Lauderdale County’s paving crew is back to taking on other responsibilities as the road and bridge department’s asphalt machine undergoes more repairs.
In a work session Thursday, Road Manager Rush Mayatt said the machine had been in the shop for a generator replacement after experiencing electrical issues several months ago. After getting it back two weeks ago, he said, crews took the machine to Ball Diamond Road where it promptly broke again.
“Long story short, the generator has to be replaced again,” he said.
The repairs are the latest in a string of issues the county has experienced with the paving machine this year. In January, the machine reached 5,000 hours of use, a milestone where many of the wear parts of the machine are recommended to be replaced. The machine went down again in June due to suspected generator issues.
Supervisor J.J. Anders said his recommendation is to get the machine in workable condition and sell it. The funds from the sale can be put toward the purchase of a new machine, he said.
Supervisor Craig Houston said the Board of Supervisors had a very similar conversation when the asphalt machine went down in June but took no action. If the machine needs to be fixed, he said, fix it.
“We’ve talked about this before,” he said. “We’ve been talking about it all year, getting that machine up and running, and that’s what we need to do.”
Buying a new asphalt machine, Mayatt said, will likely be in the $500,000 range. The Board of Supervisors could also look at potentially renting or leasing a machine to get some paving work done while it works to find the funds to pay for the new equipment.
Not having an asphalt machine puts the county in an awkward position, Mayatt said, as patching and other paving over small areas is difficult to achieve without one. Contracting out those jobs isn’t economical, he said, because of the mobilization costs for a contractor to get their equipment on site to do the work.
“Mobilization of asphalt equipment is just outrageous,” he said. “You need a lot of equipment, a lot of manpower to do a small stretch. It’s no different from a large one as far as mobilization of equipment. It’s not economical to use a contractor for those small jobs.”
At the same time, Supervisor Kyle Rutledge said, cold-mix asphalt, which doesn’t require an asphalt machine, doesn’t last long and must be reapplied.
“Every time it rains that cold mix, that gravel gets beat out, and they’re having to go back and fix it every time,” he said.
Whatever supervisors decide to do, Mayatt said the first step is to get the county’s current asphalt machine back up and running. Once that happens, the Board of Supervisors can make a decision whether to keep it or sell it.