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RED HORSE Airmen repave road

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jonathan Bass
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The 823rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers assigned to Hurlburt Field, Florida, have been repairing roads here since March.

The roads being repaved needed expansion to comply with South Carolina Department of Transportation requirements.

During their remaining two weeks here, the squadron is repaving the roads inside the 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron munitions flight compound.

"Right now we're milling the roads," said Tech. Sgt. Marc Taylor, 823rd RED HORSE pavements and equipment supervisor. "We need to expand the roads by four feet, but in order to do that right we need to mill the existing road first."

Milling is the process of ripping up the top portion of a road before laying new asphalt.

A typical milling crew consists of four Airmen: a driver, a chute operator who feeds the milled asphalt into the leading dump truck, and two Airmen who ensure the ripped up road is level and straight, said Taylor.

"The goal here is to rip up approximately two to three inches of existing road," said Senior Airman Jeremy Heinen, 823rd RED HORSE operations management journeyman.

While ripping up the road, the Airmen continuously check to ensure that while the Airmen progress, the road remains level.

The Roadtec RX-60C milling machine used has a drum with 127 metal teeth which rip up the road; as the machine rips up the road, it sprays water to help lower the temperature of the road, said Taylor.

Also, to help keep temperatures low, milling is done at night, said Heinen.

After milling, the Airmen will apply Tack Coat, a bonding agent that is used to hold the existing asphalt with the new layer of asphalt, said Heinen.

For every 15 hours of milling, the Airmen of the 823rd RED HORSE will work through approximately three-quarters of a mile of road.

Working 12-hour shifts, the Airmen will accomplish the task right on schedule with the remaining two weeks here.

RED HORSE Airmen provide a highly mobile civil engineer response force to support the Air Force at home and abroad, operating self-sufficiently in remote, high-threat environments world-wide for up to 30 days.