 Have you ever wondered what it takes to run a county? These are the hard-working men and women that do the tough jobs that help keep El Paso County moving. In this episode, El Paso County Public Works reclaims a gravel road to make your commute smoother and a little less dusty. A lot of us are. Let's hit the road with El Paso County Public Works. This is tough jobs. Information office and we are out in Eastern El Paso County with our diversity. We're going to take a look at this. One hundred and fifty feet per minute. It's a very very slow moving operation. The reclaimer goes about eight miles top speed and when we're we're reclaiming and we're digging up the road it goes about a mile and a half per hour. So it takes a little while and we do three passes on each of the roads, so it's time consuming. The reclaimer mills the road using a hydrostatic rotor drive that cuts effortlessly down into the roadbed. The gravel is redirected into the mixer where a special water and magnesium chloride mixture is blended into the dirt then is deposited back on the road. A stable road base requires maximum density and moisture control is the key to density. The mixture of magnesium chloride is pumped to the reclaimer from the truck in front. The mag chloride absorbs moisture from air and surroundings and retains moisture for prolonged periods. This property helps to hold down dust and stabilize unpaved road surfaces, creating a smooth riding road that lasts. So it hardens the surface. It hardens the surface and the deeper you can get that hardening effect the longer your road is going to last. So that's why mixing it into the material at three inches you're going to get a hardening effect of three inches. A fleet of rollers follow behind, compacting and shaping the road surface. We have two rollers, one's rubber tire and one steel drill. And then we will have two grainers after we're finished reclaving. What is this called? It's a rubber tire roller. It actually weighs about 23,000 pounds so almost as much as a tando. I'm going to follow him, make sure that the gravel is compacted to where blades can come through, push over it and reshape the road. It takes us to come a mile for the first pass. I didn't actually... I don't remember where we started either. I don't know when we started, but we can check this one. Okay, I'm starting. Hey, Dan, did you want me to come down? To one side of the road, now what we're going to do is we're going to turn all the machines around. Once we get to the end again, we're going to turn around and do the third pass down the other side. But turning a convoy this size is no simple matter. I like turning something this big around. Oh, it's not too bad, but it can be a little nerve-wracking when you're in a tight spot. This is not a lot more than a spot. This side here, it steers the machine. This machine articulates in the front here. So this is going to steer this front piece. Now it also has the option back here, these three green buttons, steer the rear. So it steers for, you know, the rear wheels will steer and so will the front. So when this guy runs out, you'll plug into that? That's the water. So he's spraying water on top. Once he runs out, we have another truck just like this one. I've got a couple of hooks in here as well. We've got a snap food, pulled the hose off of the fitting. And that happens, right? It does happen once in a while. Not very often, but it does happen. We've got the tools in the extra fitting. I've got to make sure I set my, this controls how much material I'm putting in as far as the dust control or the chemical. That's it. And as soon as I go, this will, this is my, what I'm wanting, and then you'll see it starting to calculate. So one of the biggest things to a dirt road is the weather and the point, like the snow and, you know, your plow and snow on the dirt road. That's hard on them. You get a big rainstorm. It wants to wash away. So we're going to, we're trying to make it hard so that when we have those events, that doesn't happen. These roads sting, whether it rains in the snow, when that event's over, we clear the snow or whatever. That road's still hard and smooth. No matter what you do, there's going to be a life of this, of a road. All we're doing with this machine, we're along that life a lot longer span so that our graders can be out on other roads that need attention and not on one road constantly trying to fix that problem road. What would you say is the hardest part of operating, of your job, whether it just like the team as a whole or you specifically? Probably the logistics, just coordinating everybody doing everything, everybody knowing what they're supposed to be doing. Once you get people that have done it and you get them trained on what we're doing, it goes pretty smooth when you have new people and stuff. So logistics is tough. What is the hardest part about your job? Um, well, out of this road. That's what I'd like them to know is that we're actually out here for them. We're out here to try to make these roads better, every way possible. And that's my goal anyway, that's why I'm out here. If I can make a road better and make it easier for people to get to and from work and actually have a good commute, especially on a dirt road, a nice smooth commute, that's what I'm here for. You guys have been out here since about 8 o'clock this morning, but how long does a job like this take? We normally can do 2 miles per day with the whole reclamation crew, so it's about 2 miles per day we can get done. So we've got about 1100 miles of unpaved roads in the county, right? Yes. So if you do the math on that, that's like 550 days of straight work if you guys were going to get to everything. Right. Wow. Exactly what they're up to. Thanks for watching.