Well, I am sure this has been discussed before. But try as I might, I can not get search to help me. I maintain the roads for 3 Townships here in Missouri. 2 of the Townships are new to me this year. Cat has a strong hold here as all 3 are Cat's. A like new 120G, a well worn 140G, and a brand new 120M2. The 120M2 is an impressive machine. In both of them the previous operator would leave a windrow of rock along the side of the road. I have heard various reasons over the years, just wondering what the thinking was. Myself, if after cutting the road there is an excess of material, I will leave it thick on one side of the crown. I will grade the thick side smooth so it is not too noticeable. Next grading session, I will make the first pass on the thin side, cutting and rolling it onto the thick side. On the next pass I will cut the thick side and roll it onto the thin side, making it the new thick side. I just try to keep some room between the thick edge and the shoulder for rock to build up before the next cutting. I am guessing the windrow is for the same reason, just don't know why it is left mounded up. I don't like the second ditch it creates.
There is no good reason for leaving a windrow along the edge. Its a water trap and will take its toll on your gravel.
I agree, windrows just trap water, and it just does not look finished. I just feather the extra material out on my last pass. I do mostly asphalt prep, and not too much road maintainance, but I find leaving windrows just looks sloppy. In the past, I have worked roads that were washed out so bad, that cutting to the bottom of the rutts was just not practical. I would try to work about 6 to 8 inches, and fill in the washed out area, and leave a large windrow on one side. I would leave the truck traffic beat it down for a couple of days, and then come back, work it again, and use the windrow to build it back up. Different strokes for different folks. I have no official training, just what I have picked up on my own, or from older blademen. I don't know if what I do is right, but they come behind me and pave it, and I don't have any fancy stuff to help, just my eyes, and ass. But if I want to go to work for some of these mining companies, they take some guy fresh out of a 5 week operator school, and tell me I'm not qualified.
That windrow does hold water. But I do sometimes do it for two different reasons. If there is a lot of loose material, especially during hot dry summer days, that loose material just never packs. It's lousy to drive on (we're talking a couple inches of loose stuff), and it washboards terribly bad. Usually I try and run a tire over the windrow afterwards to push it down a bit. The other time is when I am dealing with pitrun. I can be dealing with a pile of loose rock. Usually I try to tickle the rocks over the edge (extra pass) every 3 or 4th blading. We're usually too time constrained to make that extra pass every time, and the times you do tickle the rocks over the shoulder, that last spread is only at half speed or so, because the combination of the tires running over pitrun and not having a moldboard full of material makes for a machine that really wants to bounce.
You guys have a lot of clay out there don't you....I hear guys talking about how sloppy it gets when it rains. I hear they disk a lot of the material when building roads. We are pretty lucky here, lots of gravel, and shale rock.
We do. Area specific though. Where I'm at here now, it's silt. It's like sand, but refuses to pack. You can literally do a road in a shower and it won't pack. That mixed with steady traffic on their way to Red Deer can be pretty lethal. You're right about the clay though. You sure don't want that holding water and it can be a real treat to work with. If everything (blend of clay sand and gravel, compaction, and moisture) turns out right, it can literally turn to concrete! Not just for a summer- but for years. I had a haul road by Dad's farm that had to have the holes filled and it rained before I could get it done. Even still, the guy that blades it, his blades chatter over it.
Mining companies loss. In a way, everybody might be happier. Only reason I say that is I think you guys work like us. If a hose blows, we take it off, get one made and fix it. Or water pumps, or flat tires or whatever. Around a mine ( if it's like here ), your not the best guy to do that, so just sit in this room and stare at the ceiling while we look into that...