# Road Construction: Bringing It Together?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-construction-bringing-it-together/588398>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2011, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-construction-bringing-it-together/588398 "2011-07-09T10:24:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-construction-bringing-it-together/588398/21 "2011-07-14T20:23:25Z")

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> [@Quercus](#):
>
> Two little questions:  
> In the U.S. wouldn’t this typically be $/cubic yard? I’ve never heard a construction guy use metric.

NYSDOT now specifies everything in metric. Can’t say about any other state.

> [@](#):
>
> As opposed to construction crews, who typically work more like 7am-3pm? (Or longer if there’s enough of a hurry to pay overtime).

3:30 (AKA “Beer-thirty”) is more usual. Half an our lunch (unpaid), but otherwise you got it.

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**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-construction-bringing-it-together/588398/22 "2011-07-14T20:27:55Z")

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> [@svd678](#):
>
> They’ve been talking for years about fixing the street to my apt. Really horrific bumps in winter (Wisc.) and marshes around, altho worse bumps seem to be at the top of knolls. How deep will they have to put foundation to really fix it? 2-lane, no thru truck traffic.

This one requires an actual on-site inspection. WAG, maybe 4 feet, but I would need much more info for anything remotely approaching an accurate estimate.

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**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-construction-bringing-it-together/588398/23 "2011-07-15T12:45:25Z")

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> [@Cheshire\_Human](#):
>
> This one requires an actual on-site inspection. WAG, maybe 4 feet, but I would need much more info for anything remotely approaching an accurate estimate.

and once the excavation starts, things might change. When the contractor rebuilt the road circle in front of my house, they dug out the base (it was poorly built initially) and rebuilt the road from the subbase up. When the workers dug down well past the 18inches they were required to dig out looking for solid ground, they finally came to a clay layer. I still remember the supervisor standing in the middle of this big hole where the road used to be, on “solid” ground, and hopping up and down. The entire clay layer oscillated like a trampoline. They went back to the county and got a change order to put down a cloth barrier. With that and a proper base the road has held up well for over ten years. Of course it is a lightly traveled residential street so that helps.

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