Collin County Invests In Mixer To Help Pave Damaged Roads
BLUE RIDGE (CBSDFW.COM) – Who would want an expensive vehicle that tears up every road it travels down?
Collin County does: Officials say that piece of equipment is speeding up the process of repaving roads severely damaged by 12 months of extreme Texas weather.
Lynn Hightower lives off County Road 630 in Blue Ridge, one of the worst in Collin County.
"Anybody without a truck has a hard time," says Hightower, "It's not easy to get in or out."
Hightower has complained for years about the condition of the road. But help is slowly on the way.
Two months ago, the Collin County Commissioner's Court approved the purchase of a 30 ton $600,000 vehicle called a mixer.
Its one of only two in North Texas that recycles the pavement with diamond tipped concrete cutters.
Traditional repaving creates big chunks of asphalt, dirt and rock that takes money and manpower to haul away.
The new vehicle pulverizes the old road so it can be left in place and smoothed over with a new layer of asphalt.
"That's exactly the purpose of this machine its to reuse recycle the material that's on the road we don't have to haul any material in our out," said Gary Enna, Collin County Assistant Public Works Director.
That means roads that previously took a month to repave now take one week and cost $100,000 less than the old way.
Hightower's road is among the 100 miles of pavement in Collin County scheduled for repairs. She said she can't wait for the mixer to sink its teeth into to it.
"Tell them to speed it on over here I would be happy," says Hightower.
Officials say the 100 miles of road in need of repaving represents about 1/7th of the 760 miles of roads thorough Collin County.
