Dealer functions as support partner

By Jeff Winke

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin has a large amount of lane miles supported by a diverse fleet of equipment and Highway Department staff, led by Eduardo Santiago, Milwaukee County highway director and John Blonien, the County’s fleet director.

“Our fleet is extremely diverse (everything from mowers to squad cars to snow machines). Exceptional support for unique equipment like these Falcon patchers is highly valued and allows us to reduce downtime and maximize fleet availability for our users,” as stated by Blonien.

Milwaukee County has 2,500 pieces of equipment in its fleet, and they are responsible for the maintenance and repair of approximately 2,200 lane miles of roads. They have a number of crews working staffed by approximately 70 full-time highway department employees and approximately 50 full-time fleet management employees.

The Milwaukee County patching/pavement rehabilitation scope covers approximately 1,000 lane miles of asphalt pavement requiring an annual need for approximately 2,000 tons of hot mix and cold mix asphalt used for the patching and repair.

A lot of support is required for this large operation and its scope of work.

“We use Falcon Asphalt Repair Equipment, Freeland, Michigan and its dealer, Midwest Paving Equipment, Inc., Glen Ellyn, Illinois for our equipment and support,” stated Blonien. “Falcon and its local dealer, Midwest Paving Equipment (MPE), have been outstanding.

“MPE has gone out of their way to make sure that we are fully supported, trained, and comfortable with the daily operation of our equipment. They are 24/7 for emergency repairs, troubleshooting, and technical support. As we were the first ones to request a 10-ton unit, Falcon and MPE worked with us to custom design and build these machines for our application at no cost to us.”

Milwaukee County ended up purchasing three Falcon 10-ton machines.

“Due to the size of our coverage area, we have three Highway Maintenance facilities, so each facility has a 10-ton unit,” Santiago said. “During early or late-season asphalt repair periods, all three units are used daily. In winter months, all three machines are utilized to keep cold mix warm prior to application.” Every patcher Milwaukee County owns is a Falcon, to compliment the three 10-ton machines. They own and operate two 4-ton slip-ins and a 4-ton trailer mounted unit.

Falcon Asphalt Repair Equipment manufactures a variety of asphalt recycler and hot box equipment designed to recycle asphalt chunks and millings, hold hot mix for days, and heat and reheat cold patch material.

Falcon equipment enables its users to recycle or reclaim virgin uncompressed asphalt which will save time, money, and allow for permanent repairs to be made year-round with recycled asphalt. Repairing roads, parking lots and pathways with recycled or reclaimed asphalt is designed to reduce costs and help the environment.

Founded in 2004, Falcon is the category leader being recognized by Inc. Magazine as the fastest growing road maintenance equipment manufacturer in North America. Falcon manufactures asphalt repair equipment in trailer, dump box, slip-in, hook-lift and dedicated patch truck models with hopper capacities ranging from 2 to 10 tons. A full line of bolt-on options is also available.

Falcon equipment recycles asphalt with no moving parts through Falcon’s unique and patented heat management system.

The County has a large geographic coverage area and a large asphalt capacity need.

“On a typical patching operation, we can easily mill and fill 10- to 20-tons of material with a skid-steer mounted mill and a small roller,” Blonien said. “We plan these repair operations in advance to ensure the staff, equipment, and material are available to complete a project with a predetermined scope. We’ve had two 10-ton units on single job sites and easily spread all material within a 12-hour period.”

An exceptional amount of work happens on a day-in day-out basis in Milwaukee County as far as the upkeep of its asphalt paved road network. Blink and you may miss out on great work taking place!

For more information, please visit www.falconrme.com or call 989-495-9332.