Course Duration
Five (5) days or 45 hours approximately. If inclement weather is a problem, then we pave inside the heated dome so class is not interrupted.
Target Audience
This class is available to Knife River employees & Knife River Strategic partners. Call the Center for more details.
Ideally a complete paving team/crew who typically work together. Maximum of four people per “team/crew”. The “Crew” can be all inexperienced, experienced, or a blend.
Besides the four on the crew one more person such as a Superintendent, Manager, or Project Engineer are encouraged to observe the course so best practices are reinforced and incorporated back at the jobsite.
Course Overview
The course is designed to cross train an entire crew on all positions – including foreman, paver operator, and two screed operators. It introduces best practices for primarily mainline paving operations.
This training is also building a more effective “team” including improving team communication, trust, competency, and troubleshooting/problem-solving.
The instructors set up realistic paving scenarios and problems for the crew to figure out and solve to prevent costly mistakes out on a high-stakes job. Students become more effective in reading the mat and making the right corrections to solve the issue. It also is designed to build a tight team of fully cross-trained professionals who can step in anytime and do any of the key positions (foreman, screed, operator) without missing a beat.
Course Objectives
- Paver Safety and Proper Walk-Around Inspection
- Basic and Intermediate Control Familiarization
- Fundamentals of Paving
- Paving by the Numbers
- Manual Paving and Manual Joint Matching
- Paving with Automation, including proper electronics setup
- Top Con Automatics – if used
- CAT Grade and Slope – if used
- Understanding Mat Defects
- Paving with Averaging Devices (if available)
- Introduction to the Paving Calculator
- Screed Checks and Adjustments
- Control of Segregation
- Feeder System Set-Up and Adjustments
- Understanding Paver/Screed ISOs, Action Lights and Warning Levels
- Transverse and Longitudinal Joint Construction
- Variable Width Paving