Archive for February, 2012

Planning for a Demo Project

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

A demolition project is a huge undertaking that requires a significant amount of planning. Yet, despite even the best planning, unforeseen changes will occur. And as impossible as it may seem, you need to plan for those unforeseen incidents. Fortunately, the National Demolition Association (NDA) has set out to help with this process and minimize any problems that might occur along the way.

The NDA Demolition Planning Document

This gives contractors and other stakeholders a checklist of activities that must be completed on typically demolition projects of all sizes.

  • Helps avoid the negative impact of unanticipated changes on project schedules, costs and liabilities.
  • The NDA is making specific contract language available to buyers of demolition services so that they can consider including it in their own contracts to make sure they manage all parties’ expectations concerning things like permitting, insurance, health and safety reports, and waste disposal.

Copies of the Demolition Planning Document and the Model Demolition Specification language are posted on the NDA website (www.demolitionassociation.com) under “Our Industry.”

Demolition Planning Document Checklist

Proposed Use: What is the intended use of the site? It is important to convey this information to your demolition expert.

Utility Disconnects: Will the demolition contractor carry the cost and responsibility of utility disconnects? If not, the owner/operator should be prepared to provide all disconnect documentation to the demolition contractor.

Reuse of Materials: Are materials from the project going to be reused or recycled? This is important information to convey to your contractor.

Salvage of Materials: Who takes ownership over salvaged materials, the owner or the contractor? Bid and contract documents should make this clear.

Extent of Underground Demolition: The extent of underground removals should be clearly defined.

Responsibility of Temporary Facilities: Your contract should make clear who will take on the responsibility for temporary facilities, like portable restrooms, temporary power, temporary water, site fencing, site security, etc.

Permits: Which party will secure permits?

Expected Condition of Site at Completion of Demolition: The owner must convey his expectations to the demolition company.

And Much More!

While it is impossible to foresee every possible outcome of a demolition project, preparing yourself with the help of the NDA’s Demolition Planning Document can help your project run as smoothly as possible.

If you have any questions about Asphalt or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties:Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel,Baltimore,BaltimoreCity, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard,Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, andWashingtonD.C.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter

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Plan for A Successful Demo Project

The Types of Asphalt Explained

Friday, February 17th, 2012

Last week, we gave you a quick overview of the History of Asphalt. This week, we are going to take a look at the many different types of asphalt pavement currently available. You may be surprised at how versatile this paving material really is. The different varieties of asphalt pavement include:

Perpetual Pavement: Take the smoothness and safety advantages of traditional asphalt and throw in an advanced, multi-layer paving design process. When you couple that with routine asphalt maintenance, you get a pavement material designed to last! The advantages of perpetual pavement include:

• Perpetual Pavements can be maintained easily

• Surface restoration is extremely cost effective

• Reconstruction can be performed without removing the old road structure

Porous Asphalt: This type of asphalt is the perfect way to manage storm water and eliminate standing water, which can wreak havoc on your asphalt surface. Used primarily for parking lots, porous asphalt allows water to drain through the pavement into a stone recharge bed and then into the soil below. The advantages of porous asphalt include:

•Porous asphalt can provide cost-effective, attractive pavements

• Experiences few, if any, cracking or potholes

• A life span of more than twenty years

• Provide storm-water management systems that promote infiltration, improve water quality, and many times eliminate the need for a detention basin

Quiet Pavement: Today’s busy world is noisy enough. Quiet pavement is designed to eliminate at least some of that noise. The advantages of quiet pavement include:

• Noise experienced both inside and outside homes and businesses can be significantly reduced

• Research shows that resurfacing a noisy road with stone-matrix asphalt (SMA) or open-graded friction course (OGFC) mix will reduce highway noise by 3 to 5 dB(A) or more

Warm-Mix Asphalt: This is the generic name of the technology that allows manufacturers of hot-mix asphalt to lower the temperatures at which the material is mixed and placed on the road. The advantages of warm-mix asphalt include:

• Reductions of 50 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit have been documented

• Improved safety for asphalt workers

• Decreased production of greenhouse gases

• Decreased fuel consumption

• Better compaction of pavements

• Extended paving seasons

• Potential to be able to recycle at higher rates

Hopefully, now you know more about asphalt than you did before!

If you have any questions about Asphalt or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties: Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Washington D.C.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Sources:

Types of Asphalt

The History of Asphalt

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Often time in life, we take the inventions and innovations around us for granted. For instance, when is the last time you really sat there and thought about how a light bulb works, or where you would be if it were never invented? What about your computer? Most of us cannot function nowadays without our computer, laptop, or smartphone. And then there are those innovations that make our lives easier that we rarely ever notice, like asphalt; it’s everywhere from shingles and sidewalks to driveways, roads, and more. In fact, over 750 million tons of asphalt is poured and rolled every year in the USA, alone.

But where did asphalt come from?

Asphalt Facts

• Asphalt occurs naturally in asphalt lakes and rock asphalt.

• Asphalts first recorded use was in Babylon in 625 B.C. in the formation of roads.

• The ancient Greeks and Romans used asphalt to seal their baths, reservoirs, and aqueducts. In fact, the word asphalt comes from the Greek word “asphaltos”, meaning “secure.”  The Romans later changed the word to “asphaltus.”

• Sir Walter Raleigh wrote about using natural asphalt to re-caulk his ships in 1595.

• Then, in the mid 1800’s, John Loudon McAdam used hot tar to bond broken stones together.

• In the late 1860s, “asphalt” came to America!

• The first bituminous mixtures were used for sidewalks, crosswalks, and roads.

•  Then in 1870, Edmund J. DeSmedt laid the first true asphalt pavement in America, a sand mix in front of the City Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

Since then time, asphalt has really taken off.

If you have any questions about Asphalt or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties: Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Washington D.C.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Sources:

History of Asphalt

Benefits of Warm-Mix Asphalt

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) first introduced warm-mix asphalt (WMA) to the United States in 2002 after WMA grew in popularity in Europe. This new technology instantly spurred interest for government agencies, researchers, contractors, and especially hot-mix asphalt producers.

Warm-mix asphalt allows producers of asphalt pavement material to lower the temperatures – by as much as 100 degrees Fahrenheit – at which the material is mixed and placed on the road.

Benefits of Warm-Mix Asphalt

•Lowers fuel consumption

•Drastically decreases the production of greenhouse gases

• Reduces the production of emissions

• Improves working conditions for asphalt pavers

Looking for an asphalt contractor in Maryland? Then turn to Reliable Contracting!

Reliable Contracting operates three asphalt plants in Anne Arundel County, affording us unequalled reach for commercial asphalt projects in the Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas. By controlling the raw paving materials, asphalt production, trucking, and installation, Reliable can provide complete single-source solutions for your Maryland asphalt paving project.

Reliable can produce all of today’s high-performance asphalt paving products, or can tailor a mix or installation to suit your project’s specific needs. Our accredited quality control lab and certified technicians ensure consistency while our experienced plant and field crews deliver a final product of which you and we can be proud. To finish off your job, we also offer parking lot striping, signage, parking bumpers and speed bumps.

If you have any questions about Warm-Mix Asphalt or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties: Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Washington D.C.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Source:

About WMA