The approximately 80-mile stretch between New Bern and Selma, North Carolina is a particularly scenic, rural area in the eastern section of the state. It is also where the Norfolk Southern Railroad crosses highways 117, 13, 11, 258 and many secondary roads serving the towns of Goldsboro, Rosewood, Princeton, Pine Level, Kinston and Cove City. Many of those crossings are key at-grade intersections for the region.
Because railroad companies are almost always responsible for safety and pavement maintenance - not the municipalities in which they lie - Norfolk Southern embarked on a track crossing improvement program in the latter half of 2010. Getting hot-mix asphalt to remote locations for relatively small jobs presents timing problems: repairing small sections of a crossing and adjacent pavement does not require a truckload of asphalt, and delays can lead to cooled asphalt - waste in both product and crew time.
EZ STREET® Ambient® asphalt was the solution. The contractor was able to stockpile the material in strategic locations without worries about timing. In most locations an asphalt paver was not needed; the job was completed with a backhoe, a truck and a roller, using 3-person crews only. And because the installed product is ready for traffic immediately after installation, disruption to area residents, businesses, and the trains themselves was minimal.
