Road Widener Key to Shoulder Upkeep

Road and bridge experts across the state know that well maintained, firm shoulders help ensure road-edge integrity and can be a key factor in preventing accidents that may be caused by road edge drop-offs.
Repairing and building up shoulders on county roads can be a costly endeavor and require long hours, said Richard Schiller, Tarrant County Precinct 3 supervisor. Schiller and his team of experts, Neal Welch, Tommy Knowles, and Butch Truby, made a business decision about two years ago, one they said has paid off when it comes to maintaining their road shoulders with both efficiency and cost effectiveness.
The Tarrant County team uses the Midland Road Widener, model SPD-6 manufactured by Midland Machinery Co. Inc. of Tonawanda, N.Y. Bane Machinery Inc., with offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Tyler, introduced Schiller to the Road Widener. The company has 35-plus years of experience helping municipalities and private contractors reduce the cost and time it takes to add or repair road shoulders and widen pre-existing roads.
SPD (self-propelled diesel) road wideners lay, spread, and smooth gravel, dirt, flex base, sand and asphalt in one easy step saving time and material.
“It is worth its weight in gold,” Knowles said. Schiller and his supervisors agreed that the Midland SPD-6 does the job in one-fourth the time that it took with the conventional method of moving the material with bucket loaders, hand shoveling, and smoothing with a motor grader. Clean up is much faster, and material waste is eliminated. The occasional gouging on the edge of the existing roadway by the motor grader blade is also eliminated.
The Midland Road Widener can be used for lane paving, laying base, shoulder paving, shoulder maintenance, trench filling, and bike lane construction.
For more information on the Midland road widener, contact Johnny Mapp at Bane Machinery Inc., 214-352-2468.