I Paved A Live Road: This Is What I Learned | No Edge Lines Season 3 Episode 3

Speaker 1  0:00  

It now is that your pile of wrap that's all from That's Mount Water Street you want to race up it

Brandon  0:07  

absolutely, I do. I mean, do you feel like burying me in Washington? Let's do this. This is crazy. It's so much taller. It's so much taller in person when you get over here, we needed, like a jackass type name for this bit that we're about to do. We need, we need to come up with something snappy, like,

I'm Brandon Noel. This is Bryce. This here is the rap race on

Speaker 2  0:42  

your mark. Is this safe? Now it was at this moment that he knew he F Okay, gets it?

Unknown Speaker  1:06  

Okay, I think myself, don't show weakness.

Unknown Speaker  1:14  

Oh, my God, I gotta give myself credit.

Unknown Speaker  1:19  

I didn't fall.

Speaker 1  1:21  

So this, this here, is probably about six to 8000 tons.

Brandon  1:26  

My body is in open rebellion. It's like, what are you doing? I'm wheezing. My calf muscles are shot. But you know what?

Speaker 3  1:38  

But the truth is, I finally got to live out my childhood dream of being on Nickelodeon's guts. This was my very own personal aggro crag. The only thing missing is, Mo, where are you? Mo? Where did you go? You beautiful British siren? Me all the way, right.

Brandon  2:07  

All right. I've made a bit of a fool of myself.

Speaker 4  2:14  

I've been making plenty of mistakes, so I knew you weren't gonna get it the first time. That would be insane.

Brandon  2:20  

I should be looking better than this.

This episode of no edge lines is sponsored by dynapac, the makers of high end rollers, pavers and other heavy equipment essential for contractors of any size, whether you're tackling commercial, municipal or even state level projects, dynapac will help you get the job done right. This season, we've explored contractor mental health, job site safety at night, and on this episode of no edge lines, we're going to address some of the challenges that are faced in running an asphalt crew, and get some firsthand experience in echelon style paving in Active roadways that have to stay open to traffic you

Speaker 1  3:27  

the town is only 10,000 plus 10,000 students at the college. So we're about 20, 20,000 people

Brandon  3:32  

all in are we in the down? Is this the downtown then?

Speaker 1  3:35  

Yeah, it gets a little bit more downtown as you go a couple blocks that way. But this is downtown.

Brandon  3:39  

I couldn't really tell Bryce couldn't really, it's not really that different.

Speaker 1  3:43  

See, you question why I went downtown? Because this is downtown. We got a Fred Meyer. It's a grocery store. It's closed. That's where you get everything. Oh, it's,

Brandon  3:55  

it's just like your one stop shop. It's like, it's got, it's got a little bit everything. Oh, you guys don't have that in Ohio. No, we don't have, we have a Meyer. You know what a Meyer, him is different. This is not an editor size vest here. This is a, you know, for people who actually work for a living with their hands, like, if I zip this up, I could not sit down.

Speaker 1  4:19  

See they're just wrapping up for today. They're actually going to stop here, it looks like and they'll pick up here, going north tomorrow.

Brandon  4:26  

We got here just in time for them to be done for the day that listen, that's actually amazing timing on my part. Does that mean? Thank you less work for me to do today.

Speaker 1  4:38  

This is the fearless leader. One of them. He's the leader. Yeah.

Brandon  4:41  

How's it going? I'm Brandon, Josh. Josh, nice to meet you.

Speaker 1  4:45  

Whole entire job is about 2.2 miles from start to finish. Basically, you got two main lanes and you got parking lanes on the side and you got a suicide Lane in the middle. Ada ramps. Anytime you're tearing out the road, you have to redo the ADAs to match updated ADA requirements. Four. To 45 intersections total, I think, is what this entire job 40 intersections calls for. Tell me a little bit about what it's like to have to orchestrate this much traffic while you're also orchestrating all your heavy equipment. I mean, I will say first and foremost, luckily, we have a great relationship with the city, which helps so we, you know, we focus a lot on building relationships we work with. Obviously, we live here. We care a lot about this town and this community. I mean, one of the biggest ones to coordinate here is, obviously, we're in the residential zone here, yeah, down in the down in the commercial side, but everybody parks, a lot of people street park out here. So you have to deal with, we have no parks that we'll have to put up all the way through notices we have to give to every home as you go through. The main one is to try to prevent lost time for everybody, as much as you can get away with, yeah. But as you I mean, as you can see, it's wide enough, we shifted two lanes over. We get allow traffic to flow non stop the entire time we're here, and it gives us two lanes to pave out. So we're actually running two pavers in tandem, side by side. So tomorrow doing like, Echelon paving. Yeah, sort of Yeah. So the smaller Carlson will actually run curbside. So he'll be running curbside all day tomorrow, and then you'll actually have the and then you'll have the Dyna pack paver running center line with a with a wedge joint there.

Brandon  6:15  

I'm excited about that. Most of all, I've never hold on.

Speaker 3  6:22  

We have to investigate this. Come on. Hold on, Josh. Josh. Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop. What is this? Hold on, what is what do you want? Some you have a crock pot? What do you have a crock pot? I cater

Speaker 5  6:36  

on the side, so I had some leftover food. I brought the crew. What's in here? Teriyaki Chicken. Let's see it. What's going on here?

Unknown Speaker  6:47  

There it is, careful you taste it once, you're going to want to

Brandon  6:50  

stay this is an Ellensburg best part. This is an Ellensburg original, huh? This is Hawaiian teriyaki. You Oh, man, the boys eat well out here. Oh, my God, you side hustle as a caterer, yeah, what do you use? The name of your business? You want to try the max salad.

Speaker 3  7:16  

You want to try the mac salad? Well, you should have told me yet, Max salad.

Brandon  7:22  

I need some mac salad. Hello, mac salad. Please. I need the mac salad. Look at this mac salad in the bag that's that's got heft to it. It's real. That's real hefty. Yes, okay, now we got to do this gently, because you got to eat it all. That's perfect. That's good, okay, bro,

Unknown Speaker  7:56  

staying in the desert.

Brandon  7:59  

I just got here. I've been traveling for more than 12 hours, and this is heavenly, beautiful.

Speaker 3  8:09  

Feed me. Give me a headset, give me a plate of food. I'll tell you what to do and just stand here and eat all day. I do that.

Unknown Speaker  8:17  

That's what that's what I

Unknown Speaker  8:19  

do. Bro, that's my job, bro, that is so good.

Brandon  8:33  

On our first night in Ellensburg, Bryce invited us out to his place to get a little tour of the Homestead, and he also invited me to try something known as goat yoga. Never heard of it. Sure it'll be fine. Smells like bourbon. Smells like whiskey. That's all that matters to me. This is like a palette cleanser for the mind.

Bryce Harem  8:56  

This is my spa. You might think it's crazy. This is too populated.

Brandon  9:01  

You wish it was more sparse, really?

Speaker 1  9:04  

Yeah, we've, lately, we've had a couple neighbors move in here.

Brandon  9:10  

You're taking your spy glass out, and you're like, Hmm, the Johnson's over

Unknown Speaker  9:13  

there. Getting a little close, I can see a house

Brandon  9:18  

I don't like that. We need to put up a privacy fence. They don't have to look at them. Oh, my God, look at these. Man. I'm so ready for Thanksgiving.

Unknown Speaker  9:26  

You want to talk to him?

Brandon  9:30  

Go in there. I don't know if I want to go in there with these good go pet them. They're like tiny dinosaurs. Get in

Unknown Speaker  9:43  

there before he gets curious. All right, don't

Brandon  9:45  

scratch me with your giant claws. They do bite.

Speaker 3  9:52  

Is this good? Content? You want me in here chasing turkeys? Hey? Hey, Thanksgiving is coming. I was

Brandon  10:05  

going to be a teacher and English. I'm a writer. That's what I mean by trade. I'm a writer, you know, like so I wanted to teach English and write books and but I failed out of college both times. So you

Bryce Harem  10:20  

went into asphalt?

Brandon  10:22  

No, I went into steel. I, I, I've always felt like I have a foot in both worlds, like I've spent 14 years working in a steel factory, but I consider myself an academic. So I always feel this split right, like the blue collar world in and then this academic side of myself. And I think that, you know, those classifications are too neat, right? Nobody really fits neatly into one, right? Yeah, like Bryce. Bryce. Oh, he doesn't like you Pat. He was totally cool with me, but that dog did not like Pat.

Unknown Speaker  10:58  

Oh, so they smell great. They're a pig.

Brandon  11:01  

Oh, my God, I love you.

Unknown Speaker  11:04  

I love you. Can, actually, you can, you can pet him. Hell, yeah, he wants a pet. Come here, buddy. Oh no, he ran away from me.

Brandon  11:15  

Now, the pigs like you Pat. I just think it's so funny that they like him. The dogs know pigs, though, you know what? Though pigs are more intelligent than dogs. So Pat. That says something about you that I think you should take as

Bryce Harem  11:28  

a compliment. There is a divide between the hard working work with your hands. You know, dirty hands, clean money, that guy and what they consider white collar. But the way I see it, honestly, is the field is the one that puts it down every day. You know that is something that nobody can forget. But at the same time, everybody has a role in the blue collar industry, absolutely. And for me, blue collar is blue collar.

Brandon  11:54  

No offense, but we oh, wait, here we go. When I worked in the factory, when I worked in the factory, I mean, we just on the office people behind their backs, absolutely constantly, absolutely when I was that guy on the line, I did have a really big chip on my shoulder. Sometimes I was angry. I caught myself remembering, like, when people would get tours and I was working in the factory. We used to be like these. We used to be like these. Who are they walking through? This is where we work. Like this is, you know. And how do you think they felt with us walking through the job site today? I know I'm always conscious of, listen, I am always conscious of that. I wish I could go back and tell my younger self what you're really upset about is other things. Yeah, I didn't have the perspective. You want to be that guy right up there on the nipple.

Speaker 1  12:48  

He might be a little windy up there. We get a little bit windy here.

Brandon  12:53  

Oh my God, look at these little

Unknown Speaker  12:59  

there's ghost. There's definitely, I don't think he's gonna want

Brandon  13:18  

to climb on. It's like a massage, a very pointy machine, massage. I've been mounted by a goat. I'd say that that is a good day.

Bryce Harem  13:28  

For more than a decade, I chased the title. I came to central paving, and I said, I want to be the boss. And I chased it, and within two years, I was offered the GM position. The problem is, I failed terribly. The great thing about Central Penn, everybody the team, will say we failed, is we did, but I put a lot of it on myself. And a big part of it was I was focused on me, in my position where I wanted to be. And as a PM, I was taught that I was the boss, which is entirely incorrect. The best analogy I've heard is the superintendent, the foreman, the guys in the field. They're the ones who are driving the bus every day. My job in the field is to make sure all the lights are green.

Brandon  14:14  

I have learned that I am a city boy. Me too. I'm learning out here.

You know the guys who are always like, Oh, I love the smell of asphalt in the morning. I'm like, do you I really? You know it is a thing, is it? I haven't been exposed to it enough yet. I guess to have acquired that as a smell that I enjoy. Oh yeah, get some donuts. You're gonna twist my arm about getting a donut. What is this? Looks like a cow pie. Damn good. Me. Good. Deep fried sugar bread you

Yeah, this would actually be my first day paving on a live road. Oh, nice. So that's what's it's really cool is, like, I've never done live paving on the road that has traffic going 2018, f1, 1000 T, dynapac. Is it on now, I don't know. You'll hear it called. It's a lot like a fortnight chat room all over her. Where should I park the water truck? The next road.

Unknown Speaker  16:11  

It's on the other side.

Speaker 6  16:15  

Stay right here for now, Casey, because we can always take it out 14th and around. Okay?

Brandon  16:21  

I think I've determined that I don't know that these are more efficient levels. I'm sure it does just going on constantly, of chatting, commenting, I feel like I'm watching a rift tracks movie, but it's not as entertaining in traditional asphalt paving crews lay one lane at a time, which creates a longitudinal joint where the first lane has already cooled before the next one is placed. The problem is, is that those joints represent a weakness in the pavement and can lead to cracks or water damage over time. Echelon paving changes that by running two or more pavers side by side in a staggered formation. That means adjacent asphalt mats are laid and compacted while still very hot. This creates a hot bonded joint with no cold seam, the result is a stronger, smoother and more durable surface with fewer potential failures, which extends pavement life and improves ride quality. The problem is, not all contractors have more than one paver available for just a single job site, and even if they do as I'm about to find out, it comes with its own tricks. All right.

Unknown Speaker  17:47  

Well, did you show me

Brandon  17:51  

what you're doing enough that you could let me do it for a little while? Yeah, okay, and these guys are probably freaking out that I might let you do this, but just for a little while. We're not gonna do it for the whole road here, but I, I have to do something here. Yeah, right, okay. Have you ever heard of the sweet spot in the papers? No. So is that like the spot? Is that pretty much, it a miss, pretty much so that, yeah,

Speaker 5  18:23  

again, this one will go 10 to 19 and a half. We like to be 14 and 16. And right now we're kind of, I

Brandon  18:30  

think we're 12. The line there is kind of cutting, yep, yep, oh, they're also driving. So any tight movements, it doesn't have the slack in the in the street that you want, because they're already in their sweet spot, so they can't do a lot of this. Like you're there, they're all the way sucked in, so that they don't have much movement. So if I stay my eight to 10 inches look like a straight line. You can see that their see their open side is matching the shape of the concrete curve, like how that's going in, like that you can see it cutting in. But now I know why. I was actually wondering, why were you guys putting the Dyna pack, the better paver as the second but I understand now that you want the open side here that's going that way to be able to make those adjustments, because you have more of a range that, and we can be more consistent with this one in the driveway. No offense, we don't care. I'm about to face a problem that I've seen before.

Speaker 5  19:28  

Okay, so, yeah. So we're, we're a little bit up.

Brandon  19:33  

My joint is currently a little hot, and what blows my mind is how Josh masterfully gives me a lesson in how to fix this and helping me overcome some of my worst tendencies.

Speaker 5  19:47  

And now we're right back to where we need to so you put it where we need to use push survey and push Auto, and now, now you got it back to where you. Needed to, and the machine is going to do

Brandon  20:01  

what you need. That's actually very informative to why I've struggled. Because I tend to make either on a paver, on a roller or on the screw, making an adjustment and then, and then not seeing the result fast enough, and then making another adjustment, and then I over correct it.

Speaker 5  20:19  

Trust the screen, trust, trust that the machine is going to do what you need.

Brandon  20:23  

Make, make a quarter turn. Wait, make another quarter turn. That will be easier to work out and fix, versus a lot of this that's going to be harder to fix. Will somebody tell the cameraman? Pat that's back

Central is making, possibly the terrible decision to allow me to drive and operate this highway class paver, my first time on a highway class paver. Tony here is gonna give me some instruction, and then all bets are off,

Speaker 6  21:18  

potentially the greatest finger painter that's ever lived. Oh yeah,

Speaker 7  21:22  

I did maintenance for three years before I actually hopped on a paper crew. Why'd you decide to make the switch? I just kind of wanted to learn everything. He wanted to make more money some prep, and then doing the asphalt part now, too is pretty nice. And he wanted to make more money. And the money was nice. Yeah, we're

Brandon  21:42  

not working out here for handshakes and pats on the back, right? We're all out here because we need to make money.

Speaker 7  21:47  

The first mistake that I ever made was when they told me to hop her up. This is the hopper button, yeah? Which right here. I lifted the screen up. That was my first time ever doing like actually getting on it. Oh, yeah, that wasn't very fun.

Brandon  22:02  

You have your throttle, you have this dial, and you have the gear, right? Yeah.

Speaker 6  22:08  

So you also have two steering. The dial steering is a micro steering that's for your small, incremental stuff. When you're running roads like this, wouldn't actually use the steering wheel that makes very small, detailed steering adjustments.

Brandon  22:25  

Oh, this is the hardest part for me. Tony. Is the truck instructions. I was really chill until right now. All right, you have to let me know when I should tell him to cut it, because I don't. I don't know when he should cut it, paving, paving on a live road. Take one. You

ACBM. Now, Tony, if I need to make an adjustment, am I making it with the dial, or I'm just like all of you watching at home right now. I was extremely nervous that I was going to do what I usually do on projects like this, but then I didn't. Now I'm not ready to claim that I've had enough experience to be good at anything, but after my talk with Bryce and a day spent with Josh and the crew, I could see how their style of leadership breaking down the divide between the office and the field was building something special here in Ellensburg. Oh, dude, right there. I was really good at staying on this line until that and now I got off by several inches. Yeah, it'll do that. How'd I do Tom just

put me on a roller and you'll see how wiggly I can be. I cannot drive straight either. I can't drive it roller straight. Maybe I was born to be a paver that runs everything, every episode I'm looking to try to do new things. I made a promise to myself to learn every aspect of the job. Today was the first time that truly came back to haunt me. So now that the actual run for today is over, what do we need to do?

My knees, that side's done. Man, my God,

Speaker 3  24:39  

I don't wanna seem like a hot over here.

Brandon  24:52  

Kicked my today, bro, just kicked that just the first half. If I had done the other half, I think I would have, I'd have been. Just a little melted piece of myself on the sidewalk.

The story of central paving and my experience in Ellensburg will always revolve around a moment that you can't see almost four years ago, getting this job just changed my life, and it changed my family's life. But one of the trade offs has been the travel. While it's been this amazing, irreplaceable gift, I've also missed things at the end of the day of filming, we thought we were going to meet up with a few guys from Central we were surprised when they showed up with their families. And for just a little moment, even though I was

Unknown Speaker  25:55  

far, far away, it

Unknown Speaker  25:58  

kind of felt like something. Paints a picture glow in a lizard blue changing Goodbye. Goodbye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai