Dobson Brothers, I am Sick of them

[lurker]

I heard that the original spec. called for asphalt subgrade but Dobson opted for crushed material. They won.

Crushed material works fine in rural road building if drainage is provided. Otherwise, water will perch in the porous material and freezing can cause the concrete to break.

IF/WHEN our water mains break, our concrete will want to float. SHOULD that occur during a very hard freeze, all hell will break loose.

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

No, Dobson Brothers must have both sides of Wyatt Earp Blvd. from 2nd Street to 14th Street, done, finished and open to traffic by June 24th, 2007

You'll have to show me that in writing before I believe it. I still stand by my comment that one side of the road will be done by June 24th. Yes there is another phase to do from 14th to Matt Down, but there are still several phases within each phase.

As for the base, the original aggragate (sub-base material), Dobson wanted to put in something that wasn't up to the original specs, the city said no and they had to use the type and amount that was originally in the plans.

"The Wyatt Earp Boulevard reconstruction project has been awarded to Dobson Brothers Construction Co. They will have until June 24, 2007 to complete the project...."

Are you trying to say that the city awarded half a street to be finished by June 24, 2007? This report does not say the north half of Wyatt Earp. Do they get another year to finish the other half? June 24, 2008?

[Bubba]

By me saying I wanted to see it in writing, meant that I wanted an official source to look it up for myself, not for just anybody to write it again and I would take it as fact.

Dobson Brothers is in Federal District Court in Wichita for not paying their cement bill in Garden City on the airport project. Over 1/2 million dollars. I hear that there was lots of problems on that and no one is happy.

Mr. Brakey had best hope that he gets his money out of them. Based on their track record to date, he should be worried.

Question: what does Brakey have to do with the base since he is not in the crushed rock business? Does he do this now?

[Helper]

I'm guessing that Brake Easy was contracted to do the side street approaches. therefore Dobson Bros would be payin him (in my opinion only he could get "stiffed" and not hurt my feelings a bit!) But that is just me.

There is no "base" scandle. Mr. Brakey is only a sub-contractor for Dobson Bros. Yes, there was a delay for the decision to change from a concrete treated base to a crushed concrete base, but no "scandle" . The construction of concrete pavement is a lot more complicated than most folks realize, and takes much longer than one would think. There are weather and tempature restrictions that apply to this project and due to the cold weather this winter did not help the project along. Concrete takes time to cure, and they cannot pour one day, and put traffic on it the next. They have to wide saw cut, seal, and get temporary traffic marking down when the side roads are completed. Doing the project in small incriments because of all the driveways along the project is not helping the time frame either. They are required to leave at least one drive open for a business. Hopefully this will help you understand some of the delays. Dodge City is an old town, and several delays were due also to unknown utilities underground when the sewer drain and water lines were installed. I am sure that everyone involved with the project would love to be finished with it at this point. But I do commend them for wanting the finished product to be a plus for Dodge City, something that everyone can be proud of. Everyone forgets just how horrible the road was before this project began, and was a long time coming. A bit of patience is due.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dobson Brothers is in Federal District Court in Wichita for not paying their cement bill in Garden City on the airport project. Over 1/2 million dollars. I hear that there was lots of problems on that and no one is happy.

Mr. Brakey had best hope that he gets his money out of them. Based on their track record to date, he should be worried.

Question: what does Brakey have to do with the base since he is not in the crushed rock business? Does he do this now?

Mr. Brakey has nothing to do with the crushed rock. He is only a subcontractor. You should find out the facts about the garden city project that Dobson is in court for. The supplier of the concrete cheated them on the cement content of the concrete, and that is what the mess is over.

Garden City project; The concrete supplier for that project provided a substandard material (for those who understand, 1.5 sacks low on cement content). Dobson is in court to protect itself and place the blame where it should be on the concrete provider.

Dodge City project; The completion date is in July for both the west and east bound lanes between 14th and 2nd to be complete. A seperate contract will be let in September or October for 14th to Matt Down. As a previous post stated there was 8 months of pipe work done (both storm sewer and water line) before Dobson was able to get in to start the paving process. As another post pointed out there was a change requested to replace the CTB subgrade material with a crushed concrete product. This new product has many benefits, (ie. it drains water (CTB does not), it will not cause reflection cracking in the paving (CTB may), it is eco friendly ( you are basically recycling the old roadway paving along with other crushed concrete sources into the new road rather than having it sit at a dump site), and best of all the city got a price reduction from the contractor to use the product because it is a less expensive product to produce). So for those of you complaining about a scandal, let that one sink in.

If the info I have heard is correct, traffic should be switched onto the new pavement around the first week of May, leaving roughly 8-9weeks for completion of the eastbound lanes.

I will also restate what a previous post said, we should commend the contractor for providing our city with a quality, aesthetically pleasing product at the lowest price possible. (ie. refund on base change).

Thank you Dobson, from those of us who have been around the industry and do not just speak ignorantly, we appreciate your hard work, we see the long hours you are putting in out there now (both evenings, and weekends) and hope you get done in a timely fashion.

[K C Muffin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Garden City project; The concrete supplier for that project provided a substandard material (for those who understand, 1.5 sacks low on cement content). Dobson is in court to protect itself and place the blame where it should be on the concrete provider.

Thank you Dobson, from those of us who have been around the industry and do not just speak ignorantly, we appreciate your hard work, we see the long hours you are putting in out there now (both evenings, and weekends) and hope you get done in a timely fashion.

Ooh. I hope you don't get flamed for the "ignorant" remark, as this is a chat board, nothing more. No pros here - or not that many. Shall I just call you Mr. Brakey? Or will Lowell do?

One of the X's was in concrete construction. Every load he sent out had to be tested on site for the correct mix (sacks per yard of concrete). If it was short, it came back to the plant. So where are the professionals Dobson should have had on site to check that concrete? I would have thought the contract would have been between Dobson and the City of Garden City, not the City of Garden City and some unnamed subcontractor. That doesn't make sense to me. But then, I'm just a lowly ignorant Dodgeboarder - with a T-Shirt and all.............