A few projects I have done recently

[Raildudes dad]

Another teaching moment today. One of our Asst PM's comes and says he and another Asst PM have been looking for the regional factor for our county for Pavement Design. He's says they have looking and finally had to ask me. I grab the manual on the corner of my desk, the well worn copy and do a quick skim, Nothing, that's odd so I go back to the beginning. The explanation paragraph starts on Page 3 and ends on Page 4.
They are both good employees but lacking in the background knowledge. That's what happens when the boss lets 1 guy do all the pavement design for years and others don't take the initiative.
I'm planning on retiring this summer. I really don't know who will answer the questions. I'm sharing all the info I can. Several employees have pleaded with me to not retire

 

[sfrs4]

Retire, but keep yourself on a retainer as a consultant. couple of days a month or something, keeps you out of mischief and a nice bit of spendo each month for no responsibility because you would only be consulting.

 

[CM1995]

Second the "semi-retire" with consulting gig when you want to RD. That's something I am looking for in 10-15 years.

I might not be the sharpest pencil in the box but think I could be of some value VE'ing plans for owners.

 

[CM1995]

The Wacker trench roller bought at auction turned out nice with a new coat of yellow paint, some decals and a new gas cylinder on the operating station lid.



Decided to not paint the grey part just the yellow.



A new one is $35K +/- and we're into this one for less than $10K. It has the Kohler diesel instead of the Kubota however we've had great service out of the Lambardini/Kohler in our older Wacker trench roller.

 

[crane operator]

If its on fire, I'm supposed to grab the extinguisher?

 

[savman]

I priced some 24" HDPE today....that's an expensive pvc pipe holder you got there! Then again, these days that's lot of money in pvc that needs to be protected from the sun....so they get you either way, lol.

The trench roller looks great btw.

 

[CM1995]

Started another chicken shack this week. This is our 4th one.

325FL and Next Gen D3 mob'd in.




The topsoil was thick and wet. We hauled out approx. 35 loads of it. We are really liking the Next Gen D3 dozer. Graded out the new school dining hall (back in the thread) using just the standard grade assist and came in within +/- .10th of subgrade, impressive.

This will be one of the first drive-thru only chicken shacks in the franchise. The 2 stakes are the rear of the building.



Cutting the double drive through lane out. The cut is exaggerated on the left hand side as we've stockpiled some of the nasty topsoil for curb backfill. However there will be a retaining wall started in front of the bucket on the 325 continuing around the drive through lane.

The pink painted stake is a 3' back of curb offset.



My role in this muck shifting operation - push 30+ loads off at our dump this afternoon. Don't know what it is about it but I really enjoy pushing a dump off. Concrete, asphalt, stumps, brush, dirt - whatever I'll take it all.. The challenge is keeping a hard, clean dumping surface for the trucks regardless of the material coming in.

A little 953C love on a beautiful Friday in March in the great state of Alabama. Our '53 has been semi-retired to the dump for the last 2 years and she still fires right up when needed.

 

[CM1995]

If its on fire, I'm supposed to grab the extinguisher?

View attachment 255027

LOL. The fire extinguisher is to check the box on the daily equipment inspection report on those big jobs that pay pretty well..

 

[CM1995]

I priced some 24" HDPE today....that's an expensive pvc pipe holder you got there! Then again, these days that's lot of money in pvc that needs to be protected from the sun....so they get you either way, lol.

The trench roller looks great btw.

That's an 18" piece of HDPE we cut a couple of feet off the end of for our last coffee shop project in the second pic. The 24" HDPE in the first pic was part of a StormTech detention system we installed a while back, the electrical conduit inside was from a tire store we did back in 2019. We tend to collect the extras on the job that would otherwise go in the dumpster.

All the other pipe is cut pieces except for the 8" HDPE which were temp roof leaders on the arena job and a piece of 12" A2000 that's split on the end. It's all expensed to a job and paid for so we keep it on the yard for personal projects or when we need a small piece for a project.

Thanks! I think the new Wacker will serve us well. It has the third eye on top for better remote detection and help eliminate the blinds spots on our older one.

 

[Don.S]

Do you save all the top soil for later use? Is the dump site owned by you? How do you get away with dumping everything there and not having the environment after you? We haul everything back to our yard but since we are a farm we can get away with muck more then normal guys can. Brush and anything wood gets burnt, cement gets stock piled then broke down smaller and hauled away on rain days and asphalt gets used for all the roads on the farm. You just bury it all?

 

[DGODGR]

The Wacker trench roller bought at auction turned out nice with a new coat of yellow paint, some decals and a new gas cylinder on the operating station lid.
Decided to not paint the grey part just the yellow.
A new one is $35K +/- and we're into this one for less than $10K. It has the Kohler diesel instead of the Kubota however we've had great service out of the Lambardini/Kohler in our older Wacker trench roller.

The roller looks practically new! It's always fantastic when you can get a good deal on something and it doesn't take much to make it look/feel like new! It's also good to upgrade to the newer units since it is getting harder to get many of the parts for the older units.
As it relates to the Whacker RT series, I always felt that the older 820s compacted better than the newer ones. What is your experience?...Do you notice a difference?

 

[DGODGR]

BTW, That F series 325 looks good too! I wish that CAT would have stayed with the old logos (like those you have on the F). I think that the logos on my Next Gen 325 look like they are better suited for a bubble gum machine or maybe a video game

 

[CM1995]

Do you save all the top soil for later use? Is the dump site owned by you? How do you get away with dumping everything there and not having the environment after you? We haul everything back to our yard but since we are a farm we can get away with muck more then normal guys can. Brush and anything wood gets burnt, cement gets stock piled then broke down smaller and hauled away on rain days and asphalt gets used for all the roads on the farm. You just bury it all?

Don I thought about stockpiling the topsoil for later use but it has a lot of heavy clay in it so it got pushed off. This topsoil wouldn't have been marketable as "topsoil" the only use would be fill in non-structural areas. Probably stockpile some of the better structural dirt for use on future jobs.

In Alabama soil, rock, concrete, cured asphalt, unpainted brick and block, stumps and brush are not classified as a waste that needs to be landfilled. Try not to haul much brush into our dump as it will eventually rot. The occasional tree, bushes or stump on a job gets hauled in but if we have a lot of brush we'll either get 40 yard roll-offs or hire a grapple truck.

We can only burn in certain counties from Oct to May every year which is a state law. Most of the cities we work in ban burning year around. Wish I could burn it!

 

[CM1995]

The roller looks practically new! It's always fantastic when you can get a good deal on something and it doesn't take much to make it look/feel like new! It's also good to upgrade to the newer units since it is getting harder to get many of the parts for the older units.
As it relates to the Whacker RT series, I always felt that the older 820s compacted better than the newer ones. What is your experience?...Do you notice a difference?

Thanks! I'm happy with how it turned out.

Personally I think the Bomag's hit harder than the Wackers but the Bomags are so hard to get parts for. We are getting rid of the Bomag as it has a phantom gremlin in the communication between remote and machine that no one can seem to diagnose nor repair.

Wacker parts on the other hand are a few clicks away on the 'net and I've already downloaded the entire parts manual direct from Wacker. There is a guy in Wake Forest that repairs trench roller remotes (used him a couple of times) but cannot work on Bomag remotes as their software is proprietary or some BS. So if it takes a couple of more passes with a Wacker so be it.

Never owned one of the 820's so I can't compare.

 

[CM1995]

Spring break road closure for sewer and primary power installation at the private school.

Got tired of renting smaller hammers and Cat has 0% for 24 months on attachments so I bought a B6 hammer for our 305. If Cat is offering "free money" I'll take it - yes we all know it's not free but the sales price of $9K and change doesn't change if you buy outright or finance so take the offer - $375 a month.

Little hammer hits hard.



We are trenching for our 6" SDR 26 sanitary line and the electricians primary power which is 2 - 5" conduits plus some com lines.

Busting some limestone pinnacles that are common in this area.



Sparky's primary conduits run to the 3 phase transformer pad, inspected and backfilled with 8910 crushed limestone.



End of the day last Friday and end of spring break. 6" sanitary and primary electric installed, inspected and backfilled. The road is back open.

 

[CM1995]

2 grease traps we installed a couple of months ago. Tying in the regular waste and grease outlets. Both were spec'd as 4" then changing to 6".



6" SDR 26 installed with 6" clean out and 4" clean out outside the grease trap. Overkill on the CO's but might come in useful over the dining halls life.

Backfilled with 8910 crushed limestone.



Overall of the grease trap area and the 3 phase transformer pad. It was a little tight with the footings and future foundation walls but just another days work.



Pre-fab fiberglass sanitary sewer lift station basin delivered surprisingly ahead of schedule 2 weeks before its delivery date. We will install the basin in June when the school is out for summer vacation. At the same time we will be re-grading the existing road and filling 2-3' to final grade.

Doesn't look like $9K does it?

 

[CM1995]

Mob'd into a new retail project for a national paint store. 2 buildings one being the paint store and the other a speculative building.

As the world turns this lot is adjacent to the strip center we finished up around the first of the year. It's leased up with a DD, Jersey Mikes, Five Guys, Mr Eye and a high dollar outdoor kitchen store.

Interesting side note for us is the DD and the outdoor kitchen store was built out by a local GC we work for that builds all the chicken shacks. The GC that built the shell building is also another GC we work for on a regular basis.



Cutting in a construction entrance, a load of #24's ready for spreading. Since it was Thursday I had to scratch the ground and officially start the job as we do not start jobs on Friday - never.

325FL with 48" on the stick.



Here's where retail construction makes you scratch your head. This sidewalk, curbing, landscaping and paving will be removed by us for the new project. The LOD (limits of disturbance) is the stakes with the white ribbon, everything to the right of the stakes is to be removed.

Get paid to put it in and then get paid to take it out. Works for us.

 

[CM1995]

The only profession I have had is building things - houses, roads, stores, warehouses, etc and it has been a very fulfilling career that I have no regrets for or wish I would've chosen another avenue to make a living.

Today was one of those days that kind of wraps it all together. We started a new retail project today right behind one we completed recently as the posts above show.

This was the adjacent project during the rough framing stage about a year ago. Notice the first rough opening in the exterior wall to the right of the red iron column.



Then a little later on in the schedule. The Cat mini and Genie is in front of the same opening. Parking lot subgrade was pure shite and we battled through but that's not part of this story.


Fast forward to today. Lucy and I were on the receiving end on mob day, unloading our 325 and D3 as they came in from the chicken shack project.

D3 coming in on a Landoll. Landoll's rock ya'll!



Now to wrap the day up - as Lucy and I were waiting on the lowboy Lucy and I decided to tour the adjacent project we finished up recently. As fate would have it the new DD we built the pad for, graded the drive thru lane for and mucked the parking lot out for is open for business.



Life is short, enjoy what you do and take the time to enjoy it.

 

[dirty4fun]

Some more great looking workmanship proud of what you do, CM. As you should be, but to many don't seem too!

 

[Metalman 55]

Nice Pics there CM! Like that new B6 too! I purchased a new B6S late last fall & have it fitted on my 289D. Haven't used on any jobs yet (tried it out on some concrete chunks only at the yard here) as up here we have a long cold winter up here but hope to use it this spring/summer.