Friday, May 30, 2014

Road costruction

Road construction, engineered roads conducted for the development of lands typical procedure is as follows:

-A plan, layout of the proposed road and any other work is created, and a development permit is obtained along with requirements the county may have.
-The plan shows the road location, vertical existing elevations, proposed grades.
-A geotechnical investigation is conducted to determine what soils exist, and what work is required to design and build a road.
-The detailed design is completed, specifications created detailing construction requirements, quality of the work, and similar items.
-A contract is created, lump sum, hourly force account, whatever...

Road construction usually consists of:
-Clearing the land and borrow areas as required in the design.
-Stripping of topsoils
-placing of the fill in lifts, compacting. To produce quality roadways, this can not be conducted in winter.

Oilfield road construction has no concern for quality, It is just about moving dirt, and in the spring, pull equipment through if required. Any thing goes. (Two old boys, yup, yup, wes' gona build us a road.)



 

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Ethanol

In my newer Honda CRV, I noticed a large difference between the mileage depending on where I bought fuel. 1 liter per 100 km difference. Turns out it is the difference between real gasoline and ethanol blend. The chemistry is right, the power is just not in ethanol. Ethanol fuel is costing me $1.15 more per 100 km. It also uses slightly less oxygen, and puts out co2 and more nitrogen combined produces as it burn hotter, but with less expansion. So much for economy, and the green movement, sustainability, and the government bull shit.