Jerry Brown, street and road manager for the city of Pueblo West, Colo., needed a solution to a very problematic Kirkwood Drive.
“Kirkwood Drive is a high traffic volume road with many motorists traveling at a higher speed than the posted speed limit. The high volume and excess speed would cause the road to pothole and form washboards,” said Brown. “We received multiple complaints from the residents that lived on Kirkwood Drive and the complaints would occur every three weeks. In 2010 alone, road crews had maintained the road seven times.”
“Kirkwood Drive is 1.3 miles long with some good road base in areas and some below standard base in other areas,” stated Brown. “It did not have enough gravel, which made it very difficult to maintain and have the maintenance last for any period of time.”
The decision was made to reconstruct 7/10ths of a mile and to complete the remaining 6/10ths of the road a year later.
The drainage needed to be improved; the road was at a 2% slope. Crews reshaped the ditch lane and removed any excess material, then reshaped the road sub grade to a 4% slope. The plan was to add 6 in. of new Class 6 base material, and to help minimize the maintenance Team Lab Chemical Corp.'s Base One base stabilizer was applied to the top 3 in. of Class 6 base. The first 3 in. of the base material was put down, laid out, watered, and compacted. The final top 3 in. of base was put down and sprayed with the base stabilizer and watered mixture, mixed and compacted. Crews returned the next day and watered prior to the final roll to ensure a good, even compaction.
The multiple complaints from the public were basically eliminated on this segment. Since this reconditioning process was completed on May 13, 2012, it remains in good condition with no signs of potholing or washboarding.
