Win Smoothness Bonuses with Shuttle Buggies
Winners of NAPA's Sheldon G. Hayes Award tell how they do it
“The MYV is an absolute necessity,” says Vince Tutino, president of Lindy Paving. “It provides for continuous paving, it prevents trucks from bumping the paver, and it remixes the asphalt to prevent segregation. Plus it affords faster delivery to the paver.”
Tutino said Lindy was one of the first, if not the first, contractor in Pennsylvania to use a material transfer vehicle in asphalt paving. “We had a Barber Greene remixer, then Roadtec came out with the Shuttle Buggy,” Tutino recalls. “Back in the early 90s we were one of the first contractors to use a Shuttle Buggy, even though it cost us more. Then within two or three years, Pennsylvania began to effectively specify a Shuttle Buggy, because they write the spec for segregation in a way that leads you to use one.”
MTV was a "necessity"
Des Moines Asphalt & Paving Co., Des Moines, IA, has won the Sheldon G. Hayes award twice, once in 1998 and again in 2006. The contractor’s 2006 award was for a three-mile stretch of Interstate 235 in Des Moines. The contractor added a lane and a shoulder of full-depth asphalt to I-235, and paved three 2-inch lifts of asphalt on the adjacent two lanes of existing concrete. Then the entire width was paved with a 2-inch wearing surface running in both directions.
The project called for a new lane of pavement to be placed inside a temporary concrete barrier running the entire three miles. “The MTV was a necessity; there was no other way to get mix into the narrow tight median,” said Greg Kinser, vice president and operations manager for Des Moines Asphalt.
“We had to get mix to the paver inside the barrier rail,” Kinser said. “So we ran the MTV along the rail on the outside, and conveyed asphalt over the rail to the paver.” Kinser said the MTV also speeded production. “We would have had to add another truck or two to pave the same rate without it,” he noted.
A Six-Pack Astec asphalt plant supplied mix to the paver, which ran along at about 35 to 40 feet per minute. The plant could crank out 300 to 350 tons per hour.
“The MTV was a big help just to keep the paver moving,” says Gene Baloun, paving superintendent. “We hardly ever had to hold up the paver. The MTV was able to maintain enough material in it to give us some leeway with the trucks, so that we didn’t have to have a truck dumping at all times.”
Helps prevent thermal segregation
P. Flanigan & Sons Inc., Baltimore, MD, won the 2007 Sheldon G. Hayes Award for work on 16.8 miles of I-97 from Maryland 450 to I-695. Working at night because of heavy traffic on this route to the beach, the company milled and overlaid several sections of the road and the lengthy ramps servicing them.
Flanigan used an MTV for the entire project, and won smoothness bonuses. “The placer (Shuttle Buggy MTV) was a great help to us,” says Glenn Snyder, project manager. “You’re not waiting for trucks because it always keeps you moving.” The project required 60,700 tons of hot mix asphalt.
Duininck Inc., Texas Division, won the 2003 Sheldon G. Hayes Award for work on 7 miles of southbound lanes on U.S. 287 in Wilbarger County, Texas. The pavement consisted of a 4-inch overlay of 19 mm top-size aggregate mixture. That was surfaced with a 1-inch open graded friction course.
Duininck used an MTV on the project, and won 100 percent of the allowable smoothness bonuses. “And we won a substantial portion of the roadway density and laboratory density bonuses,” says Kyle Duininck, general manager of the Texas Division.
He said the MTV helps prevent thermal segregation, which is especially important in colder weather. What’s more, the MTV helps with projects where the paver needs a high volume of mix to lay down a thick lift. “If you’re paving with a heavy volume of asphalt, you can’t dump a windrow heavy enough to keep the paver going,” said Duininck. “But with a Shuttle Buggy, its capacity allows you to move a high volume of material to the paver over a short distance.”
