August 1957 page 4

PAVERS OF U. S. 29 POUR
Concrete By The Mile

The largest road paving job in the
history of Mecklenburg County is
under way.

On August 8, Southern Roadbuilders,
Inc., an Augusta Ga., firm, begain paving
the 11.5-mile limited-access U. S. 29
bypass which will skirt Charlotte to the
west through a maze of underpasses,
overpasses, and cloverleaf intersections.

All told, the pavers will lay approxi-
mately 50 miles of roads within the 260-
foot right-of-way of the giant highway.
There will be two 24-foot ex-
press lanes in the center, flanked on each
side by 18-foot asphalt service roads,
plus a web of intersecting and access
roads. There are nine intersections in
the 11.5 mile route at which access to the
concrete express lanes will be provided.

161 acres of pavement

The scope of this paving contract,
which was awarded to Southern Road-
builders for something over 2.5 million,
strains the imagination. For instance,
the surface to be paved covers over 161
acres, 91 of which are to be concrete and
70 asphalt. No less than 220,000 tons
of concrete will be needed for the con-
crete strips alone. More will be needed
for over two miles of curb and gutter
to be installed at the various intersec-
tions. About 100,000 tons of stone will
be required for the sub-base of the con-
crete strips, plus many thousands of
tons for the asphalt service roads.

It would be nearly impossible to move
these vast quantities of materials to the
job without the help of the railroad. To
meet this need, Southern Roadbuilders
leased four acres of property at the
point where the bypass crosses the main
line of the Piedmont and Northern and
has set-up an extensive base of opera-
tions. Enormous quantities of crushed
stone, sand, and cement have been stock-
piled on this property. A lengthy track
was built parallel to the P & N main line
to handle the hundreds of carloads of
sand and stone required for the job and
a second track was constructed for un-
loading cement.

3,755 carloads of material

During the next few months Southern
Roadbuilders expects to receive 2,200
carloads of stone, 1,180 carloads of sand,
and 375 carloads of cement, a total of
3,755 carloads of materials. All of this
will be unloaded at the base of opera-
tions located about mid-way along the
route of the new highway. The unwashed
stone to be used as a sub-base is being
trucked from a local quarry.

Initially, Southern Roadbuilders will
operate two giant paving machines, each
capable of paving about 2000 feet of the
24-foot highway each working day. Thirty
big trucks will shuttle back and forth
between the base point and the paving
machines, hauling what the pavers call
"batches." The batches, four to a truck,
are carefully-measured dry mixtures of
sand, stone, and cement. As the trucks
arrive at the paving machines they de-
posit their batches, which are mixed
with water and laid on top of the stone
base as finished concrete.

The contractor's base of operation is
a constant beehive of activity, with trucks

AUGUST 5