SPRINGFIELD — It has been smooth going so far for Will Nash and Ranger Construction Company of Florida.

Nash is the manager of the full-depth reclamation (FDR) project on Corinth Church Road, one of numerous troublesome roads in Effingham County.

“Depending on what the opportunities are, I’d love to keep doing it,” Nash said.

FDR enables Effingham County to save countless millions of dollars by recycling ash road materials instead of having to haul them away and start repairs from scratch. Core samples are taken at a rate of 10 per mile and sent to a laboratory to make sure that the ash is blended with the existing dirt and asphalt/aggregate surface, if one is present, and an emulsion to make sure the road holds together.

“The lab checks on how much fly ash is in the road and how much emulsion — the material we are pumping into it — it takes to fully coat the fly ash,” Nash said.

Nash has considerable FDR experience. The process has grown in popularity in recent years as equipment has evolved and recycling efforts have increased. It is most prevalent in Georgia, he said.

“It is getting better all the time,” he said. “This is not a guessing game. You take what you’ve got and make it better.”

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the county added boiler ash to some of its dirt roads. The ash was a free alternative to buying sand to add back to them as they eroded over time.

Unfortunately, the mix of ash and sand proved to be troublesome and incohesive.

“It was a good base,” Nash said. “It worked for several years ...”

Water is an ash road’s worst enemy, Nash said. 

“Because (the ash particles) are so small, it holds moisture and has swell issues,” he explained. “It will swell up and bust the surface. It also has adhesion issues.

“If you put something on top of it, it won’t stick and it will chip off or break, which will lead to a pothole. Potholes beget potholes and it just gets worse and worse.”

Funded by the 2020 Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST), the total FDR project consists of 17 miles of ash roads. Nash supervised the revitalization of Indigo Road last year. It was the first one in the county to undergo FDR.

“Indigo turned out really well,” said Commissioner Jamie DeLoach, whose District 3 has more than a dozen ash roads.

“It was a pilot project and is a good example of what this road will look like,” Assistant County Manager Eric Larson added.

Work on Corinth Church Road, which featured a $2.7 million bid, started Aug. 15. Nash and his eight-man crew expect to finished on the four-mile stretch in three to five weeks.

Ranger Construction worked on Scuffletown Road and Courthouse Road earlier in the month.

To view the current list of TSPLOST projects and their status, visit https://rightspot.spateng.com/Map/