Wolf Paving completed the 2.75-mile Coffee Road municipal paving project in New Berlin, Wisconsin. There were four phases of the municipal project, pre-determined by the City of New Berlin. The project included widening and straightening the road, strengthening the base through the use of geo-textile fabric and Glas-Grid reinforcing pavement mesh, and applying the new asphalt pavement along the entire road. The project began in April 2013 and was completed in October 2013.
Watch the progress of the Coffee Road redevelopment project each step of the way:
- Part 1: Widening Coffee Road in New Berlin, WI
- Part 2: Excavating Coffee Road and Installing Geo-Grid Reinforcement
- Part 3: Removing the Old Road by Milling the Pavement
- Part 4: Creating New Ditches and Adding the Culverts
- Part 5: Installing Glas-Grid and Paving the Final Layers to Finish the Road
Read the transcript below:
Glas-Grid fiberglass pavement re-enforcing mesh was used during the paving process on Coffee Road. A one-inch asphalt-leveling course is paved over the binder, or first layer, to blend the widened and existing road sections together and smooths them out, followed by the Glas-Grid, installed immediately upon cooling over the top of the leveling layer. The Glas-Grid is sticky on one side and bonds to the leveling course. The weighted rollers on the back of the application machine push it into place against the asphalt-leveling course.
The Glas-Grid mesh is like a fiberglass version of the metal wire mesh commonly used in concrete. The half inch openings in it are intended to keep the asphalt from cracking as easily by dispersing loads, whether loads from above or the forces of soil movement from below over a wider area, and makes for a more durable and longer-lasting product. The City of New Berlin does it on all of their roads and is leading the way in this area in the use of it.
A MTD or material transfer device, commonly known as a shuttle buggy, was used in the paving process on Coffee Road. Asphalt from the dump trucks is dumped into the shuttle buggy. The shuttle buggy remixes the asphalt to keep it from segregating and keeps the temperature and material consistent. It then conveys into the front of the paver to be paved on the road.
A team of three to four rollers follows the pavers to compact the asphalt. The compaction specification for this project was very high - 93.8% compaction. The asphalt is compacted until 93.8% density is reached using our nuclear density testing equipment. The high compaction helps prevent water flow into the asphalt, which can damage the pavement during freeze thaw cycles in the winter.
After paving and compacting, limestone shoulders are added, the street lines are painted and street signs are installed, Coffee Road is complete.
