason for this, though I don't know if it applies in your situation. Roads can be damaged in ways that are not immediately visible but are very dangerous (such as sub-surface erosion). A pothole isn't that big of a deal. A hundred yards of the road just sloughing away while a truck is going over it or something similar is pretty bad.
Well, the sad part about construction projects here in the Philippines is that most road-related projects often results to nothing ever being finished. Rather than to improve the roads here in the Philippines, most construction projects destroy the road for water piping reasons, only to be done for a long time. They would excavate the road, do whatever they "do", then fill it up poorly, only to come back within a month to do it all over again. I would feel excited about road constructions if my government didn't consist of pigs.
In my country some people got bored of a hole left mid repair, and bought some baloons and decorations and celebrated its birthday, 2 years old I think it was. Next day they sent a troop to finish the job.
@@ieuanhunt552 singapore faces alot of thunderstorms too, but our roads are in good condition! it's who manages the roads. we don't have glass on the roads, and highways and etc.
My last visit to Mexico, there were hundreds of workers working on a new piece of road in my grandmas town, no lie in just 4 days, the workers made a new road 4 kilometers long, 2 lanes both ways, whereas over here it took workers 3 weeks to remove around 500 feet of concrete barriers, the ones that look exactly like the ones dividing a freeway, just to reopen up the shoulder that was repaved and had a guard rail addition
Hey, dirt guy here. Theres actually a lot more to this testing than was in this video, beyond just how compacted it can get. Never really thought about just how many different kinds of soil mixes are used in construction until I started this job. Even in the face of global pandemic, the dirt must flow.
Living in Ottawa, Canada where temps can get from -30C to +30C, I'd love to watch an episode about how road engineers manufacture these temperature changes in. Compounding to that is frost upheaval leading to big bumps and potholes.
Temperature doesn't affect dirt much, actually. The problem is the moisture content. Fluctuations in moisture cost the dirt to shrink or expand, and THAT is an issue. Once the dirt is properly compacted at the optimum density, it's ideally capped off with rock or asphalt, which acts as a barrier to letting moisture in or out. Special materials specifically designed as vapor barriers can be added as well, to further protect against those changes. How they modify the asphalt to deal with the weather would be quite interesting, though :)
@@Shocktrue1 In the St-Lawrence lowlands, the water table is often only a few feet below the surface, and in the winter, if the soil is silty, capillary action will suck the water up and cause frost lensing.
I live in Ottawa too... here they don't actually do much in the way of cut-fill balancing, as best I can tell: they just remove all the soil outright to some considerable depth, place the sewers (if there are any, which there will be in any would-be suburban street) and replace it all with granular. So it's more like cut everywhere, fill everywhere. Owning a quarry in Ottawa is close to having a license to print money. In rural Ottawa, the City has a policy of replacing culverts (they just put in big ones pretty much everywhere now) at least 2 winters before a road is resurfaced so all that frost upheaval and delayed compaction can work its way out before they come along and resurface the road. In some places you can tell when they paved on too hot a day, as a relatively new road will be full of cracks from winter contraction (and the contractors have had to come back to put crack filler in). Carp Rd from Kinburn Rd to Galetta Rd is one such road, as is Stonecrest between Kilkenny and Kinburn.
@@NeighborSenpai That would be an interesting topic as well. Railroads in general, really, including the making, building, maintenance and issues that can arise...
I think our chief complaint with road construction is the time it takes for smaller projects, like the repair of an intersection on a 4 lane street on my commute which took 16 months! Or widening projects that lie dormant for weeks, or lanes shut off for weeks without construction equipment even arriving, etc.
I used to work for a road construction company while going to college, my dad did it for 40 years of his life. Thank you for helping people understand a little more about this process!
The issue that frustrates everyone isn't when you can see actual work happening, it's when you drive by the same area week after week and nothing is being done, it's just closed off. This is happening right now where I work, the closest expressway entrance is blocked off so I have to drive past it then get onto the expressway and drive past my nearest entrance and you can see there is nothing being done, no equipment, no workers for at least a month.
I've been a geotech and roadway engineer over my 4 years in the field, this is a great video! I'll use it instead of trying to explain what I do when someone asks
There is a term known as “track slack” that has to do with slight chain slack on bicycles used for sprints and time trials. That has nothing to do with the dozer, though. I am also feeling uneasy.
All tracked vehicles need some slack, but too much can result in a lot of damage and downtime when that track slips, and often bends out of shape. On the flip side, if you have zero or insufficient slack, you can damage your suspension and drive components when you go over rough ground and obstacles. Each type of track use has different standards. You will usually find that dozers have very deep sprocket paths and rugged/thick steel to reduce the change of throwing a track. On tanks, weight can be more of a concern, to there are usually inward-facing cleats that help keep the track in path. Rubber tracks on smaller equipment has guide cleats as well, but those tracks are often more forgiving if they slip off, and tend not to develop permanent bends as easily. - - I've worked on all of these examples, and I prefer re-setting a rubber track to the linked track on a dozer or tank.
Thanks for the explanation. As the son of a Highway Department Engineering tech (Idaho), I'd love to see you describe, compare and contrast the different techniques for road maintenance: including slurry seal, chip seal, overlay, and complete rebuild, and asphalt versus concrete pavement. More people see these civil engineering projects every day than they see new construction. Thanks again!
I love digging up my broken conduit after the super told everyone grade was 2 feet higher than it was and the people making the road broke all my underground shit
@@danialexquande7813 It also depends on how much the unions want to drag their feet too. Road construction wouldn't take as long if they weren't mandated to take a break every 5 minutes.
@@killman369547 As someone who has worked in and supervised both union and non union civil construction I'm confident you don't know what your talking about. Way to throw workers under the bus to score political points though. prick.
@@killman369547 a lot of projects require inspectors on-site 24/7 and engineers/state officials go out a lot to watch something get done which maybe what you see. But the construction workers themselves work their asses off rarely getting breaks you have zero idea what you're talking about
Living in Los Angeles and orange counties, I always wondered what the hell was taking so long, now I see how much work goes into this, at $3m per mile at a two lane road I can't even imagine the time effort and cost into a 16 lane freeway, keep this content coming sir
Its to bad we did not infest in mass transportation instead of pouring so much capital into building so many roadways they generally turn into parking lots much of the day. I live outside NYC and if I take the train it take 25 minutes if I drive it can take 1.5 hours. If we had good mass transportation that 25 minute ride could be ten minutes. Instead we just keep throwing money into fixing roads.
@@mtadams2009 The US used to have a mass transit system. Then Henry Ford made cars affordable to the average person, which would also run on about any combustible. Then John D. Rockefeller bought up all the tram lines and which went from one coast to the other, while building up his gas station businesses and other oil company's. Had people lobby for and backed The Suffrage Movement, which started prohibition. That made it so no one could make there own fuel and had to buy it from Rockefeller. History can be fascinating once you look at the whole picture.
@@KalRandom don't forget the suburban sprawl prompted for racial reasons and GM literally buying tram lines in 1950s to demolish them all to replace with buse...
Meanwhile in my city it's not all all about how long it takes to build the road. They get built 3-5 times. They get built, dug up to install basic utilities, then rebuilt. Repeat because they couldn't be bothered to coordinate so every road has to be build repeatedly. Surface roads are built about 5 times, highways built 2-3 times. And that's all before they widen the roads, which begins 3 days after the road was finally completed and continues for 5-20 years because they do the exact same thing with bridges. That may seem like an exaggeration but the latest ring road has already begun widening areas with narrow bridges that were built narrow despite being intended to be widened in areas 8 years old. The ring hasn't yet even been completed in areas that were started a decade ago
There's always something that will slow a project down. Weather, missing materials, concrete plants breaking down, asphalt plants breaking down, trucks breaking down. Other projects that have deadlines that are sooner than the project they started on. You could go on and on all day with things that can slow down or even halt a road project.
Likewise bro. Though it is good to travel to site to see what is going on. I have many people from public designing a road is as simple as drawing a line on a map. Least they forget about undesirable terrain, survey works, existing utilities, wayleave application and the list goes on.
Spend 60 years in the Soil Testing Business, there is so much to building a road, and the testing starts years before the 1st Bulldozer pushes any Soil. Great content on this subject keep it coming.
"I love seeing the slow but steady progress each day." You clearly haven't seen the way roads are built here in the UK. Nothing happens for weeks then you see a massive change overnight followed by more weeks of nothing. Day 1: Road closes. Week 3: Construction equipment actually arrives on site. Week 4: Construction crew arrive on site. Week 6: The first piece of turf, tree, bush or hedge is actually removed. Month 3: Work actually begins on the earthworks. Month 9: Earthworks completed. Month 12: Work starts on the road surface. Month 13: Road reopens. Month 18: Road closes again for line painting. Year 3: Road closes again multiple times for utility companies to lay their utilities one at a time, often having to come back to fix damaged caused by another utility company. Year 5: Two year old potholes caused by the utility companies damaging the road surface are FINALLY... marked with yellow spray paint by the local authorities. Year 10: Some of the marked pot holes repaired, others left for later. New potholes ignored completely. Et cetera, et cetera.
Oh man, especially councils, "We can't afford to repair the road this year" - the council. "We all got brand new 'company' cars and bonuses" - also the council.
I95 in CT around exit 9. Started driving that in the late '70's and 30 years later they were done. 1 mile of highway. The joke was you saw 3 generations of workers. 1 mile. 1 freakin' mile.
come to Indiana, where the same sections of roads are always under construction. I think they have had I-69 from Indianapolis north to Anderson under construction for 20 years. and it seems when it looks like they have it done, they tear it all up again to redo it. Another fun one is city roads get redone, then two months later it is tore up for the city owned water/sewer pipe replacement once done the new road is now a junk road and it is like that for 20 years.
Where I live, politicians will announce a project before each election for 50 years before building it, then they'll build a phase, and spend the next 30 years announcing phase 2.
Tony Dratchev lets be real, Indiana doesn’t know how to make a flat surface on any of the interstates...idk how many times I’ve driven through and thought “Jesus Christ, I don’t even know how to pave a road and I’m pretty sure I could do better than this bs.”
Actual reason change orders occur. Engineer: Let’s take two years to design this project and anything we don’t understand we’ll just add the risk onto the Contractor with a general note somewhere before it goes out to bid. Contractor: How long do we have to submit questions on the bid you took two years designing? Engineer: Two days after the Pre-Bid Meeting. Make sure you read every general note, every specification section, every detail, every document referenced, and all Addendums Issued because we still couldn’t design it right after two years. Make sure your subcontractors adhere to every specification too. Also, make sure you let the Engineer know of any discrepancies prior to bid submission. Contractor: Here is your Change Order. We couldn’t possibly read all the information provided in the specifications thoroughly with in a few days time and find all your mistakes too. Of course when we did want to discuss the project, there was a cone of silence in place so we couldn’t. Even when we submit questions, the Engineer is usually too risk adverse to give the Contractor a straight answer. So, here is your RFI and Change Order after the fact. Engineer: I can’t believe the Contractor didn’t read our note. Contractor: Wishes all Engineers would be more realistic.
And a lot of times the developer wants things built before. Design is complete so an engineer may spend a couple months on design but construction starts after only a couple of weeks so then the building is being designed while constructed then the developer just pays for the mistakes along the way
Ahahahaha I am new into this world and don’t have a lot of experience yet, but you’re comment is hilarious!!!! I work for the engineers. Super duper smart guys and gals that just kinda make me wanna pull my hair out🤣🤣🤣
One of the weirdest things I learned in a trip into northern Alaska was the roads changed every season. they could not form a foundation due to environmental and logistical issues. So, as the frost in the soil froze, melted, then refroze the road on top bends over new hills and valleys!
@@jijst5 the water in the soil melts and refreezes over the course of year and it’s enough to mess with the elevation of small hills. Imagine trying to build on an extremely slow waterbed
You know I never questioned why construction sites were only accessible through rocky entrances. That’s so interesting. Thank you for this video, I’m really starting to appreciate the long construction projects I see every day
No construction site will voluntarily halt progress, cost loads of money to keep renting money and lengthening other contracts. There will always ve a good reason for halted progress. Or maybe you're not paying enough attention to the progress ;)
The progress could also be taking place in areas that you can't see from where your at. Most road projects are large as larger scales make them more cost effective.
When they get the contract they mess things up in a hurry so there's no choice but to eventually finish it, then put it off while they finish all the other contracts that they started and left half done for months.
Sometimes they take long breaks for bridges to settle but most times here it's the same. He says he likes them on commutes because he can see the progress. Here you can have one on your annual holiday route because they just ain't changing.
Glad you talked about the environmental impacts of construction. The number one pollutant in water is sediment from erosion. Its important to not only install sediment controls, but also to properly maintain them throughout the period of construction
I worked on roads early in my life. I can attest to the sheer laziness of some of these workers. Some places now impose fines if the contract takes too long.
At my place it's mandatory for local authorities to always choose the cheapest contractor, doesn't mean stuff gets done fast, but it's suppose to stop local authorities from giving contracts to 'friends'.
You are talking about the soil that has been properly consolidated, compacted, and already built up to platform level. that is the case, things can be done very quickly. If you are talking about starting from scratch, then yeah, it is as explained to the video. However, what he discuss on the video is just tip of the iceberg. He did not mentioned about soil settlement, constraint such as undesirable terrains, protected land and even other non nature related problems.
@@_BangDroid_ Don't forget about Hooke's Law for soil. They might waiting for the soil to "relax" so that it does not go over the limit of proportionality. If it is over, it is very hard to get a nice compact surface especially in clay soils
I was on a 16 week course at the Ford Training Centre at Dagenham at the same time as an elevated road was being built 50M south of the site we were based at. The huge machine being used was the same one that built the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Thames at Dartford, and the process was beyond fascinating. As engineers we were in heaven having this ringside view of the two lane elevated road slowly advance across the site. It was all I could do to drag myself away from it and return to the class after lunch breaks. It's a memory that will stay with me forever.
. . . . Compacting soil is more effective when done in layers: That sounds remarkably useful in how I plan my sandcastles on the beach from here on out. Neat! :-)
Xeno Phon it should all be over in 2023 gratefully. New generation is tearing everything down and make everything right. Been real bad since the bad decisions of that generation in 2008, and everythings bern boring. New generation is exciting.
@@samuelevans5750 "New generation is tearing everything down" Merely this part, building anything (as shown on this channel) is complicated. "New generation is exciting." Sure, very exciting. Especially Generation Identity. ;)
I’m guessing they also seed dirt piles to deter erosion too. I always see the large piles of dirt in a construction site covered in a layer of grass. I’m pretty sure that it isn’t natural seeding, but that a human spread the grass seeds for the roots to hold the soil in place.
It’s actually a helpful byproduct of the soil on its own. Grass and other vegetation gets torn out of the ground with the soil as it’s moved and when it’s left in stock piles for weeks or months at a time, the vegetation takes root again very quickly and grows to cover the stock piles as you see them. It’s more of a convenience thing that it helps with erosion control but the downside is that those same soil testing labs then must test the soil for organics to ensure nothing endangered or harmful is in them and there are no unwanted seeds (like trees or other large plants) that could damage the structures or roadways being built as they grow in the future.
Many large piles of dirt are stockpiles of cut material that is either going to be hauled off site or used in fill later. If the stockpile isn't going to be used any time soon it has to be covered/protected from erosion. Often sites will hydroseed (basically hosing down areas with grass seed) piles and slopes as part of their wet season erosion control plan and no/little planned work is intended during the wet season. If the site plans on using the stockpile in the near future they will often cover it with plastic which will both reduce erosion as well as prevent excessive moisture entering the soil causing it to become over optimum moisture when compacted. If it is the wet season (when rain/snow is most common), their is practically no way to allow overly wet soil (at least soils high in silt/clay) to dry making it usable for compacted fill.
@@TremendousYeti The last thing you want to do is use any organic material as fill. The reasons being it cant be compacted as well as your typical clay material. Second, as time goes by the organics break down causing voids which lead to settlement.
He gets excited to see the "slow but steady progress" of construction... Then there's me who grew up in Dallas and saw the I635 and I75 interchange under construction for 15 years, constantly backing up traffic for miles, rarely seeing anyone working on it.
Thank you!!! That's what I am trying to say. They all either mope around looking around while "working" or the other scenario... no one is there for weeks or months at a time while the road is closed.
It may appear to public that nothing is happening or section of roadway is closed for no reason, but time is money for most contractors and delaying jobs costs them a lot, so usually there are good reasons for construction staging, scheduling and workers are working their asses off.
I worked in a soil mechanics lab for 7 years while I was (slowly) making my way through a construction management degree. Ive pounded out MANY a Proctor test, calculated and graphed many a density curve, and rolled probably 20x the Atterburg Limits test. The man I worked for trained under Arthur Casagrande at Harvard, he was ridiculously intelligent
Joke's on you, the company my uncle hired to build a 500 meter long gravel road took 8 months to do it. The soil was hard and even. They literally only poured the gravel and compacted it. That's it. 8 months for that?!
I bet a lot of that time was spent on environmental studies, soil studies, filing paperwork, refiling paperwork, fixing errors in paperwork a 3rd time, getting approval from yet another government agency that you never would have thought of, and finally, getting an inspector to show up.
I'm the guy who tests this kind of work. a 500 meter driveway should be done in a week or less. Two tops, even with horrible weather a couple days in causing a delay...
This is defenitively the most interesting 10 minutes of content I have seen in days across the MSM ! Good job @Practical Engineering for your great work!
Great explanation on why it takes so long to construct a road. I've worked on many road construction my self. It's also important to note when talking about compaction of soils, that not all soils are compactable. Some soils remain in a sponge like form, even after mixing it with lime or cement, which needs to be removed and replaced with compactable materials.
I've built a lot of commercial projects and the absolute most important part of any project is the dirt work. On the select fill we always went for 95% compaction. A building will not last with out correct dirt work (a lot of plumbers and electricians hated digging in the pad to get their under slab work down). The problem with a lot a residential house have foundation problems is because of the dirt work, that's why house leveling companies are in business.
The Cost makes me thinnk even more that rails would be better as rails are more resistant and can be built out of much more durable material.Yes it would be public transport
the rail system we have is 100 years behind the times. it also can not handle the current demand. many former rail lines have been scrapped so i just don't see it happening. i do see automation changing the way we shop. instead of driving to the store perhaps simply go the the end of your road where your items are waiting in a storage locker. this would make much less necessary.
It might be interesting to talk about ways previous projects have cut corners to work faster and cheaper, and the long-term consequences of those decisions. For example it feels like the Interstate system may have been initially constructed with much more cut than fill to leverage pre-compacted soil, possibly just dumping soil or using it to make berms. I don't know this but it kinda looks like it.
The experience with the Interstate Highway system varies by region, and much of its early history (late 1950s to early 1970s) involves the development of proper freeway/motorway design standards in an era when the existing freeways were few and had design standards more in line with boulevards and avenues. Even the Weimar and WWII era Germany Autobahn has certain features more in common with avenues than modern freeways. Secondly, freeways can also have intentionally depressed designs for other reasons, such as taking advantage of gravity in off- and on-ramp operations (off-ramps uphill and on-ramps downhill results in shorter ramps as gravity helps cars speed up or slow down as needed), creating natural noise mitigation from the cut segment slopes, saving costs on more expensive mainline bridges over cross-roads, and even using the excess cut material to form noise-abating berms on the roadside.
I remember in the 90's when the contractor didn't prepare the road bed for the Wilmington DE bypass (295). They had to rip up the roadway surface and re-do it only a few months after it opened.
This dealt more with new construction, which doesn't delay people as much. I think what we're upset about is the long stretches that close down for a few miles to have a lane closed for 13 months a year. I know the causes vary from utility maintenance under the road to regrading, but why those take so long, or in some cases, never seem to get done, is what's mind boggling. There's a stretch of I-70 that has had the same lane closed with orange barrels since the Western Interior Seaway receded in the late Cretaceous.
@@harshitrautela6585 Yes. I was using hyperbole, a form of intentional exaggeration. Hyperbole is mainly used to convey emotions that don't come across well in literal wording. In this case, it's conveying the extreme frustration with construction projects that take too long and have no clear end to them. If I had said 12 months a year, you would assume I was being literal, so I had to pick 13 so you would know it was hyperbole. It's the same as the Beatles song "8 days a week" is complaining about an excessive work schedule by exaggeration, or my mention of orange barrels being there since the late Cretaceous period. With things that don't have hard limits like these examples, people will either use extremes (eg. "not in a million years") or intentionally fictitious numbers (eg. "not for a bajillion dollars")
"steady progress" well if you mean construction cones sitting on finished concrete for about 2-3 years sure. But thankfully other areas have a bit quicker and methodical construction teams.
Odin Thorsdad now there’s me, who drives just inside the fog line. If the twat handing off the attenuator truck dropping cones willy nilly misses by four centimetres, they have a flat cone over the hillside.
Roads: Million and billions of dollars. Winter: Intentionally spreading corrosive salt to DESTROY BRAND NEW ROADS completely! REPEAT. We need Salt Engineers.
the salt used to prevent ice on roads has minimal effect on asphalt. most potholes form either form water expanding inside or under the material as it freezes and causing cracks, poorly compacted material under the roadway swelling/shrinking in relation to the water content changing and damaging the asphalt, or Heavy vehicles like semi trucks sitting in one spot or moving very slowly on the asphalt during hot weather, where the heat and weight cause the asphalt to soften and then deform. Once you have a depression, tires hitting the edges of the slope at high speed quickly wear it away and change it from a depression to a pothole.
Dear Grady, if you spent any number of years living in the far east, and then compare with the construction here, you will find work progress at a snail's pace here. The far east, such as HKG where labor is much cheaper and without many protection for workers, they can afford to pour workers into a job, further more, there are less local codes such as zoning , environmental laws etc. There is also a big population , making roads and rail easily profitable. The opposite and worse case scenario is Calif. They tried building a high speed rail and after a $billion spent, not one foot been built. The lack of affordable housing and hot climate means people can live in tents. It takes several times more money to build anything there compare with states next door. If they have to build something like the Hoover dam in Calif. start same time, with today's red tape, the dam would be finished about this year.
I didn't know that cut and fill had to be balanced, and the exactness required for compacting soil. You see this all the time and think. That guy's rolled that ground enough. Cool stuff. Thanks.
4:20 Metallurgical testing far exceeded soil testing in both frequency and mass. Every single production facility has material testing on site with multiple process checks. Independant materials testing labs run a very small slice of the total amount of testing performed.
I think you underestimate just how much dirt, rock and sand is moved on a jobsite... sure, metal is massive and we use a lot of it through the country. But even your average Dollar General store plot usually involves moving a pile of dirt bigger than multiple houses. And that material is usually moved at least TWICE, since they frequently stockpile the majority of dirt once when prepping a site, then again when they actually place that material where its needed and compact it. Hundreds of tons are moved for small stores, and Tens of Thousands of tons are moved for warehouses and residential complexes... they move a LOT of dirt. XD And even in mining of metals, even the best mines can be expected to move at least 10 times as much dirt and rock as they do minerals, and that dirt/rock is going to be tested and sold to a construction site if at all possible to recoup some of the costs of mining.
@@melodycervantes4167 Depends on how you define "tested". A really small amount goes to the actual lab, but that small sample should represent all that dirt, at least statistically. And there're a lot of methods to ensure that.
Certainly you already know it but I wanted to be an added voice. This channel is almost unbelievably good. This is exactly what the internet should be used for, and you do it better than most. I like a lot of things on youtube, but I love your channel.
I love videos like this that point out everyday things. I've been noticing a lot more culverts since your video on them. ;) Would definitely be interested in more in this series!
In Canada we have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. Big part of the preparation of roads is keeping water out of the base material. If somebody goofs on that it will be obvious when the first freeze-thaw cycles start, and no amount of surface patching will cure that.
I’m a second year chemical engineer, and I worked on a co-op where I was testing the compaction using one of those nuclear density gauges he was talking about. I know first hand how long this process takes. Sometimes I would only take 2 density tests a day because of how long it takes.
The reason: They don't assign enough people to projects. Projects are designed not to finish in a timely manner but keep the construction firms fat for decades.
I know you commented this 2 months ago, but more people doesn’t always make the project go faster. You run into issues with congestion and inefficiency especially when you’re moving dirt around.
Pretty much what I wanted to say. It is called job security. The longer you drag it out the more you can bill. Don't tell me they have a contracted amount and have to stick to it. They always find reasons to extend and bill more. There is a project near me that is 2 to 3 years over schedule and still is not finished.
@@dlb4299 they have a contracted amount and have to stick to it, unless they notice a reason to go over the allotted time before hand and get more time through negotiations. If a project is taking longer than it should there’s a high chance that contractor is either breaking even on the project or losing money.
@@roycea.7593 That is how it should be in a perfect world. But with greed, graft and corruption running rampant, not only in construction but many industries, it seldom works out that way.
@@dlb4299 I see what you’re saying one hundred percent and I don’t want to argue with that logic since it does hold up to a certain point. It’s nice and easy to blame government entities for making construction so difficult and time consuming because of the red tape and inefficiencies, but at the end of the day there’s always a reason for a regulation (and they typically come from someone dying or losing their livelihood). It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that not everything you don’t like (in this case, a brutally over budget and late project that definitely ruins your commute) comes from 100% corruption and greed. The world is complex and there’s a lot more to construction than meets the eye. I heard you can audit construction management classes for cheap, it’s what I studied and it’s the field I currently work in. You should check out some classes in your free time, maybe it will make construction less brutal and more interesting to look at!
There's a major road widening project happening near my house. It's fun to watch all the equipment hard at work. Also, now I know why they dug well over a foot down below grade for the new stretch of highway.
I was a laborer on hwy construction for a few years. If you're working with machines you can't do anything while the machine is working, or you'll die. So you end up busting your ass in short bursts in assistance of the machine operator.
@@justinw7323 6am? Ha, the forecast calls for 35C and the bridge footing pour needs to get started before sunrise to give the concrete the best chance of curing properly. Hello 4am pours. you're welcome.
@@ProfWildcard Unions keep workers safe and well paid. They are not the problem, they are the solution. Union workers are better trained and more invested in the job.
Honestly though, usually it's either contractors higher management, suppliers higher management, lobbyst, and/ or local 'security'. Unions and workers in general usually got very little.
@@shadogiant Actually (at least in the US) Unions have way to much power and a little thing I think few people know about is that Unions take a Part of your paycheck and when you combine unchecked power and money you get in some cases Unions who continue to demand higher and higher wages for jobs that arnt really worth that.
Hi excavating contractor here. You left out a large part of the fill slope work is that we have to key into naturally competent soil below the edge of the fill slope before filling can occur. Usually 5 feet below native top soil depending on the job. Also delays on a job due to change orders, or unforeseen conditions such as rock that needs to be removed. Red tape governmental regulations can also significantly slow down progress. Not saying that they are bad just its the way it is. Loved the video on my occupation. Thanks!
I've heard several engineers talk about how infamously difficult soil engineering is. And when the soil engineers make a mistake, everything that is build on top is ruined.
Always keep the dirt guys happy.
Half of my mandatory college internship was spent in a soil analysis lab. It is indeed VERY complicated and if you mess up once, you don't get the breathing room of designing or working with materials. Finickiest subject of civil engineering, easily.
Can you really build a road on top of nothing but packed sand? I thought you had to add rocks and gravel to make a firm base, because the sand will always sink and erode.
@@taekwondotime I guess you can in relatively dry climates, without freezing periodes. In Norway where I had a course in roadbuilding there was a lot of focus on using different sizes of rocks for drainage, and nets for stability
The rocks also give stability
yess, but geotechnical engineering is very confuse. there is a lot of theory, method.
Definitely continue this series, it was great!
Yeah, please do!
Sorry, but I have to correct you.
It is great.
I love this channel please keep it going
Yes please round 2!
Yes please!!
“Behind the Cones” would be a great title for an entire Practical Engineering sub-series.
Good name for a bong smoking podcast too
Adore Oner want to start it with me?
'behind the... ' stories are always interesting. With the exception of 'behind the balls, it taint what you think '
"Behind the cones" series? Sounds like a good idea to me! 😁👍
“Behind the orange cones”would go better I guess, but yeah it would be a good sub series
"I love construction - always have - and when it happens along my commute, I love it even more because I get to see the slow but steady progress each day." This quote is EXACTLY how I feel. Construction is a huge reason why I went into Civil Engineering.
ruclips.net/channel/UCSiaHKyoxSyoc8Rzb2thXJA
@Tbone Hey, well if your parents were soil workers, then maybe they really did walk uphill both ways 😂
I used to do Gas and Electrical conduit utilities for a about a year and a half and I always found it interesting and alway took pride in my work and I remember when we did a large project on a road putting in about a mile of underground Electrical lines and it took about 8 months but I learned a lot about prepping our trench line for pavement with compaction and road base, I now work at a pontoon boat factory as a forklift driver even tho it's not as interesting I work less hours, make more money, and don't physically wear myself out everyday
We share same thoughts ❤
As a trucker who has driven about 2m miles, I’ve seen that soil density metering device used so many times, and now I can die satisfied finally knowing what it is
. 🤗
yep, also called nuclear densometer
Damn, 2 million miles by one guy--really puts into perspective the importance and scale of the work that y'all do!
That’s about 20-30 years right?
Here in Indiana it's slow because 5 old fat guys always stand around watching the one young guy doing all the work. You've been everywhere I'm assuming. Is this true everywhere or just Indiana? Before any old guys get pissed I'm one also.
@@apathyguy8338 any city work is like this lol
Actual reason projects take so long.
Contractor: During excavation, an existing water-line not shown on plan is interfering with our work. Please see the attached change order request to remove/re-locate.
Owner: Please see note 8,273 on page C-807 that reads, "The contractor is responsible for surveying the area pre-bid."
*Goes into 6-months of scope negotiations, finally settle on a new scope of work*
Contractor: We propose a change order to our contract of (About 10x what it's actually worth).
Owner: Ah, I see. We counter offer with $0, because fuck you.
*Re-negotiate the scope of work for another 6 months*
Contractor: Okay, we propose 1.5x the value of this work.
Owner: Alright, well it's only worth 0.5x the value, so let's just agree in the middle.
*Comes to an agreement after a year*
2 Weeks later...
Random laborer: Hey boss, what do you want us to do with this *second* water-line?
God this reminds my when I was sawing of broken asphalt around holes to have a clean patch and when the excavator took the asphalt there was this cable just below the ground, it was just luck that I didn't put the saw all the way down earlier otherwise I'd cut the cable.
We did some investigating and found out that this cable was the main fibre optic cable from a major internet distributor and there was a good chance that like 12% of Iceland would have suddenly lost their internet connection (I live in iceland, 50% of iceland live in Reykjavík and there are only like 4 internet distributors in iceland)
All because the people that put down the cable didn't put a cable PROPERLY down in the ground, yikes!
Your insight was humorous!
This guy works on construction projects!
This is exactly how it goes. You took the words right out of my mouth. Even today I’m dealing with change orders on a road project
This hit home with me. Lol. Can confirm this is the daily life of civil site work.
One thing about roads that's always had me curious is how the expected lifespan of a road is calculated and what types of decisions are made to decide how durable a road should be. I imagine the latter is almost exclusively "local and state codes," but a deeper dive into the trade-offs one makes when building an interstate highway versus a residential street seems like an interesting topic to explore.
I'm a civil engineering designer, Generally speaking the expected lifespan of a road usually boils down to achieving lowest cost taking into account initial costs and maintenance. For instance a rural road could simply be compacted subgrade and asphalt seal, this is cheap, however won't last very long. But as the average annual daily traffic is relatively low this is reasonable.
Where the design vehicle is typically larger (say a highway or industrial estate) the pavement thickness will be increased to take the loading. This is more expensive but should last longer. Other factors to consider include expected rainfall in the area or the connecting infrastructure.
I had a similar question, how long does the average road last? They seem to resurface the roads after a few years, even when the road is stable.
Is a bit complicated, as anything in engineering, depending of the code used is usually calculated a number of equivalent axis of vehicle traffic from there you can design the multiple layers of materials to resist the forces applied and work with the deformation expected to occur, or you can take some pre-desing, pre-validated solutions.
And load limits
@@tubester4567 A typical interstate road is built in many different layers and will last many decades without the need of replacement. Starting with the sub-grade (large stone) as a base for all the asphalt, then many layers of asphalt pavement. Normally you see base asphalt with stone up to 1.5" in two 8" lifts, then some binder layers with smaller stone, and finally the wearing layer with the smallest of stones. These roads (at least in my state of Pennsylvania) could be as thick as 24" of asphalt. The small stones make a nice smooth layer which gives a nice ride quality and low tire noise, but over time large trucks and millions of cars putting their weight on and off of the road causes the stones to wear out and break (hence the name wearing course). When you see a resurfacing job, it is to remove this wearing course and replace it. This is expected to last 7 years or so, but due to climate and increased loading on the roads (increased traffic) this number could drop significantly. Resurfacing normally doesn't take too long to complete though, normally 1-2 months where as a total depth replacement might take 1-2 years.
When I was a kid, there was a state highway being built that my dad and I was drove almost every weekend I was with him. I’ll never forget the excitement of seeing how much progress was made since the last time we saw it.
There was a new state road put in our area when I was a kid. It was super exciting to see it being built
that sounds fun
Gf: take me somewhere expensive to eat.
Me: got ya. Picnic by the side of the road it is.
😂
Good idea. I usually pick the airport food court.
Don't you guys have any cinemas?
@@nickwallette6201 I wanna BUILD an airport runway now...
come on we've seen that joke so many times before...
For me it's all the industrial machinery at work that makes me want to watch the construction. Great video.
Jeremy Fielding My three year old nephew would agree with you.
It was exactly what you said that made me get my CDL and be able to partake in it.
I wanna know the name of this music 1:06
same!
As part of the series can we address. The project management aspect, in particular how these are funded and how that affects scheduling? It is so frustrating to see start/stop activity in these projects.
Yes as a former excavation construction worker it's very cool to see the machinery up close and twice as fun to drive/operate
I've watched your videos for quite a few years now and just wanted to thank you, I have no education in these areas but I absolutely love learning about them this way.
Hear, hear!
Unfortunately this video doesn't address the fact that every road construction project gets started, then stops for 6-8 months, then starts up again for 2 weeks, then stops for another 9 months, and continues this way for 3 years until over the course of 3 days the entire project just miraculously finishes.
Perfectly summary of the widening of I26 in Asheville, NC
Well I know depending on local climate most asphalt work cannot happen in the winter, but from my experience, that's rarely the stage the work stalls out on so there's probably other human reasons for it.
Follow the money.
The 405 freeway in California has been in construction for over 6. Its rediculous.
I-5 in Tacoma and JBLM, lordy.... that think will be under construction until the end of 2024 according to their published timeline.
You forgot the amount of time arguing with the contractor...which last time I check accounts for about 60%
ruclips.net/video/52xClKnT5hs/видео.html
Depends on if you're being a reasonable inspector or owner with common sense or a dipshit. If we have to explain to the inspector how to do their job properly, it takes a while lol
Arguing with your contractor is unprofessional and totally unnecessary. This is why "the work" is done under contract! (I spent 30 years supervising highway const. for a state DOT, I know).
That was very interesting. For me, the most important information was that soil can only be compacted at 30cm at a time. Now I understand why the same work seems to be happening for days/ weeks at a time on some parts of highways.
Well thats not true. 1 foot would be a small compaction device. I've passed thousands of compaction tests and we certainly fill more than 1 foot.
As engineers we specify compaction of 95% so it never settles because it is compacted so tightly with the proper moisture content. In that context the asphalt top should never give way.
Soil can be compacted as deep as 2' plus depending on material. A proper size sheepsfoot roller with optimum clay WILL compact 2' !! What happens is engineers and foreman mostly do not know what they are doing ! They are suppose to be leaders, they are mostly ignorant ! Heavy equipment operators can be the same ! Its a very ignorant world we live in now. It didn't use to be that way. Case and point. I was told this same thing, but knew different. I put in two foot plus fill... showed the roller guy how to properly roll. subgrade compaction was 114%, they said it didn't have proper moisture content like the ignorant Norm Ferguson is trying to say. They made us rip it up and add moisture ! It was so hard a Dozer would not touch it, so we got a grader and I scarfired it.. It turned to powder (just like I told them it would)and we added water ! Best compaction then was 85%.. and yes they passed it !The first pass is the most important ! You have to go really slow, if you roll over to fast you will just set the top layer and not compact deep at all and your done. An 84" vibratory roller has 55,000 pounds per square inch force !!! If any smart ass does not believe this, then have them set in one place and hit the vibratory button... it will sink like a rock ! But this is common sense, and the term common sense should not ever apply anymore because its not common, and there is no sense ! I'm a professional Heavy Equipment operator out of Local 103 Indiana 33 plus years. This example is why it takes so long to build a road... its dept of transportation and engineers that do not know what they are doing and doing very stupid things ! Feel free to ask me any questions, or I can give proper demonstrations, and would love it if anyone would like challenge my abilities !!
In my country, fill material are deposited in layers of 150mm compacted depth, and the absolute maximum compacted layer thickness cannot exceed 250mm. As for rockfill in swampy areas, the maximum rockfill layer is 400mm.
That was good information and all, but I swear where I live, road construction takes long because there's always one guy shoveling something while 5 other workers just stand around and watch him
I know, year old comment and everything, but this is actually more efficient, they take turns so nobody gets too exhausted and can work for longer.
@@plotless7436 that's a good point, but I know for a fact that is not the case, because I used to be one of those people. They get paid by the hour and they're unionized so nobody can touch them.
unions are cancer
It is a safety code and there has to be at least 1 person supervising for the engineers to know if anything is gone wrong and so they don’t hit any major pipes/lines
@@PresidentEvil A+ username/post combo.
I love that my city replaces roads that are perfectly fine. And then they never replace the bad roads.
When I see that I ask who lives on each street.
My town is currently re-building/re-paving about a mile of alley that runs down the middle of town. It's not a road, it's an alley between buildings, normally used only by trash trucks and a few deliveries. While miles and miles of public street are in ruin.
Portland likes to tax (edit: everyone including) the outer areas of the city to pay for the inner area roads. There people living on gravel roads that are so potholed you can barely drive on them who are paying to replace seemingly fine roads in places they'll never drive.
There is an actual reason for this, though I don't know if it applies in your situation. Roads can be damaged in ways that are not immediately visible but are very dangerous (such as sub-surface erosion).
A pothole isn't that big of a deal. A hundred yards of the road just sloughing away while a truck is going over it or something similar is pretty bad.
@@travisterry2200 Yup, wealthy neighborhoods always get the best roads because they have a bigger tax base.
Well, the sad part about construction projects here in the Philippines is that most road-related projects often results to nothing ever being finished. Rather than to improve the roads here in the Philippines, most construction projects destroy the road for water piping reasons, only to be done for a long time. They would excavate the road, do whatever they "do", then fill it up poorly, only to come back within a month to do it all over again. I would feel excited about road constructions if my government didn't consist of pigs.
In my country some people got bored of a hole left mid repair, and bought some baloons and decorations and celebrated its birthday, 2 years old I think it was. Next day they sent a troop to finish the job.
Doesn't the Philippines have lots of Monsoons. Must be a nightmare to keep roads in good repair.
@@ieuanhunt552 singapore faces alot of thunderstorms too, but our roads are in good condition!
it's who manages the roads. we don't have glass on the roads, and highways and etc.
we have same problems in india
same here, it's because of corruption
My last visit to Mexico, there were hundreds of workers working on a new piece of road in my grandmas town, no lie in just 4 days, the workers made a new road 4 kilometers long, 2 lanes both ways, whereas over here it took workers 3 weeks to remove around 500 feet of concrete barriers, the ones that look exactly like the ones dividing a freeway, just to reopen up the shoulder that was repaved and had a guard rail addition
they built an entire additional runway in Cancun in like 5 months... took 20 years to build a runway in Chicago...
Perhaps Mexicans cut of corners with safety or have less bureaucracy.
Hey, dirt guy here.
Theres actually a lot more to this testing than was in this video, beyond just how compacted it can get. Never really thought about just how many different kinds of soil mixes are used in construction until I started this job. Even in the face of global pandemic, the dirt must flow.
CEI guy here. I run a Troxler nuke gauge on my jobs :) I was so happy to this video
He who controls the dirt, controls the universe!
Speaking of new video series. You should bring back "whats that infastrucure" those where always so interesting
Living in Ottawa, Canada where temps can get from -30C to +30C, I'd love to watch an episode about how road engineers manufacture these temperature changes in. Compounding to that is frost upheaval leading to big bumps and potholes.
Temperature doesn't affect dirt much, actually. The problem is the moisture content. Fluctuations in moisture cost the dirt to shrink or expand, and THAT is an issue. Once the dirt is properly compacted at the optimum density, it's ideally capped off with rock or asphalt, which acts as a barrier to letting moisture in or out. Special materials specifically designed as vapor barriers can be added as well, to further protect against those changes. How they modify the asphalt to deal with the weather would be quite interesting, though :)
Not related to roads but in my place the rail company had to shut down a line due to rail expansion by the summer heatwave
@@Shocktrue1 In the St-Lawrence lowlands, the water table is often only a few feet below the surface, and in the winter, if the soil is silty, capillary action will suck the water up and cause frost lensing.
I live in Ottawa too... here they don't actually do much in the way of cut-fill balancing, as best I can tell: they just remove all the soil outright to some considerable depth, place the sewers (if there are any, which there will be in any would-be suburban street) and replace it all with granular. So it's more like cut everywhere, fill everywhere. Owning a quarry in Ottawa is close to having a license to print money.
In rural Ottawa, the City has a policy of replacing culverts (they just put in big ones pretty much everywhere now) at least 2 winters before a road is resurfaced so all that frost upheaval and delayed compaction can work its way out before they come along and resurface the road.
In some places you can tell when they paved on too hot a day, as a relatively new road will be full of cracks from winter contraction (and the contractors have had to come back to put crack filler in). Carp Rd from Kinburn Rd to Galetta Rd is one such road, as is Stonecrest between Kilkenny and Kinburn.
@@NeighborSenpai That would be an interesting topic as well. Railroads in general, really, including the making, building, maintenance and issues that can arise...
I think our chief complaint with road construction is the time it takes for smaller projects, like the repair of an intersection on a 4 lane street on my commute which took 16 months! Or widening projects that lie dormant for weeks, or lanes shut off for weeks without construction equipment even arriving, etc.
"if people are interested" well of course we are that's why every one in the comments in subscribed. Right lads.
No, I'm subscribed for the sexy outfits.
@cyoungrun1 Why are you commenting here then?
You're damn right there brother.
@Maximus Prophetus Sure they do, its a British endearment for young men. Not connected to the gay community at all.
Right I hate the fact I love n watch his videos I always forget to like n comment
I really appreciate that you don’t feel the need to use loud music as a background. So refreshing. Love these videos!
I used to work for a road construction company while going to college, my dad did it for 40 years of his life. Thank you for helping people understand a little more about this process!
The issue that frustrates everyone isn't when you can see actual work happening, it's when you drive by the same area week after week and nothing is being done, it's just closed off.
This is happening right now where I work, the closest expressway entrance is blocked off so I have to drive past it then get onto the expressway and drive past my nearest entrance and you can see there is nothing being done, no equipment, no workers for at least a month.
💯
inspections (specialy epa, and permits take longer than the actual work sometimes sadly)
I've been a geotech and roadway engineer over my 4 years in the field, this is a great video! I'll use it instead of trying to explain what I do when someone asks
"Soil is heavy and roads are long"
-Practical engineering 2020
8:43 - the slack in that dozer's track made me very uncomfortable haha.
Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed. They're going to have fun when it slips a track.
There is a term known as “track slack” that has to do with slight chain slack on bicycles used for sprints and time trials. That has nothing to do with the dozer, though. I am also feeling uneasy.
All tracked vehicles need some slack, but too much can result in a lot of damage and downtime when that track slips, and often bends out of shape. On the flip side, if you have zero or insufficient slack, you can damage your suspension and drive components when you go over rough ground and obstacles. Each type of track use has different standards. You will usually find that dozers have very deep sprocket paths and rugged/thick steel to reduce the change of throwing a track. On tanks, weight can be more of a concern, to there are usually inward-facing cleats that help keep the track in path. Rubber tracks on smaller equipment has guide cleats as well, but those tracks are often more forgiving if they slip off, and tend not to develop permanent bends as easily. - - I've worked on all of these examples, and I prefer re-setting a rubber track to the linked track on a dozer or tank.
Nothing better than throwing a track in the mud or a brush pile.
You think that's bad, the way the hydraulic hose is wrapped around that cylinder at 2:55 makes me even more uneasy, than track slack.
Thanks for the explanation. As the son of a Highway Department Engineering tech (Idaho), I'd love to see you describe, compare and contrast the different techniques for road maintenance: including slurry seal, chip seal, overlay, and complete rebuild, and asphalt versus concrete pavement. More people see these civil engineering projects every day than they see new construction. Thanks again!
“I love construction” only to be said from someone sitting at the desk planning it lol.
I love digging up my broken conduit after the super told everyone grade was 2 feet higher than it was and the people making the road broke all my underground shit
@@bigbole7335 Or you tell the F_cking plumber were your pipe is and he digs through it anyway.
@@bigredc222 why would a plumber be digging up your pipes. Did you put your pipes in the wrong place again?
Haha this is comment section is going to be a beautiful shit show of trades. Unrelated, electricians are far superior
@@thomasr1051 Nice one. But it is clearly the carpenters who are superior tradespeople! Lol
Correction: Road building is always slow but never steady.
Well , its depend on the quality of the material such as subgrade, agregate from the quarry and etc .its all take consideration from that
@@danialexquande7813 It also depends on how much the unions want to drag their feet too. Road construction wouldn't take as long if they weren't mandated to take a break every 5 minutes.
@@killman369547 As someone who has worked in and supervised both union and non union civil construction I'm confident you don't know what your talking about. Way to throw workers under the bus to score political points though. prick.
@@kevinholmes1048 people like that are the ones who wouldn't last 5 min in construction and don't understand how grueling it is
@@killman369547 a lot of projects require inspectors on-site 24/7 and engineers/state officials go out a lot to watch something get done which maybe what you see. But the construction workers themselves work their asses off rarely getting breaks you have zero idea what you're talking about
Living in Los Angeles and orange counties, I always wondered what the hell was taking so long, now I see how much work goes into this, at $3m per mile at a two lane road I can't even imagine the time effort and cost into a 16 lane freeway, keep this content coming sir
Its to bad we did not infest in mass transportation instead of pouring so much capital into building so many roadways they generally turn into parking lots much of the day. I live outside NYC and if I take the train it take 25 minutes if I drive it can take 1.5 hours. If we had good mass transportation that 25 minute ride could be ten minutes. Instead we just keep throwing money into fixing roads.
@@mtadams2009 At least in Europe we have much more wisdom on this one. And China is even further with this.
@@mtadams2009 The US used to have a mass transit system. Then Henry Ford made cars affordable to the average person, which would also run on about any combustible. Then John D. Rockefeller bought up all the tram lines and which went from one coast to the other, while building up his gas station businesses and other oil company's. Had people lobby for and backed The Suffrage Movement, which started prohibition. That made it so no one could make there own fuel and had to buy it from Rockefeller.
History can be fascinating once you look at the whole picture.
@@KalRandom don't forget the suburban sprawl prompted for racial reasons and GM literally buying tram lines in 1950s to demolish them all to replace with buse...
Meanwhile in my city it's not all all about how long it takes to build the road. They get built 3-5 times. They get built, dug up to install basic utilities, then rebuilt. Repeat because they couldn't be bothered to coordinate so every road has to be build repeatedly. Surface roads are built about 5 times, highways built 2-3 times. And that's all before they widen the roads, which begins 3 days after the road was finally completed and continues for 5-20 years because they do the exact same thing with bridges. That may seem like an exaggeration but the latest ring road has already begun widening areas with narrow bridges that were built narrow despite being intended to be widened in areas 8 years old. The ring hasn't yet even been completed in areas that were started a decade ago
These projects always seems to start off well, but then they seem to hit some kind of a roadblock.
"Projects hitting a roadblock". That, I like. lol
There's always something that will slow a project down. Weather, missing materials, concrete plants breaking down, asphalt plants breaking down, trucks breaking down. Other projects that have deadlines that are sooner than the project they started on. You could go on and on all day with things that can slow down or even halt a road project.
This is my bread and butter. Im modeling a large highway project in civil 3d as we speak.
are coffee brakes included?
Likewise bro. Though it is good to travel to site to see what is going on. I have many people from public designing a road is as simple as drawing a line on a map.
Least they forget about undesirable terrain, survey works, existing utilities, wayleave application and the list goes on.
@@Cheezymuffin. Disc or drum?
My bread and butter too, except I operate the equipment building the roads.
RUclips university is a great thing 🤣😜
*Looks at Japan, who completely rebuild a highway in 3 weeks after it got swept away by a Tsunami*
Well its nice to work on a clean slate...
@@rokadamlje5365
Dont really have to bid clearing and grubbing on that one XD
"I get to see the slow, but steady progress each day." That's the gotcha right there, greetings from Greece!
Spend 60 years in the Soil Testing Business, there is so much to building a road, and the testing starts years before the 1st Bulldozer pushes any Soil. Great content on this subject keep it coming.
"I love seeing the slow but steady progress each day."
You clearly haven't seen the way roads are built here in the UK. Nothing happens for weeks then you see a massive change overnight followed by more weeks of nothing.
Day 1: Road closes.
Week 3: Construction equipment actually arrives on site.
Week 4: Construction crew arrive on site.
Week 6: The first piece of turf, tree, bush or hedge is actually removed.
Month 3: Work actually begins on the earthworks.
Month 9: Earthworks completed.
Month 12: Work starts on the road surface.
Month 13: Road reopens.
Month 18: Road closes again for line painting.
Year 3: Road closes again multiple times for utility companies to lay their utilities one at a time, often having to come back to fix damaged caused by another utility company.
Year 5: Two year old potholes caused by the utility companies damaging the road surface are FINALLY... marked with yellow spray paint by the local authorities.
Year 10: Some of the marked pot holes repaired, others left for later. New potholes ignored completely.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Oh man, especially councils,
"We can't afford to repair the road this year" - the council.
"We all got brand new 'company' cars and bonuses" - also the council.
@@twistedsoul Well they had to get new cars, as the potholes broke the old ones.
to be fair our roads are about hugely thicker and stronger..
😂 So it's a common wealth problem,I could relate to that
Tom, in Romania is the same thing.
I95 in CT around exit 9. Started driving that in the late '70's and 30 years later they were done. 1 mile of highway. The joke was you saw 3 generations of workers. 1 mile. 1 freakin' mile.
come to Indiana, where the same sections of roads are always under construction. I think they have had I-69 from Indianapolis north to Anderson under construction for 20 years. and it seems when it looks like they have it done, they tear it all up again to redo it.
Another fun one is city roads get redone, then two months later it is tore up for the city owned water/sewer pipe replacement once done the new road is now a junk road and it is like that for 20 years.
Where I live, politicians will announce a project before each election for 50 years before building it, then they'll build a phase, and spend the next 30 years announcing phase 2.
Michigan has entered the chat
Tony Dratchev lets be real, Indiana doesn’t know how to make a flat surface on any of the interstates...idk how many times I’ve driven through and thought “Jesus Christ, I don’t even know how to pave a road and I’m pretty sure I could do better than this bs.”
Haha I know that area you are talking about.
Actual reason change orders occur.
Engineer: Let’s take two years to design this project and anything we don’t understand we’ll just add the risk onto the Contractor with a general note somewhere before it goes out to bid.
Contractor: How long do we have to submit questions on the bid you took two years designing?
Engineer: Two days after the Pre-Bid Meeting. Make sure you read every general note, every specification section, every detail, every document referenced, and all Addendums Issued because we still couldn’t design it right after two years. Make sure your subcontractors adhere to every specification too. Also, make sure you let the Engineer know of any discrepancies prior to bid submission.
Contractor: Here is your Change Order. We couldn’t possibly read all the information provided in the specifications thoroughly with in a few days time and find all your mistakes too. Of course when we did want to discuss the project, there was a cone of silence in place so we couldn’t. Even when we submit questions, the Engineer is usually too risk adverse to give the Contractor a straight answer. So, here is your RFI and Change Order after the fact.
Engineer: I can’t believe the Contractor didn’t read our note.
Contractor: Wishes all Engineers would be more realistic.
Sounds like you've got some experience....
And a lot of times the developer wants things built before. Design is complete so an engineer may spend a couple months on design but construction starts after only a couple of weeks so then the building is being designed while constructed then the developer just pays for the mistakes along the way
Ahahahaha I am new into this world and don’t have a lot of experience yet, but you’re comment is hilarious!!!! I work for the engineers. Super duper smart guys and gals that just kinda make me wanna pull my hair out🤣🤣🤣
The problem with engineers is even tho it might look good on paper, they really have no idea of what the practical application will take
dietrichris lol! Engineer: What do you mean, you can’t put 10 gallons of shit in a 5 gallon bucket? Me: You are a f#*king idiot! That’s what I mean.
Keep it going Grady .... love your narration, your subject matter .... MORE ROAD CONSTRUCTION.
With a name like Grady, it's no surprise he's into road construction.
One of the weirdest things I learned in a trip into northern Alaska was the roads changed every season. they could not form a foundation due to environmental and logistical issues. So, as the frost in the soil froze, melted, then refroze the road on top bends over new hills and valleys!
The landscape elevation changes every season in Alaska? Can you explain a bit more about this??
@@jijst5 the water in the soil melts and refreezes over the course of year and it’s enough to mess with the elevation of small hills. Imagine trying to build on an extremely slow waterbed
Really enjoy your videos, thank you - definitely interested in more videos.
You know I never questioned why construction sites were only accessible through rocky entrances. That’s so interesting. Thank you for this video, I’m really starting to appreciate the long construction projects I see every day
"Slow but steady" curious to see how you make me see that. Sometimes it's just 'slow' with noone to be seen on the construction site for weeks.
Sometimes, they work at night, because less traffic, and therefore less danger to the workers.
No construction site will voluntarily halt progress, cost loads of money to keep renting money and lengthening other contracts. There will always ve a good reason for halted progress. Or maybe you're not paying enough attention to the progress ;)
The progress could also be taking place in areas that you can't see from where your at. Most road projects are large as larger scales make them more cost effective.
When they get the contract they mess things up in a hurry so there's no choice but to eventually finish it, then put it off while they finish all the other contracts that they started and left half done for months.
Sometimes they take long breaks for bridges to settle but most times here it's the same. He says he likes them on commutes because he can see the progress. Here you can have one on your annual holiday route because they just ain't changing.
As an HMA QC Tech, I'm interested and entertained in this series. I also appreciate you educating people what some of us do for them. 👍
'most of us dont want to wear a protective body suit for our daily commute'
All about that squid life x3
Glad you talked about the environmental impacts of construction. The number one pollutant in water is sediment from erosion. Its important to not only install sediment controls, but also to properly maintain them throughout the period of construction
My gf has been offered a lot of bribes to give passing ratings to half-done soil compaction.
That's just straight up negligence. Sinkhole city to whoever actually accepts those bribes.
wereboarder2009 they said they were offered, not accepted
@@jasonmurawski5877 he told "whoever accepts" it and no specific person
I'd just like to make it clear that I'm perfectly happy to accept bribes. Please send bribes.
That's because a failed compaction test can result in a 6 month waiting period.
*Looks outside* Nope, still the same progress as last year, and the vehicles haven't even moved. Sigh.
That means someone ran out of money :(
That's mean someone
1.dont pay taxes
or
2.use money too much
@@iopvixens or both
Very curious about this one. My city takes like 2 weeks to repave the road, and 7-8 months to repaint the lines and put the reflectors back on.
How about this one: few weeks after road is repaved, another team arrives to replace pipes or cables under the road.
I worked on roads early in my life. I can attest to the sheer laziness of some of these workers. Some places now impose fines if the contract takes too long.
At my place it's mandatory for local authorities to always choose the cheapest contractor, doesn't mean stuff gets done fast, but it's suppose to stop local authorities from giving contracts to 'friends'.
You are talking about the soil that has been properly consolidated, compacted, and already built up to platform level. that is the case, things can be done very quickly.
If you are talking about starting from scratch, then yeah, it is as explained to the video. However, what he discuss on the video is just tip of the iceberg. He did not mentioned about soil settlement, constraint such as undesirable terrains, protected land and even other non nature related problems.
@@_BangDroid_ Don't forget about Hooke's Law for soil. They might waiting for the soil to "relax" so that it does not go over the limit of proportionality.
If it is over, it is very hard to get a nice compact surface especially in clay soils
I was on a 16 week course at the Ford Training Centre at Dagenham at the same time as an elevated road was being built 50M south of the site we were based at. The huge machine being used was the same one that built the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Thames at Dartford, and the process was beyond fascinating. As engineers we were in heaven having this ringside view of the two lane elevated road slowly advance across the site. It was all I could do to drag myself away from it and return to the class after lunch breaks. It's a memory that will stay with me forever.
Yes, more like this. I never knew sim city charged so little for building roads!
.
. . . Compacting soil is more effective when done in layers:
That sounds remarkably useful in how I plan my sandcastles on the beach from here on out. Neat! :-)
I'd like to take this time to point you to his "Mechanically Stabilized Earth" video from 2016.
I'm gonna need an episode on how local council know when I'm running late for work before digging up 3 lanes.
Very articulate. One of the rare youtubers who would say "there are roads" and not "there's roads."
RUclips: You need at least 10 mins of length in order to get your video monetized.
Practical Engineering: *Exactly 10 minutes
The world: Is in chaos
My response: Watch interesting road engineering video to maintain sanity.
Xeno Phon it should all be over in 2023 gratefully. New generation is tearing everything down and make everything right. Been real bad since the bad decisions of that generation in 2008, and everythings bern boring. New generation is exciting.
@@samuelevans5750 "New generation is tearing everything down" Merely this part, building anything (as shown on this channel) is complicated.
"New generation is exciting." Sure, very exciting. Especially Generation Identity. ;)
@@samuelevans5750 ?
I’m guessing they also seed dirt piles to deter erosion too. I always see the large piles of dirt in a construction site covered in a layer of grass. I’m pretty sure that it isn’t natural seeding, but that a human spread the grass seeds for the roots to hold the soil in place.
It’s actually a helpful byproduct of the soil on its own. Grass and other vegetation gets torn out of the ground with the soil as it’s moved and when it’s left in stock piles for weeks or months at a time, the vegetation takes root again very quickly and grows to cover the stock piles as you see them. It’s more of a convenience thing that it helps with erosion control but the downside is that those same soil testing labs then must test the soil for organics to ensure nothing endangered or harmful is in them and there are no unwanted seeds (like trees or other large plants) that could damage the structures or roadways being built as they grow in the future.
Many large piles of dirt are stockpiles of cut material that is either going to be hauled off site or used in fill later. If the stockpile isn't going to be used any time soon it has to be covered/protected from erosion. Often sites will hydroseed (basically hosing down areas with grass seed) piles and slopes as part of their wet season erosion control plan and no/little planned work is intended during the wet season.
If the site plans on using the stockpile in the near future they will often cover it with plastic which will both reduce erosion as well as prevent excessive moisture entering the soil causing it to become over optimum moisture when compacted.
If it is the wet season (when rain/snow is most common), their is practically no way to allow overly wet soil (at least soils high in silt/clay) to dry making it usable for compacted fill.
@@TremendousYeti The last thing you want to do is use any organic material as fill. The reasons being it cant be compacted as well as your typical clay material. Second, as time goes by the organics break down causing voids which lead to settlement.
If a stockpile of dirt is going to sit idle for 2 weeks or longer it either needs to be seeded or covered
He gets excited to see the "slow but steady progress" of construction... Then there's me who grew up in Dallas and saw the I635 and I75 interchange under construction for 15 years, constantly backing up traffic for miles, rarely seeing anyone working on it.
Ahh.. this was a refreshing change from all the rioting and conflict that has been in my feed lately
I keep selecting "not interested" but youtube keeps trying to cram those videos down my throat
08:43
"It's all geometry?"
Hanzo: "Always has been."
So thats why I see so many guys standing around the construction site staring at the ground, seemingly doing nothing, they’re compacting the soil.
Thank you!!! That's what I am trying to say. They all either mope around looking around while "working" or the other scenario... no one is there for weeks or months at a time while the road is closed.
@@edwin3928ohd The human foot *is* one of the most efficient compaction tools!
It may appear to public that nothing is happening or section of roadway is closed for no reason, but time is money for most contractors and delaying jobs costs them a lot, so usually there are good reasons for construction staging, scheduling and workers are working their asses off.
I worked in a soil mechanics lab for 7 years while I was (slowly) making my way through a construction management degree. Ive pounded out MANY a Proctor test, calculated and graphed many a density curve, and rolled probably 20x the Atterburg Limits test.
The man I worked for trained under Arthur Casagrande at Harvard, he was ridiculously intelligent
Joke's on you, the company my uncle hired to build a 500 meter long gravel road took 8 months to do it. The soil was hard and even. They literally only poured the gravel and compacted it. That's it. 8 months for that?!
You need to obtain the correct compaction results and working the material to get it to that level. Any weakness and it'll fail in a few years.
I bet a lot of that time was spent on environmental studies, soil studies, filing paperwork, refiling paperwork, fixing errors in paperwork a 3rd time, getting approval from yet another government agency that you never would have thought of, and finally, getting an inspector to show up.
I'm the guy who tests this kind of work. a 500 meter driveway should be done in a week or less. Two tops, even with horrible weather a couple days in causing a delay...
This is defenitively the most interesting 10 minutes of content I have seen in days across the MSM ! Good job @Practical Engineering for your great work!
Great series! Continue it! I'd also love to see "What's that Infrastructure?" up and running again!
Great explanation on why it takes so long to construct a road. I've worked on many road construction my self. It's also important to note when talking about compaction of soils, that not all soils are compactable. Some soils remain in a sponge like form, even after mixing it with lime or cement, which needs to be removed and replaced with compactable materials.
Finish my shift as an engineer on the UKs biggest highway to come back and watch this...what is my life.
I've built a lot of commercial projects and the absolute most important part of any project is the dirt work. On the select fill we always went for 95% compaction. A building will not last with out correct dirt work (a lot of plumbers and electricians hated digging in the pad to get their under slab work down). The problem with a lot a residential house have foundation problems is because of the dirt work, that's why house leveling companies are in business.
"soil is really important"
Our planet is named after it!
The Cost makes me thinnk even more that rails would be better as rails are more resistant and can be built out of much more durable material.Yes it would be public transport
the rail system we have is 100 years behind the times. it also can not handle the current demand. many former rail lines have been scrapped so i just don't see it happening. i do see automation changing the way we shop. instead of driving to the store perhaps simply go the the end of your road where your items are waiting in a storage locker. this would make much less necessary.
It might be interesting to talk about ways previous projects have cut corners to work faster and cheaper, and the long-term consequences of those decisions. For example it feels like the Interstate system may have been initially constructed with much more cut than fill to leverage pre-compacted soil, possibly just dumping soil or using it to make berms. I don't know this but it kinda looks like it.
The experience with the Interstate Highway system varies by region, and much of its early history (late 1950s to early 1970s) involves the development of proper freeway/motorway design standards in an era when the existing freeways were few and had design standards more in line with boulevards and avenues. Even the Weimar and WWII era Germany Autobahn has certain features more in common with avenues than modern freeways.
Secondly, freeways can also have intentionally depressed designs for other reasons, such as taking advantage of gravity in off- and on-ramp operations (off-ramps uphill and on-ramps downhill results in shorter ramps as gravity helps cars speed up or slow down as needed), creating natural noise mitigation from the cut segment slopes, saving costs on more expensive mainline bridges over cross-roads, and even using the excess cut material to form noise-abating berms on the roadside.
I remember in the 90's when the contractor didn't prepare the road bed for the Wilmington DE bypass (295). They had to rip up the roadway surface and re-do it only a few months after it opened.
I just love seeing all the big vehicles and equipment
This dealt more with new construction, which doesn't delay people as much. I think what we're upset about is the long stretches that close down for a few miles to have a lane closed for 13 months a year. I know the causes vary from utility maintenance under the road to regrading, but why those take so long, or in some cases, never seem to get done, is what's mind boggling. There's a stretch of I-70 that has had the same lane closed with orange barrels since the Western Interior Seaway receded in the late Cretaceous.
But aren't there only 12 months in a year??
@@harshitrautela6585 Yes. I was using hyperbole, a form of intentional exaggeration. Hyperbole is mainly used to convey emotions that don't come across well in literal wording. In this case, it's conveying the extreme frustration with construction projects that take too long and have no clear end to them.
If I had said 12 months a year, you would assume I was being literal, so I had to pick 13 so you would know it was hyperbole. It's the same as the Beatles song "8 days a week" is complaining about an excessive work schedule by exaggeration, or my mention of orange barrels being there since the late Cretaceous period. With things that don't have hard limits like these examples, people will either use extremes (eg. "not in a million years") or intentionally fictitious numbers (eg. "not for a bajillion dollars")
that was so interesting. I would love to see more of these
"steady progress" well if you mean construction cones sitting on finished concrete for about 2-3 years sure. But thankfully other areas have a bit quicker and methodical construction teams.
I have thought about removing them myself at night time.
Odin Thorsdad now there’s me, who drives just inside the fog line. If the twat handing off the attenuator truck dropping cones willy nilly misses by four centimetres, they have a flat cone over the hillside.
"It's still curing."
I'm guessing Illinois or some equally corrupt/poorly run state.
@@sorencates2125 Yo. I'm from Illinois and I can't agree anymore.
Roads: Million and billions of dollars.
Winter: Intentionally spreading corrosive salt to DESTROY BRAND NEW ROADS completely!
REPEAT.
We need Salt Engineers.
summoning salt
Here in Michigan we have 2 seasons. Winter and construction
the salt used to prevent ice on roads has minimal effect on asphalt. most potholes form either form water expanding inside or under the material as it freezes and causing cracks, poorly compacted material under the roadway swelling/shrinking in relation to the water content changing and damaging the asphalt, or Heavy vehicles like semi trucks sitting in one spot or moving very slowly on the asphalt during hot weather, where the heat and weight cause the asphalt to soften and then deform. Once you have a depression, tires hitting the edges of the slope at high speed quickly wear it away and change it from a depression to a pothole.
@@heyandy889 He's gonna go for a speed run in construction
@@philipramsden4975 in Russia there's no such separation. If at least one road was not re-asphalted during winter, something is not right
Dear Grady, if you spent any number of years living in the far east, and then compare with the construction here, you will find work progress at a snail's pace here. The far east, such as HKG where labor is much cheaper and without many protection for workers, they can afford to pour workers into a job, further more, there are less local codes such as zoning , environmental laws etc. There is also a big population , making roads and rail easily profitable. The opposite and worse case scenario is Calif. They tried building a high speed rail and after a $billion spent, not one foot been built. The lack of affordable housing and hot climate means people can live in tents. It takes several times more money to build anything there compare with states next door. If they have to build something like the Hoover dam in Calif. start same time, with today's red tape, the dam would be finished about this year.
I didn't know that cut and fill had to be balanced, and the exactness required for compacting soil. You see this all the time and think. That guy's rolled that ground enough. Cool stuff. Thanks.
4:20 Metallurgical testing far exceeded soil testing in both frequency and mass. Every single production facility has material testing on site with multiple process checks. Independant materials testing labs run a very small slice of the total amount of testing performed.
I think you underestimate just how much dirt, rock and sand is moved on a jobsite... sure, metal is massive and we use a lot of it through the country. But even your average Dollar General store plot usually involves moving a pile of dirt bigger than multiple houses. And that material is usually moved at least TWICE, since they frequently stockpile the majority of dirt once when prepping a site, then again when they actually place that material where its needed and compact it. Hundreds of tons are moved for small stores, and Tens of Thousands of tons are moved for warehouses and residential complexes... they move a LOT of dirt. XD And even in mining of metals, even the best mines can be expected to move at least 10 times as much dirt and rock as they do minerals, and that dirt/rock is going to be tested and sold to a construction site if at all possible to recoup some of the costs of mining.
@@Shocktrue1 Surely they don't test ALL that dirt? I would think most of it would just be moved, with a small percentage being tested.
@@melodycervantes4167 Depends on how you define "tested". A really small amount goes to the actual lab, but that small sample should represent all that dirt, at least statistically. And there're a lot of methods to ensure that.
2:20
Me: Building roads sounds like a lot of work
Grady: Ctrl+C Ctrl+V
Ctrl+X*
@@blu0x7d12 no
@@charadremur333 Yesh, better CUT it, not just copy. 2:26
That would be Ctrl+C Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V ... etc.
Certainly you already know it but I wanted to be an added voice. This channel is almost unbelievably good. This is exactly what the internet should be used for, and you do it better than most. I like a lot of things on youtube, but I love your channel.
“You can’t just build roads anywhere...”
Philippines: Haha, we build roads on top of older roads.
Афанасий Сырков No no, in cities. To the point it starts creating a mountain
My town has old brick roads & old railroad under the newer roads.
you get skyway, you get skyway. You all get skyways
Canada has roads on lakes. Not bridges, just drive across the lake.
Do go to fast, you'll shock the ice and break through.
whenever he makes a model out of that clear plastic, i get excited for learning
I love videos like this that point out everyday things. I've been noticing a lot more culverts since your video on them. ;)
Would definitely be interested in more in this series!
In Canada we have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. Big part of the preparation of roads is keeping water out of the base material. If somebody goofs on that it will be obvious when the first freeze-thaw cycles start, and no amount of surface patching will cure that.
“This Is a special kind of drawing”
Shows a line with a stretched out sponge under it
I’m a second year chemical engineer, and I worked on a co-op where I was testing the compaction using one of those nuclear density gauges he was talking about. I know first hand how long this process takes. Sometimes I would only take 2 density tests a day because of how long it takes.
The reason: They don't assign enough people to projects. Projects are designed not to finish in a timely manner but keep the construction firms fat for decades.
I know you commented this 2 months ago, but more people doesn’t always make the project go faster. You run into issues with congestion and inefficiency especially when you’re moving dirt around.
Pretty much what I wanted to say. It is called job security. The longer you drag it out the more you can bill. Don't tell me they have a contracted amount and have to stick to it. They always find reasons to extend and bill more. There is a project near me that is 2 to 3 years over schedule and still is not finished.
@@dlb4299 they have a contracted amount and have to stick to it, unless they notice a reason to go over the allotted time before hand and get more time through negotiations. If a project is taking longer than it should there’s a high chance that contractor is either breaking even on the project or losing money.
@@roycea.7593 That is how it should be in a perfect world. But with greed, graft and corruption running rampant, not only in construction but many industries, it seldom works out that way.
@@dlb4299 I see what you’re saying one hundred percent and I don’t want to argue with that logic since it does hold up to a certain point. It’s nice and easy to blame government entities for making construction so difficult and time consuming because of the red tape and inefficiencies, but at the end of the day there’s always a reason for a regulation (and they typically come from someone dying or losing their livelihood). It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that not everything you don’t like (in this case, a brutally over budget and late project that definitely ruins your commute) comes from 100% corruption and greed. The world is complex and there’s a lot more to construction than meets the eye. I heard you can audit construction management classes for cheap, it’s what I studied and it’s the field I currently work in. You should check out some classes in your free time, maybe it will make construction less brutal and more interesting to look at!
There's a major road widening project happening near my house. It's fun to watch all the equipment hard at work.
Also, now I know why they dug well over a foot down below grade for the new stretch of highway.
All they do is literally stand around. One waves the other sips on his coffee talking to his friend.
@Gizmo Tronics and ruin your day with loud noises at 6 am
I was a laborer on hwy construction for a few years. If you're working with machines you can't do anything while the machine is working, or you'll die.
So you end up busting your ass in short bursts in assistance of the machine operator.
@@zugzug6773 they also love to wake you up at 6 am. They are the most obnoxious people on the planet.
@@justinw7323 6am? Ha, the forecast calls for 35C and the bridge footing pour needs to get started before sunrise to give the concrete the best chance of curing properly. Hello 4am pours. you're welcome.
@@justinw7323 stop whining and get to work. You're being lazy sun is up and we work till it is down.
Corruption.
Oh, yeah, meticulous engineering.
But seriously though, corruption.
AKA Unions
@@ProfWildcard Unions keep workers safe and well paid. They are not the problem, they are the solution. Union workers are better trained and more invested in the job.
Sean Barry they’re better trained but not always the best workers and projects take longer. This is coming from a union worker
Honestly though, usually it's either contractors higher management, suppliers higher management, lobbyst, and/ or local 'security'. Unions and workers in general usually got very little.
@@shadogiant Actually (at least in the US) Unions have way to much power and a little thing I think few people know about is that Unions take a Part of your paycheck and when you combine unchecked power and money you get in some cases Unions who continue to demand higher and higher wages for jobs that arnt really worth that.
Thank you so much for being elaborate. It's actually an interesting process even though it takes time.
Hi excavating contractor here. You left out a large part of the fill slope work is that we have to key into naturally competent soil below the edge of the fill slope before filling can occur. Usually 5 feet below native top soil depending on the job. Also delays on a job due to change orders, or unforeseen conditions such as rock that needs to be removed. Red tape governmental regulations can also significantly slow down progress. Not saying that they are bad just its the way it is. Loved the video on my occupation. Thanks!