A few projects I have done recently

[willie59]

With the amount of rain you've had lately I'm surprised you're getting anything done.

 

[CM1995]

Looking good like always CM do you have to deal with rock you have to hammer out much?

When we have solid rock on a small site like this a hammer is the cheapest option. On larger jobs in the past we've drilled and blasted but that was 1,000's of CY's of rock.

We don't have to hammer that often.

 

[CM1995]

With the amount of rain you've had lately I'm surprised you're getting anything done.

No doubt. My backyard has become a mushroom farm.

 

[Dozerboy]

I always love looking at your pictures. The way they look speaks volumes about the quality of your work. I live by the theory if it looks like you know what you're doing no worries if you know what you're doing.

 

[Landclearer]

Glad to see you back CM. I've missed the updates.

That rock looks like a royal pain in the rear. The whole site looks like it was a pain. You must have ESP, you knew I was going to ask about the Kobelco. Been years since I have run one.

As always I am impressed with your pipe work.

 

[CM1995]

It's been a while since I updated my thread, it's been busy.

New addition to the fleet and the company. Had the opportunity to bring on board someone who I have know for years that is very good at utility work. We have expanded into water and sewer, specifically underground fire service lines.

2014 F250 gas burner. I wanted to get a diesel but this truck will fit the bill for the time being. Outfitted it with a fuel tank and boxes I had from previous trucks.



279 has been a great CTL, I love it. Grading some camper parking pads on an infill job.



Building a pad for a new private school. This is type of job I love - totally design build, no stakes, no plans. They are just starting out and using a modular building 28x76 to sit on this pad.



End of work Friday, building pad roughed in. Those three machines with the right humans behind the controls can move a substantial amount of dirt. No GPS needed.

 

[CM1995]

1200' of 20' wide driveway to access the new private school. This part was an old logging road we are widening. 600' or so will be new.


I love my 953C! If I only had one machine to make a living with it would this one.



Just some of the crap we deal with on commercial jobs. This yard inlet is the one up thread that we had to cast in place. When we left the site this inlet had silt fence around it and clearly marked. Mason's decided they needed access so they just covered it with sand and drove over it.

This inlet goes into the CMP detention system we installed back in the thread. This picture could possibly be a thousand words or dollars if come punch out time the GC says " You need to clean the detention system in order to get your retainage."



On a lighter note, Lucy AKA "The Goose" loaded up and ready to go supervise a job site.

 

[Metalman 55]

Some nice looking projects & Cat equipment spread there CM1995!

 

[td25c]

It's been a while since I updated my thread, it's been busy.



End of work Friday, building pad roughed in. Those three machines with the right humans behind the controls can move a substantial amount of dirt. No GPS needed.

Excellent work CM !
Got a few dirt / mud jobs waiting where I can leave the tape measure & transit at home , I love those jobs
Lucy looks like she is doing great as a supervisor

 

[CM1995]

Excellent work CM !
Got a few dirt / mud jobs waiting where I can leave the tape measure & transit at home , I love those jobs
Lucy looks like she is doing great as a supervisor

Thanks TD! No doubt the jobs where "we can do what we do" without plans is what makes this profession fun. I am gravitating back towards those types of jobs as the local economy starts to rebound.

I still like the hard and fast commercial jobs as the pay is better but ya' gotta have some R&R in the business world too.

Interesting times, we'll see how it goes.

Lucy has really developed her personality over the last year. She's a truck dog that likes her "Peeps" she gets to see on the job site and ride to lunch with. Friday the two hard grizzled war veterans both had chicken fingers stuffed away in their pocket to give to her when we got back in the truck. Salt of the earth those guys.

 

[WaterDoc]

Nice to get an update. I'll be interested in seeing some of your utility work, specifically water lines.

I'm always curious about how things are done in other places. What sort of watermain commissioning process do you have to go through?. Grab some pics of the processes when you can.

Cheers.

 

[Aliate]

Glad to see you doing well. Its about time you got in on some utility work!

That 250 looks identical to my 350, I hate the 6.2 gas, Ill never buy another. They are simple and cheap to maintain but it looks like the 6.7's are winners, not like the 6.4 or 6.0. Mine averages 11mpg and is just plain lazy. I just put a transfer tank in mine and Im afraid to fill it up, its just annoying your foot is always in the floor to get the thing moving.

 

[CM1995]

I agree Aliate. Wanted a 6.7 but needed a truck and this was the best one local available at the time. However it's a short term solution.

The plan is for me to get a new truck and roll my 6.7 to my grading super. I would like to get into a 2 year rotation on pickups and get all F350's with 6.7's.

 

[CM1995]

New addition to the "fleet" a Bomag MMP 8500 won on Iron Planet. Had to go to South Carolina to get it. Rental decals removed, a good washing and of course a full service including all fluids and filters. I like this machine, we're trying to come up with a name for it - Maybe R2D4?

The 420DIT is getting a front cylinder re-packed.



A fire service lead in project for the new utility crew. Put the 420DIT and T250 with this crew. This line was 8" ductile tying in where the city made the tap, set a valve and lateral. 175' of pipe and a stainless steel lead in to the existing building.

R2D4 and the new to the "fleet" F250. This job was at a municipal airport, the runway is in the background. While the crew was there an Osprey landed from the Alabama Air National Guard, very neat aircraft.




For the amateur geologists on HEF. This airport is located in Sylacauga, AL, known for it's marble mines. Marble mined here is on buildings in DC. The lesser quality marble is crushed and sold as aggregate. This is marble chips the GC was using under the concrete parking lot.

 

[Landclearer]

Hey Cm, great to see you got the new crew making money. Just curious but do you need to licensed to do fire lines in AL? It varies so much from area to another.

I am with you on the right guys don't need GPS to move a lot of dirt. A day will come when us old farts that can use hubs and bluetops will be needed because GPS won't work on a certain site.

That is neat about the marble. How does it hold up. Does it degrade with traffic?

 

[Aliate]

CM, how do you like those trench rollers as opposed to a hoepac on the backhoe or say a hoepac on a 130 sized machine?

 

[hvy 1ton]

I swear i'm not a Star Wars nerd, but since it's a different model roller it should b a different R number. R3 would be the obvious choice, but anything from 3-9 works.

 

[CM1995]

Hey Cm, great to see you got the new crew making money. Just curious but do you need to licensed to do fire lines in AL? It varies so much from area to another.

I am with you on the right guys don't need GPS to move a lot of dirt. A day will come when us old farts that can use hubs and bluetops will be needed because GPS won't work on a certain site.

That is neat about the marble. How does it hold up. Does it degrade with traffic?

LC we don't need any special licenses for this portion of the work as we are a sub to the fire protection company.

On the topic of GPS, I am not a naysayer of the technology and I think it's here to stay with great benefits to an engineered job but there is nothing like having a blank canvass to move dirt and create road in the woods with no plans, just see how the land lays and start moving dirt. That's what I enjoy and the reason I've always been drawn to moving earth.

We were BS'ing about winning the last lottery at $700M or so and I was asked what would you do? My answer was I would buy 10K acres, some new iron and start at the front and work towards the back making roads, ponds and lakes along the way with no paper plans.

I don't know how the marble gravel compares to limestone we normally use. The marble is specific to that one area, I haven't had the opportunity to use it.

 

[CM1995]

CM, how do you like those trench rollers as opposed to a hoepac on the backhoe or say a hoepac on a 130 sized machine?

Aliate I wouldn't know as there are no hoepacs in my area, I don't think I've ever seen one on a machine here.

The trench rollers work great for our soils. We use them all the time not only for compacting trenches but for all sorts of small compaction projects. Great for basement and retainer walls, we've also use them on small jobs where it's not feasible to bring in the big roller.

They don't tie up a larger machine like an attachment does but it also adds another engine to maintain.

I swear i'm not a Star Wars nerd, but since it's a different model roller it should b a different R number. R3 would be the obvious choice, but anything from 3-9 works.

HA! I've got to do some research in the nerd world on the net to come up with a good number.

 

[Dozerboy]

I love diesels and have one for my weekend toy, but unless I start towing heavy and a lot I'll never buy another for work. There is just to much BS on them now and they ain't a as dependable. Being a GM guy we has several 2500s with over 200k on them and they cost 10or 15k less to buy

I haven't used a hoepac in 15 years now. Trench rollers are the way to go. I'll even widen a trench out while backfilling so we don't need a jumping jack for the small trenches.

I love field engineering a job too. I have thought the same thing if I won the lottery.