What would you do???

[jgivens]

Just wanna say thanks for all the comments everybody!

ghitch75-We are digging 2 basins and several diversion ditches for the mine.

adr02-We did use some trees in sections of the haul roads but simply don't have the time or $$$$ to bury brush all over the place and keep having to dig it back up and moving it back out.

joispoi-we looked into the calcium chloride and have decided against it right now. Grading and compacting the rd is out of the question. LGP dozers fall through this stuff! :Banghead

bear- I live in Butler Co. We are working right smackdab in between the mighty Green River and Ohio River in Henderson.

special tool- The Komatsu trucks haul 8 yds of dirt, about 4 buckets from our 330. I believe someone said they are basically the same as a PC300 hoe except for the dump bed

qball and AtlasRob- We did dig SEVERAL sump holes and brought in a 6" and several 2" pumps that pump daily.
Thanks for all the suggestions everybody. Wish us luck! Here's a few more pictures for you all to check out, big railroad job we did in Ohio Co. KY. for Armstrong Coal Co.

 

[jgivens]

Here it is after we completed it!

 

[joispoi]

Another option would be Rhino Snot I don´t know how much it costs, but you could call them and ask about price and suitability for your application.

 

[stumpjumper83]

it seems to me a cable car system is in order.

Take a heavy cable and run it across the basin where you want to make your cut. Attach the one end to a immovable object, or a large cat. Attach the other end to a skyline yarder used in logging. Suspend a belly dump trailer off the heavy cable. then take the car cable and attach it to the dump. The slope will work to return the dump to the excavator filling it.

You will most likley have to handle it again once it gets on solid ground, but at least its out of the basin.

 

[bear]

I live in Butler Co. We are working right smackdab in between the mighty Green River and Ohio River in Henderson.

That explains alot right there. I always was surprised trees were able to stand up in that part of the area.
When I was in high school I worked for a guy that did tile work over in that part of the country (and lives here around monticello) mostly doing schools and some of the factories around there. we worked for a flooring company called square yard carpet in henderson and stayed in madisonville at a freind of the boss mans house. we spent a bunch of time fishing in the ponds left after the mine sites had been reclaimed. We caught alot of fish and spent I don't know how many hours just watching all the mining equipment.

 

[jgivens]

Those holes are everywhere in Madisonville aren't they!? And the equipment is still running everywhere too, Mines are booming around here again!

 

[vintex]

do you blokes hav GEO-FAB out there iv seen it used to make stable roads over spewy ground it would propbably work well with those crawler trucks

 

[1570BEGrdman]

what would u do?

You said ur doing this for a mine? Find a place to borrow decent material for plating ur cut area, or to at least build haul roads with. If u just use it to build roads ur hoe can sit on the virgin ground and ur trucks can run on the raised haulroads. Building just the roads would create less re-handle, but you would have re-handle either way. Make ur plating fill about 5ft and see how that works. You may be able to get away with using less. I know re-handle is a bad word, but you gotta do whatever it takes sometimes.

 

[1570BEGrdman]

What would u do?

I agree with joispoi. Any water you can get out of ur cut the better off you'll be. Bleeder ditches work wonders. Try cutting a bleeder around 2 or 3 sides of ur cut just outside where the toe of the slope is. Put a sump in one corner, and make ur ditches drain to ur sump. I know it'll work if u use this and the plating i talked about together. Seen my father do it many times in worse spots than that stuff.

 

[jgivens]

Great idea 1570BEGrdman we did try building roads out of clay from as dry a place as we could find. (notice pics 5, 7, 8, etc. a clay type material) I know I said it's for mines but we don't have access to any of the mine spoil as it's on another permit miles away from this site. The clay worked for only a little while and that was with a dozer (JD 700H LGP) running the roads back and forth blading. The ditch/sump thing may be working who knows.... pumps run all the time and things really haven't changed much!? We'll keep at it and we'll eventually finish, our Company owner and Mgr says they love a good challenge and they've been moving dirt for about 50yrs!

Pulled off the basin for a while and working on some diversion ditches around the site, it's better material and what we used on the roads. The tractors are digging the bulk out and the Hoe has the laser on it finishing up. We're just hoping for better weather now!

 

[1570BEGrdman]

what would u do?

ALWAYS NICE HOW SEDIMENT PONDS END UP BEING IN THE WORST PLACES. BUT, THATS USUALLY THE BEST PLACE FOR THEM. I'VE BEEN IN ON LOTS OF PONDS THAT WE NEVER WERE ABLE TO PUT A DOZER ON THE SLOPES, OR IN THE BOTTOM BECAUSE IT WAS PURE SLOP AS FAR DOWN AS THE HOE WOULD DIG. MY DAD AN I LOOKED AT POND TODAY THAT HE'LL START IN A COUPLE WEEKS. IT WAS IN A SWAMP BOTTOM WITH A POND RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE ALREADY. NEXT TO A GAS LINE.:Banghead

 

[Greg]

Last thing you would want to do is put the 627's in there. You may never see them again after they sink.

If you used a dragline could you cast far enough to be able to load on dryer ground?

 

[surfer-joe]

Drainage is key, if you have the time and someplace to put the discharge water. Letting it sit to dry out some is good, if you have the time, but I know the material you are working in, it doesn't drain well just sitting in place. Packaged up, it would make a fine grease.

Over on the Monongahela south of Gray's Landing, we had to place polyester fabric down, with about two to three feet of dry material on top of it for the haulers (777's) to run on. These were being loaded with a Cat 245 extended boom excavator, and a Demag 285 excavator 10 cy), both of which also needed fabric runways some times. (we lost the 245 once, took two days to get it out) This was in long ago dredged material that was half silt, half clay, and half Crocodile. (You lost your boots just walking in it)

We used crane mats too in some places, and finally, on the extreme south end, we brought in a Link-Belt 518, with 150 feet of boom and a dragline setup. We used all LGP Cat D6N dozers, excepting one Komatsu D85LPG.

Good Luck!

 

[BigIron25]

I agree with Qball, when i was down in florida they used well points like crazy in long lines and drew the water out with industrial pumps, we usually sank em in 4-8 feet deeper than the deepest part of excavation.

 

[Meangreen]

Build your haul roads with 'dead' sand, just pure old sand. Throw down some GEO_TEC fabric and put 2 to the 3 feet of sand on top of the fabric......the sand works much better than clay. The sand doesn't "pump" like clay, spreads the "load" over a larger area.

If you're close to the river and if it has sand bars in it, that'll do just fine. I've had to bridge across swamps with standing water in them, 3 foot of sand (above water) works better than 8 foot of clay for continuous traffic.

 

[piedie]

Hello,
In Holland we use in very bad conditions steel plates.These plate we lay if possible in a bed of sand.Some contractors have their own plates but you can also hire them.The plates are availble in different sizes,up to 3.5 meters wide and 6 meters long.I know it 's not a very cheap solution but it saves a lot fuel and the work goes on.Last winter ,we had a project and there was a haul road about 6 km of steel plates ,and even A35D fitted on the plates.

 

[AtlasRob]

Hello,
In Holland we use in very bad conditions steel plates..............Last winter ,we had a project and there was a haul road about 6 km of steel plates ,and even A35D fitted on the plates.

Welcome aboard piedie.

I thought about navvi or bog mats and have used steel plates for road crossings and to get lowloaders parrellel straddling railway track to load / unload a tamper but never as a haul road. Our average ADT pilot would need some serious timbers along the sides to keep um on track

 

[piedie]

It's very important to stay on the plates because when you get off and on ,the plates gets very slippery.A little sand wil help......and you must be very careful with the tires especially when you make a turn.The best way for the truck is to lay the plates in a fan with overlap so the plates have maximum resistance and they stay where it is the best.ofcourse there is mostly some maintaince necesarry.The plates must have some overlap and the best is to lay the overlap in the direction wich the trucks drive if the are fully loaded.