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A few projects I have done recently

skyking1

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washington
around here we would not flay that CB hole open and bench it like that on most jobs, they would set it with a box in a minimal excavation and then hoe-pack it in. Different paths to the same end.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
With our heavy clay soil it's much faster to bench it, set the structure and backfill then use a box. The trench roller makes short work of backfill.

Those pics were one day of work. Unloaded the structure off the flatbed at 7 AM, dug the hole and had the base set by lunch. Remaining backfill and 15" pipe installed by 4 PM. The next morning the crew mudded the pipes, set the top and finished backfill. If it wasn't so damn hot we'd finished in one day.

We can have a hole cut and benched like that in the time it takes to unload the box, put it together and set it in the hole. Well the boxes we rent anyway. I think TPR which has now merged with NTS has the corrugated manhole shields but we've never used one.
 

skyking1

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washington
we are so much closer to the glaciers up here, we have glacial till and nothing like that clay except in small pockets.
It's either really hard digging, like smoke a set of tiger teeth in one shift, or it is loose running sandy rocky stuff that would have a hole that looked like a bomb crater. No benches only a long slide to the bottom.
Looking on that detail, I'd get a 10'x10' by 8' high structure box delivered in one piece, no assembly required. I'd flay the top back so the 8' would do it, go a foot out the bottom and come back with a foot of pea gravel and set the base, pull the box, and backfill and hoe pack that base in.
Then we'd set the working section and start laying the pipe out.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
That's what I figured up your way - a lot of granular soils. You would have an acre sized hole to go 12' deep.:D

Interesting side note on this project is I'm pretty sure this is material we cut off the top of a hill side in the mid 2000's for a town home project about a mile away.

That project had 30' cuts to subgrade. Had a 325 and 321 loading tri-axles as fast as the the trucks could come and go. I put out the word the dirt and the loading were free, we'd have 30-40 trucks lined up every morning at the gate. That dirt went all over this area. Great cherty clay that compacts easily and handles water very well. Some of the heaviest dirt I've moved at 128 PCF.
 

skyking1

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Nov 3, 2020
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washington
about costs of structures: on the post about my flying mini in that thread, I set two of these at $2600 list price!
https://striemco.com/products/cb-50-g/
Once I pulled the grate off, I could handle it by myself in the hole, or really easy with two people. It has grab handles built in everywhere.
I could have used a standard type 30 with frame and grate for probably 500 each. Design by others :D
They outlet to a same sized oil sand separator.
https://striemco.com/products/os-50/
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
We need to get into the plastic basin business!:D

That ADS water quality unit was just over $10k delivered with tax. The unit we set in the strip mall next door was $14K delivered w/ tax.

The 4H project we did a year or two ago the plumbing engineer spec'd a plastic grease trap to the tune of $14K delivered.:confused:. A regular 1500 gallon precast is just shy of $3K delivered.

We could save owners so much money if we could have input in the design/specification writing stage of the project.o_O
 

oarwhat

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Dec 14, 2009
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buffalo,n.y.
That ADS water quality unit looks impressive but what happens when it's full? It will just be a normal basin. I mean do you think it will ever be emptied?
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
That ADS water quality unit looks impressive but what happens when it's full? It will just be a normal basin. I mean do you think it will ever be emptied?

LOL - I doubt it will ever be cleaned unless the city hires an inspector. Then the city would have to make it part of the permitting system tied to the owner that was recorded on the property deed like an easement.

I like the units and what they do in order to keep trash and other debris out of the storm system though. Cleaning would be easy with a typical sewer/vacuum truck.
 

Jumbo

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Nov 12, 2010
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Black Diamond WA
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retired
My wife and I know where we were when the Kingdome went down. We were over the Seneca street exit ramp at 1400' MSL, towing a 20x50 KZOK billboard. The boss and his wife had a sister station billboard in tow and were right ahead of us. They had made a 2 mile restricted airspace for the implosion, and we were orbiting around that with the banners, along with the competition's two planes and signs. We thought what a great day to bring the wives along, who are usually on the ground setting up signs for us.
It was a mistake. There were at least a dozen looky-loo's in spam cans(cessnas) and pipers, circling around there with us. It was nerve wracking as all get out, since us banner tow rigs are flying at ~50-55MPH and the looky-loos are doing a solid 115 and weaving around us like we were pylons.
I had my hand on the release lever and was prepared to sell that billboard to whoever ran into it.

I was on the "O" deck of the Smith Tower with wife as guests of a "demolition party." Free drinks, free food and what a view. We watched the pedestrians flee the dust cloud just like in the movies fleeing a movie monster. We probably noticed you flying around. It was weird seeing a building that I helped build go down in a cloud of dust.
 

CM1995

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This week we received our Trimble GPS system supplied thru SiTech Southeast. Standard start up package with base station, rover, data collector and machine control.

Learning a lot about this system and surprisingly it is rather intuitive. The data collector runs off an Android system and we are all Apple but so far it's not an issue.

Base station set up over a surveyor supplied control point during our first training session at the private school. There are multiple control points around the dining hall that made it easy to set the job up.

IMG_2984.jpeg

Receivers installed on our D3 along with all the cables and monitor. This dozer came "grade ready" so most of the harnesses and sensors are factory installed. That is the reason we decided on a new dozer instead of trying to retrofit our D5G.

IMG_2982.jpeg

Unfortunately we couldn't get the low profile receivers Trimble offers for this tractor due to supply chain constraints and need to implement the technology for this job and future ones. The low profile system is more integrated. The plan is in the future to put a system on our 325FL, swap these receivers to the trackhoe and install the compact system on the dozer.

IMG_2981.jpeg

The D3 is not a clearing machine so all we have really have to worry about is low branches and other obstructions while moving on a lowboy.

The system and business end breaks down like this:

1 - Purchase price - around $100K installed with training and support

2 - 3D job model produced by SiTech for the typical jobs we do runs $700-$1500 per job which is very reasonable.

3 - A basic laborer that will show up everyday and just hold a grade rod or pull a tape costs our company $45-50K a year total labor burden.

The end result is we can pay for this with 2 years of a laborers salary which coincides with the 2 year 0% financing that Trimble is currently offering.:)

The $$ numbers are for my local area with going rate pay scales and cost of living. Other areas of the country vary wildly so one has to do their own proforma on the financial benefits of the system.

So far I think it will be a game changer for us and we haven't uploaded the first model yet.
 
Last edited:

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Some progress on a short week at the private school. We are taking tomorrow off in addition to the 4th to celebrate Our Great Country's freedom. It will be a well deserved 4 day vacation.

Finishing up the roof leaders for the dining hall. 10" HDPE trunk line with 6" HDPE leaders to the building.

IMG_2979.jpeg

Trunk line installed, partially backfilled and warning tape installed. APCO is pulling wire for the 3 phase transformer thru the conduits we trenched for the electricians back a few months ago.

IMG_2983.jpeg

Part of our scope at the school involves installing a 2" copper domestic water service for the building. We have a master plumber we work with on a regular basis that installs the site utilities that end up in our scope of work.


8910 backfill with warning tape. The building has water, another critical path schedule item completed in our scope. Nothing like making those red bars go away in the schedule meeting, the ones in the commercial world know what I'm talking about.:D

IMG_2991.jpeg

2" DW service had to go under the 10" roof leader trunk line.

IMG_2992.jpeg
 

dirty4fun

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Dec 29, 2010
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N. IL
You do some interesting and good looking work.
I had to dig for a new commercial service 3 four inch PCV pipes last week. Had two gas lines and a fiber optic to go under, plus cut the street. I helped pull the 2500' of wire this week with the electricians old pole truck that has a reel on the side to pull with. Last pull the rope broke just after they wires came out of the conduit, so was able to get them pulled without starting all over.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
You do some interesting and good looking work.
I had to dig for a new commercial service 3 four inch PCV pipes last week. Had two gas lines and a fiber optic to go under, plus cut the street. I helped pull the 2500' of wire this week with the electricians old pole truck that has a reel on the side to pull with. Last pull the rope broke just after they wires came out of the conduit, so was able to get them pulled without starting all over.

Thanks D4. We don't install much electrical conduit as the sparky's usually do it but sometimes like on this school job we'll dig for them on a T&M basis. One of the reasons we don't is your experience with the broke rope.:D

At 0% you can't afford to not get the tremble lol

No doubt. It's true 0%, they priced the system before they asked how we were going to pay for it. Either that or it's built into the price whether you pay cash or finance, either way take advantage of it as the price is the same.;)
 

skyking1

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Nov 3, 2020
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washington
that stuff is sweet. I have worked near it and around it, but never got the chance to try out the GPS stuff. I will make my exit from the business without going there, which is odd for a computer geek.
It's all old school and I am from the time of things like swedes and pea guns and folding scales. Setting a transit over the manhole and shooting in the first stick of sewer in to get started with the pipe laser.
 

CM1995

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We're still waiting on our model for this job, apparently there was a break down in communication..anyway.

So on demo day the tech set up the base station, rover and localized the system over 3 surveyor controls points on site. Wrapped up the first part of training before lunch and the SiTech guys left as we didn't have a model for further training. We broke the system down and took a lunch break. The heat index has been steadily in the 105-110 range for the last couple of weeks so we didn't go to eat rather buy the A/C.o_O

We got back to the job and decided we'd test ourselves on setting it all back up. Set up the base station and rover then proceeded to localize again. We were able get the rover within tolerances of the satellites which was ranging 4-5 hundredths, well within our normal spec of +/- .10'.

From there we were able to take the rover and immediately start checking grades, of course there was no reference horizontally since we didn't have a model but we checked FFE of the dining hall and other know elevations, the points were within 4-5 hundredths. Immediately I realized this is a game changer and didn't second guess the investment.

If we can do it, anyone can.:D
 

savman

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Jul 11, 2018
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48
Location
LaGrange, GA
You were within 4-5 hundredths in the vertical? That seems really good.

Have been talking to a TopCon rep and that's what he claims it will do, but he's a salesman....so.

I'd be curious to see how accurate it is in the horizontal.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
You were within 4-5 hundredths in the vertical? That seems really good.

Have been talking to a TopCon rep and that's what he claims it will do, but he's a salesman....so.

I'd be curious to see how accurate it is in the horizontal.

Surprised ourselves on vertical. The range was 4-5 hundredths on the sat over the surveyor control points. In reality the control points might be off..

Regardless it's close enough at that for what we do. Considering my iPhone GPS is pretty darn close I expect the horizontal to be even tighter but we'll see.
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
A little sanitary sewer work at the private school installing the fiberglass wet well, tying in the 6" SDR 35 gravity line from the new dining hall and connecting the outlets to the existing 2" force main.

The wet well is located in a flood plain and required a concrete anchor around the lower base. 3 CY of 3K psi regular mix. The ductile iron line is an abandoned water line.

IMG_3027.jpeg

Used the 325FL as ballast until the mud cured.

IMG_3028.jpeg

6" gravity line to the wet well and 1.5" PVC outlets. There are two outlets on this type well with 2 main pumps and 1 spare. The school in an effort to save money is using the existing pumps they had their service company remove from the old wet well. Fine with us I wanted nothing to do with R&R old sewage pumps then trying to make them work. Sounded like a great way for us to buy the school new pumps without being able to bill for them.

The 2" gate valve is the outlet line going back to the existing 2" force main. The outlets on the well are 1.5" so we had to step up and down from 1.5" to 2" in order to tie it inline.

The top of the well is set 6" above flood line. It looks high but we will fill in around it and ease the grade back to existing.

IMG_3036.jpeg

The 1.5" PVC line on the right comes in from an equestrian facility and maintenance building and originally went into the old dining hall's wet well. Previously we re-routed that line to go into the art school's wet well located next door to the project. We installed 2 - 2" gate valves in order to re-route the flow on this line until this well is operational and also allow the school to valve off lines for maintenance.

IMG_3037 (1).jpeg
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
We used one of these Spears PVC tapping saddles to tie into the 2" existing force main. There are no check valves on the main line so we had to make a hot tap. After a little research on the 'net I found this.

http://www.spears.com/last_printed_price_schedules/SDL-1-0910_0910_web.pdf

IMG_3183.jpeg

Installation was easy. We mocked up the install and measured the depth of the cutter just in case. There is a stop on the shaft but wanted a belt and suspenders approach when dealing with **** water.:confused:

Word of advise - installed the saddle around the existing 2" line to the torque specs in the manual. Used a hand powered ratchet to cut the hole for the tap and it started leaking out the bottom - oh ****! Finished the tap and backed the cutter back out and it quit leaking. We figured the pressure on the cutter making the tap pulled the saddle off just enough for a drip and then sealed back up after. Whatever it was it didn't leak for over a hour after install.

IMG_3184.jpeg

We were able to re-use the existing 1.5" line that went from the equestrian and maintenance building to the old dining hall's wet well. Flushed the line well before tying it in.
 
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