Asphalt Paving

The asphalt project got started before I arrived on base, the person before me had a struggle getting the contractor started. I have included pictures of two asphalt plants, one is old and one is newer, I'll let you guess which is which. The first plant the contractor set up did not work very well, they did not get much paving done. The contracting office issued the contractor a notice, either produce or loose the contract. They brought in the newer plant and have been doing pretty well since then. They also brought in a new project manager, a woman from India. The contractor is from Pakistan, many of the workers are from Afghanistan and in the culture here men do not take direction from women very well. I guess there were some issues at first, but after the contractor fired the two male supervisors, it has went pretty smooth. The new project manager is also very organized and she is pretty good at getting things done. After a rough start yesterday morning with paving operations, the contractor did lay down about 300' of the first 2" lift. They only got one truckload of asphalt down before lunch, then took a hour lunch.

Contractor work days are short. By the time the laborers get through the base gate it is usually between 8 and 9. It's quite a process for them to get on the base. Then they have prayer breaks throughout the day and lunch break. They usually wrap up the day around 3:30 or 4, so they can get off base and home before dark. There is still a fear of being out after dark and being a target for working with the US. As our deployment goes on, we'll have more daylight and hopefully we'll see more hours of work. There's a lot of road to pave and at 300' per day, I'll be lucky to see it done before I leave. I'm told they have put down more asphalt on better days in the past.