Asphalt work begins on Moore Road

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The paving has begun on the Moore cut-off road. Emery County Commissioner Gary Kofford updated the commission on the progress of the road. Last summer the price of asphalt skyrocketed and was unavailable to complete the Moore road project. The contract for the asphalt had to be extended to July 30 of this year. The original bid for the asphalt was $62 per ton. The Superpave asphalt which is used on Utah Department of Transportation projects still isn’t available so Nielson Construction and UDOT have worked out an agreement to use another similar product. A change order was approved at commismission meeting which allows the contract to go from $62 per ton to $65 per ton. Nielson Construction has waived the fuel adjustment for the contract and this price is locked in. An estimated 680,000 tons of asphalt will be used on the road.
Paving starts at the T intersection at Moore.
Kofford recently spoke at the Democratic convention and updated attendees on the road, “Tuesday they started asphalting Moore Phase 5 and 6, this is under the Special Service District number one. We started asphalting 16.2 miles of road. Nielson’s has the contract and are producing asphalt at the normal rate. Yesterday they completed 6,000 feet of both sides of the road. They are doing two lifts. They will go through and put on two inches of asphalt in two 14 foot strips making the road 28 feet wide. Then they will add an additional two inches. The last lift will be two strips 15 feet wide. The finished road will be 30 feet wide. Wednesday they had a little trouble and were only able to put down about 8,400 feet in one lane. The other lane was finished halfway and they had to quit for the day. Today my understanding is that they are out past snake rock. The way they are going they will probably be done by mid-June.
“Nielson’s has a new asphalt machine and beautiful equipment. Emery County is fortunate to have Nielson’s Construction in Emery County. On May 9 there will be a posting on the UDOT web site for Phase 7 of this Moore Road. About 2.5 to 3 miles from the intersection in Moore out to State Highway 10. This will be to build up the grade, move some utility poles and at the same time finish it up with asphalt. There will also be some re-alignment of a couple of bad turns. We will actually go through the town of Moore and come back in by the pump house eliminating two bad turns.
“When it gets done anyone heading to I-70 or Green River, this will be the way to go. I usually go through Price, and from Castle Dale to Green River and back is about 192 miles. Yesterday I clocked 154 miles going the other way through Moore. So it makes a difference and the road was gravel. Anyone heading to Green River or I-70 this will be the way to go.
“The Moore road construction has been going on for about eight years. Phases I and II were STIP funding through UDOT. The following phases three-seven have been earmarked federal funds. This funding was procured for the road by Rep. Jim Matheson. When you add all these up and the county share was about $4 million dollars and the federal government put in over $20 million. Think about the amount of employment that has generated in Emery County.
“Nielson’s has had a hand in all the contracts save one which Brown Brothers had,” said Kofford.
Commissioner Kofford said the Moore road project is running very smoothly and efficiently. “There are usually four-five trucks waiting to unload their asphalt on the road. There is a steady stream of trucks out there. Some of the coal trucks are on the haul too and they load at Consol and take their load to the rail and then go to the Nielson asphalt plant and pick up a load of asphalt and take it to the Moore Road and dump and then continue out to Consol for another round. That paver is constantly advancing and moving, it never stops. It’s amazing how much road they’ve paved in a week,” said Kofford.
“The lay down machine moves at a rate of 30 feet per minute. The asphalt is tested for compaction and a level of 93 percent is the desired density. When we first started the ashpalt then the roller being used was too heavy and it actually compacted the asphalt too much and it was cracking. But adjustments were made and the project is moving along. Core drills are taken and then taken and cooked to determine density. The inspector for the job is Nathan Johansen from Johansen and Tuttle. He has been qualified through UDOT and has attended special schools and training. The job also has to meet Bacon and Davis wage standard requirements. Another requirement is safety meetings. On a job like this training requirements are 1,000 hours. This is tough to get on a job that’s moving swiftly like this one. It’s all very interesting the different requirements required to build a road,” said Kofford.