A few projects I have done recently

[CM1995]

Ya'll use a smooth drum version to roll the lawn?

Sittin on the deck, drinkin' beer and roll the lawn with remote control....

Ed

I've got an automatic lawnmower - the next door neighbor's kid. Runs off a $20 bill.

 

[CM1995]

I've been slacking on taking job pics and posting.

Here's a fire line we are currently installing. County spec back flow preventer in a pre-cast vault. It's a ridiculous spec as you can damn near stand up inside it. $14K for the vault on the truck, installation is extra.


County main extension about 60LF of 6" CL 350 DIP. Dead man poured with threaded rod to the tee. The line is the county's to the tee, the valve and beyond is private.


The county spec's the FDC to be outside the vault which doesn't make sense to me but it's their water system. If you ever have a problem with the FDC you have to dig it up. If the FDC is in the vault (like most of the water systems here spec) you can repair it inside the vault.


Approx. 500' of 6" DIP to get to the single fire hydrant so the developer can get a building permit. Yep a boat load of money for a single fire hydrant. PITA trenching conditions - cable, internet and water lines criss crossing the 15' easement behind the strip shopping center.

 

[WaterDoc]

Finally, some interesting pictures.

 

[dayexco]

some of our soils are corrosive. we poly wrap all our DIP

 

[CM1995]

some of our soils are corrosive. we poly wrap all our DIP

We have some acidic soils here but it's not required by this water system to poly wrap the DIP.

Personally I think C900 is a better pipe choice, however when you are located in a DIP manufacturing area - McWhane, ACIPCO and US Pipe all have pipe mills here, DIP is the spec of choice.

 

[CM1995]

Got the ol' girl DOT'd and put to work on a little on-site job hauling brush. She's a great site truck - geared low with locking rears but slow as maple syrup in January on the HWY. Max speed 55 - loaded or unloaded.

The rare residential project we do - friend of a friend and some horse trading. The homeowner owns a diesel mechanic shop.


We had a free day so one crew fab'd up a rack to store skid attachments in order to free up some space on the yard. We used left over angle iron we collected from the Duluth Trading store we recently completed. We hauled damn near a full gooseneck load of angle of that job.

Going to build one more to house a smooth bucket on top and trencher underneath.



My assistant project manager's patience was wearing thin at the Verizon store while we were upgrading one of our super's phones.

 

[CM1995]

So I get a call from the PM on the warehouse expansion job we did back up thread asking if I would go by and take a look at the splash strip that cracked - that's all the intel he gave me.

The splash strip was not in our scope of work but the GC is located in Atlanta and I have a good relationship with the PM. The job is 15 mins away so no skin off my back to stop by.

Here's what I found - Anyone care to guess what caused this failure?

 

[Tags]

Frost heave...........seriously though, settling around the buried leader pipe?

 

[willie59]

Frost heave in Birmingham Alabamastan...not likely. My guess is concrete expansion with no expansion joints. JMHO

 

[CM1995]

Frost heave...........seriously though, settling around the buried leader pipe?

... good one. Not it though - think the opposite.

 

[CM1995]

Frost heave in Birmingham Alabamastan...not likely. Most likely is concrete expansion with no expansion joints. JMHO

Ding, ding we have a winner - chicken dinner!

The crew put some PEJ when they poured it back. It might work and it might not - that splash strip is 500' long. The "repair" was pro-bono as it's a good client.

 

[willie59]

Yep, might work, might not, tough to outguess mother nature. But even that joint with PEJ board will let water ingress into the joint. Not really a big deal in Alabamastan as you only have what...two freezing nights per winter? Maybe a gap sealed with Butyl caulk would allow more compression and still seal water ingress. But hey, still have a floating concrete joint where the long strip of poured concrete meets the building wall. I can see that drip strip being an ongoing problem.

 

[Ronsii]

Seen similar on some long sidewalks around here, I would have doubled up the PEJ each side... and made sure the rebar holes were extra deep plus not bottom them out


I remember a few years ago up here when interstate 5 had a 'hump' problem from the heat... some cars were getting air

 

[AzIron]

That's a regular sidewalk occurrence around here in the summer especially after panels have been replaced

 

[willie59]

I remember a few years ago up here when interstate 5 had a 'hump' problem from the heat... some cars were getting air

Yeah, I-59 in Northeast Alabama had that problem. I think they've done an overhaul of that stretch of road since, but damn it was insane. I did this video back in 2012 on I-59, and yes, my phone was mounted in a phone stand, that's how bumpy that concrete interstate highway was.

 

[petepilot]

Yeah, I-59 in Northeast Alabama had that problem. I think they've done an overhaul of that stretch of road since, but damn it was insane. I did this video back in 2012 on I-59, and yes, my phone was mounted in a phone stand, that's how bumpy that concrete interstate highway was.

I have found some of that nonsense up near ft payne

 

[CM1995]

I-59 sucks. I had to drive the L9000 dump I bought from the Ft. Payne exit all the way south of Birmingham - at 55 MPH.

 

[CM1995]

Well it was time for some new socks and shoes for the 953. Cat house had a special 25% off on HD UC and discounted labor rates. That and we were on borrowed time as the master link pin was bouncing around the links like a pin ball.

With winter coming I could see the master pin breaking in 1.5' of mud, on the side of a hill, on a Friday afternoon with 3" of rain coming over the weekend..

What's new:
Track groups
All bottom rollers
1 top roller, we changed one a couple of months ago
Sprocket segments
Resealed both track tensioners
Track guides and misc. odds and ends

Left idler was replace a few years ago and the right idler was replaced this year, those aren't new.


I think the loader gained 3" in height - no joke.
You can really see the difference up on the trailer.



Shop mechanic said ours was one of the nicest 953C's he's seen come through the shop for it's age (2004). There was another 953C in the bay across from mine getting a new final drive. The loader was brought to the shop to check out the final drives. Mechanic said the left final drive oil was like sludge barely coming out the drain plug, right final drive was "dust" - mechanic's on words.

Rebuild on their right final drive is in the $25K range plus R&R labor - Preventive maintenance is cheap folks!!

 

[CM1995]

A little project one crew is currently doing for one of our chicken shack guys. Simple project of filling in a retention pond in a commercial development. Way back up thread (2011-12?) we filled in another retention pond and installed a short street on this same parcel.

Mucking the pond out. 953C got to try it's new shoes out.


The way we tackle these types of projects is start at one end of the pond building a damn and slowly progress the damn towards the outlet point, forcing any surface water out of the pond.

This pond has two outlets. One can be seen behind the 325FL, this outlet was a stub of 15" RCP coming out of manhole that discharges downhill and out a headwall. A Faircloth Skimmer was attached to an 8" piece of HDPE grouted in the 15" RCP.

The other outlet is an 18" headwall just out of frame to the left in the pic, that's where we're forcing the surface water to.

The 15" RCP, 18" RCP and headwall will be removed and the holes in the manholes will be bricked up when the pond is filled.

 

[ScottAR]

Nice shots. What takes the place of the pond? A different structure? Ponds seem like a waste of space but water needs a place to go.