The Key West Citizen

New Operation May Save Money On Paving Costs

First tests on a road building machine city officials hope will save them at least one-third of an estimated $700,000 street paving program, got under way this morning at 7th Street, near Flagler Avenue.

The machine, known as a Seaman Trav-L-Plant, is being tried out on a money back guarantee basis. The city commission purchased the machine after City Manager Victor Lang and Public Service Director Ivan Roberts journeyed to Orlando to see it in operation.

The city fathers adopted their "wait and see" attitude until it is determined what the result is in Key West with the type of material used here. In Orlando, sand is used while locally a marl base is to be used.

Too Early To Evaluate

Mayor C. B. Harvey, who observed the tests this morning, said that "it is too early to evaluate the results of the tests but it looks like the machine has great possibilities."

Harvey pointed out that the machine is a great time saver when he said that this morning's test resulted in the paving of one block of street in about 30 minutes.

Public Service Director Roberts added that under the system his workmen have been using, it would require five men about two days to complete the same amount of work.

Ira Fender, an official of the Florida Equipment Company, who sold the machine to the city, supervised the tests during which city workmen will be trained in the operation of the road builder. He explained that the machine is designed to make use of the existing material on the city's roadways. He said that it is capable of laying down streets equal in quality to the best now existing "if the same graded and prepared."

Four Steps

The road building method consists of four steps.

In the first, the road bed is graded and prepared.

Secondly, the road bed is "sacrificed" by raking it up with a motor grader and in the third step, the travelling plant passes over it and mixes asphalt with the material—a process known as "admixing" in which the material (in Key West, marl is the material) is set in motion, thoroughly mixed with asphalt and laid down again.

The fourth step consists of rolling and curing. In this process, a solvent which has been added to the asphalt evaporates and the road is soon ready for use.

Good Material Needed

Fender emphasized that "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

"In other words," he said "the street will be just as good as the material you put into it."

He pointed out that the travelling plant effects its biggest saving over the usual "plant mixed" paving, because the machine consolidates several operations into one step.

Fender added that in other cities, as much as two-miles of paving have been laid down in one day with the machine.

In today's test, it travelled at the rate of about one mile per hour. The result was a 2½ inch coating of marl and asphalt which will later be rolled. City officials are hopeful that it will solve the city's road building problems.