A few projects I have done recently

[Former Wrench]

It looks so odd to see regular brown dirt instead of rock and muskeg.

 

[CM1995]

It looks so odd to see regular brown dirt instead of rock and muskeg.

We've got brown, red, yellow, grey and tan dirt and all sorts of rock, short of caliche or granite. The central Alabama area has some interesting ground.

In the county I live in we have coal mines to the west and some of the best limestone chemical wise a few miles away towards the center of the county. The less desirable limestone is crushed and sold as construction rock and the higher quality limestone is turned into powdered lime and sent all over for uses from cement to toothpaste and makeup. It's added to chicken feed in order to make a tougher shell to survive transport to stores.

From time to time we have out of state excavation contractors come in and be low bidder by a large margin on a big dirt job. They usually all leave with their tail tucked.

Granite recently won a large interstate interchange project by a wide margin, the next bidder was $69 million higher. They'll probably be ok since it's mostly bridges and structures but time will tell.:cool2

 

[Bobcatdaddy]

We've got brown, red, yellow, grey and tan dirt and all sorts of rock, short of caliche or granite. The central Alabama area has some interesting ground.

In the county I live in we have coal mines to the west and some of the best limestone chemical wise a few miles away towards the center of the county. The less desirable limestone is crushed and sold as construction rock and the higher quality limestone is turned into powdered lime and sent all over for uses from cement to toothpaste and makeup. It's added to chicken feed in order to make a tougher shell to survive transport to stores.

From time to time we have out of state excavation contractors come in and be low bidder by a large margin on a big dirt job. They usually all leave with their tail tucked.

Granite recently won a large interstate interchange project by a wide margin, the next bidder was $69 million higher. They'll probably be ok since it's mostly bridges and structures but time will tell.:cool2

Wow! 69 million is A big margin.

 

[JimBruce42]

Wow! 69 million is A big margin.

The last two sections of the Northeast Extension of the PA turnpike were both won by a margin of $50 million.. It's insane how much money gets left on the table sometimes.

 

[Bobcatdaddy]

The last two sections of the Northeast Extension of the PA turnpike were both won by a margin of $50 million.. It's insane how much money gets left on the table sometimes.

We're both projects awarded to the same contractor? They're either leaving a lot of money on the table, or Missing a ton of stuff. If it's the latter, I'd say chances are good that's the last job they bid lol.

 

[CM1995]

Time to update my thread. We've been doing several small jobs and finishing up others. Had another chicken shack that got put on hold after finding out there was no water service to the lot. The closest place to get water is in the middle of a 5 lane road 14' deep, then it has to cross under a service drive for the wally world. Needless to say that is no inexpensive undertaking.

At the small job downtown.

Re-built an existing brick curb inlet into a storm manhole then installed a new 4x4 knockout box for a very large curb grate inlet. There are two fiber optic lines, a water line and a high pressure gas main that criss cross this corner.

When we were excavating for the new 4x4 knockout box, we came across the non-marked ductile iron line that I mentioned above. The result was the box got shifted 1'4" towards the building. The owner gained a foot of pavement and lost a 1' of landscaping, win-win.

12" A2000 was spec'd for the pipe.



6" ADS roof leaders going in.



Backfilling the roof leaders with #57's, I though this was a cool pic.



Roof leaders backfilled with stone and R2 earning it's keep once again.

 

[CM1995]

Back to the commercial lot prep job. This job isn't pushing so we've been finishing up other jobs and doing small ones then filling in here.

Clearing and cleaning up trash on the 4th lot.



It's bone dry. We haven't had any rain in over a month.



Filling on the 3rd and 4th lots. We have a hydrant meter to wet the fill down in order to get compaction.



A little R&R on the Mississippi gulf coast. Beautiful view from our room.



It's really a dogs life, we humans are just along for the ride.

 

[Landclearer]

Hey CM,
The lot prep job looks like a good sized job. How much fill are you bringing in? What is the scope of work on it?

 

[CM1995]

Hey CM,
The lot prep job looks like a good sized job. How much fill are you bringing in? What is the scope of work on it?

It's a nice size LC about 4 acres on 3 lots. We also have a building pad and parking area job across the street for another building owner. He liked our work so asked us if we would do it, sure.

All the fill was on site. There is a gradual slope to the rear of the lots so there's plenty of borrow. It's a nice sandy material with soft rock that breaks up easily under the 533. Probably have 3-400 CY's of nice sandy topsoil stockpiled that we'll sell later.

 

[Labparamour]

A little R&R on the Mississippi gulf coast. Beautiful view from our room.


It's really a dogs life, we humans are just along for the ride.

Beautiful sunset....and with a pup along, what else could you ask for?:drinkup

DB

 

[CM1995]

We've been doing some small jobs to fill in time before other projects are ready.

Moving some old van bodies used for storage at the lot prep job. The power lines are a lot farther away than it looks in the picture.



We don't normally do residential work but this is a project for one of our very good commercial clients at his personal home. This is the same project up thread where we demo'd the old patio at the rear of the home. One could build a very nice home with what they are spending on this addition.:cool2

Backfilling around the pool.



Fill was dry and space was tight. Wetting down the on site fill before compacting with R2.



Rented a 303E for this project.



Spreading 6-8" of 8910 or stone dust for the paver bed that will be the pool deck.

 

[CM1995]

Beautiful sunset....and with a pup along, what else could you ask for?:drinkup

DB

That's right DB!

Mississippi and Alabama have a very short but very pretty coastline on the Gulf.

She's a supervisor in training, keeping a watchful eye over the T250.



And when she's not supervising she just wants to run and smell everything in a 5 mile radius.

 

[Landclearer]

Every time I see the trench packer I want one. I have been watching ironplanet and bid on a couple but they went for crazy money.

I like the moving job on the van body, looks like something we would get ourselves into

At least your four legged boss comes out in the field ours stays in the office checking on everything she can find to eat!

 

[CM1995]

Every time I see the trench packer I want one. I have been watching ironplanet and bid on a couple but they went for crazy money.

I like the moving job on the van body, looks like something we would get ourselves into

At least your four legged boss comes out in the field ours stays in the office checking on everything she can find to eat!

We've probably bid against each other on IP.

I'm looking for another one at a good price as the little bastards do shake themselves to death and I would like to have another one as a spare. However R2 has been a great addition to "fleet". Probably the most profitable machine I have comparing purchase price and ownership costs to what it produces.

Back to the van body, it's a "can you move that" sort of question - always up to a challenge.:usa

I have to bribe the new supervisor with meat sticks from the gas station, it's only one a day when she's with me, a small price to pay in order to keep in good graces with the management.:drinkup

 

[CM1995]

So the wife and I took off 11 days for a little R&R in Costa Rica for Thanksgiving to visit friends and family.

It was rough waking up and having the first cup of coffee in the back yard.:cool2



My job for Thanksgiving was to smoke a turkey. Price Mart which is owned by Costco has a store in San Jose and they import US turkeys for the expats. I used natural charcoal and mango for the cooking, along with a lot of butter to make a tasty bird.



My friends new to him 2012 Toyota Landcruiser, it's a fine machine. Straight 6CY Toyota diesel with 5sp. ARB suspension and lift kit. So sweet, I wish we could get them in the US.



The Costa Rican Cat dealer is Matra, this is a satellite store close to where we stayed. That's a 420F2 without the emissions garbage we deal with here. There's a rental store sticker on the 420 and I was going to stop in and ask what the weekly rate was but we had beer to drink. Priorities right??:drinkup



The excavator is a 318DL2 that looked brand new. I can only assume this model also lacks the emissions garbage we have to deal with as well.

 

[CM1995]

A fairly new Cat 304 mini ex on a very, very well used lowboy, they could stand to invest in some wheel bearings for the trailer.:cool2

Not a chain to be seen...



Needed some last minute Thanksgiving supplies so we do what everyone else does, head down to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood market. Yes this chain is owned by Wal-Mart.



I thought this was interesting. Costa Rican versions of pervious pavement which is concrete blocks laid in a paver pattern filled with what looked to be #57 sized stone. From what I'm told when they built this "Wal-Mart" they filled the lot several feet and installed underground retention, quite cutting edge for CR.:cool2



One of the local excavation guy's yards. I'm always interested to see how others in our field perform the job and everything that goes along with owning and operating heavy equipment. The equipment wasn't new but appeared to be very well taken care of.



Stopped off to have a beer with my friend Pio who owns this establishment. He's come a long way since I first met him. 10 years ago this site was a shack where they fixed tires and he had one worn out Mack tandem he hauled locally with.

 

[CM1995]

The ride back to San Jose to catch a plane. This is a toll road owned by a Spanish consortium which connects the capital city of San Jose to the Pacific coast. They've had a lot of problems with landslides since completion of the road due to cutting the banks back to damn steep.

A couple of Cat excavators taking the slopes down, one has a hammer.

Poor pic quality, it was raining.







JD 510 or 710 grading some base out for a turn lane to a new gas station.



Costa Rican round about - organized chaos at best..

 

[Labparamour]

WOW! Looks like you're having a great time! Thanks for sharing the pics.
Have a beer for me :drinkup

DB

 

[CM1995]

WOW! Looks like you're having a great time! Thanks for sharing the pics.
Have a beer for me :drinkup

DB

Thanks, Labparamour we did have a great time. CR is a great country to visit, might retire there one day..

 

[WaterDoc]

Thanks for the update CM. I was wondering what happened to you.

I'll be in Puerto Limon Costa Rica on the 16th on a cruise, along with Columbia, Panama, Honduras and Belize. Very much looking forward to it.