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Uh...walking hoe into a drained pond? Also need a tracked dump truck!

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fastline

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So..... in another dilemma. Guy needs a 1ac pond cleaned up. Actually very minimal thickness of material being removed, but at 1ac, it will still be a lot. I originally thought NO as cleanouts turn into a soupy mess, but this one might have me well fooled. It has been dry for a while, floor is completely grown up in vegetation, and we walked the floor. It looked pretty good. Thoughts on a potential nightmare here? I don't usually do cleanouts because....well, you know. But we are super hot and super dry right now.

As well, I have to find a way to get material out of this thing! There are berms around all sides and pretty aggressive. I am going to have to build a ramp to get out but there is zero way to run a wheel dump truck in this thing. My only options are a CTL or maybe a tracked dump truck? I keep getting in this bind where I can't get wheels on a job, and need to move more volume of dirt! I don't think 2000 cycles with a CTL is very efficient!

Why doesn't someone make a damn rubber track loader with some capacity? lol
 
aighead

aighead

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I'm very interested to hear more, if you take this job fastline. I've heard that pond floors hold moisture for a long time and I'm curious how this would go. One day I hope to drain my pond (not nearly as big as what you are talking about) to deepen it a bit and line it. Ideally, I toss some sheets of plywood in there and can do the work with the backhoe (neighbor has offered some bulldozing support as well) but I don't know how dry things need to be for the plywood to work as a float. I think the job could be done, from the edges, with an excavator but that's a rental price I'd rather not mess with.
 
CM1995

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Welder Dave said:
One of the Hydrema dumpers with flotation tires should work if they can be rented near you. I think CM has used them.
Click to expand...

Our Cat dealer rents them. Worked pretty well but we were on rock.
 
673moto

673moto

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EAA6D273-9972-4306-8B0C-F57EBF7771A6.jpeg F9A4DFAF-A411-47B6-8803-D5BB50B35D15.jpeg D184BFBD-C2D4-412E-80F3-50FDD032387D.jpeg

Took forever (2weeks, but they paid)
To clean out this pond with just a 35mini excavator and a ctl.
was super sloppy the first foot or so but under that was solid ground.
Only partially drained as the deep area was just too mucky.
A tracked dump would have been nice but if you don’t mind hundreds of trips in the ctl it’s doable
Edit: it was hot at the time tho... they had a pump running almost constantly to drain and dry things out.
I’d imagine a dry pond wouldn’t be too sloppy
 
DMiller

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Watched as a D7F crawled into a Dry Pond that had been dried down for two years, when the first day was done the slop was Track Deep, and shoved much of it up onto bank sides where a guy on a CTL was loading dumps. By three days the muck was pretty well gone and the rails actually biting into solid soil on pond bottom, four days later the cut in the dam was refilled and graded off, new overflow was in and functional and as such allowed to refill.
 
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fastline

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673moto said:
View attachment 263670 View attachment 263671 View attachment 263672

Took forever (2weeks, but they paid)
To clean out this pond with just a 35mini excavator and a ctl.
was super sloppy the first foot or so but under that was solid ground.
Only partially drained as the deep area was just too mucky.
A tracked dump would have been nice but if you don’t mind hundreds of trips in the ctl it’s doable
Edit: it was hot at the time tho... they had a pump running almost constantly to drain and dry things out.
I’d imagine a dry pond wouldn’t be too sloppy
Click to expand...

I'd like to know the size of that pond and what thickness of cut you made?

For all, I should have added in my original post that the trip distance where I need to move the material is about 200ft. Due to the vegetation and average depth of cut at 1ft, I am estimating about 2000yds of material. With a CTL at a 1yd capacity, that is 2000 trips! That is a LOT of hours!!!!
 
673moto

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fastline said:
I'd like to know the size of that pond and what thickness of cut you made?

For all, I should have added in my original post that the trip distance where I need to move the material is about 200ft. Due to the vegetation and average depth of cut at 1ft, I am estimating about 2000yds of material. With a CTL at a 1yd capacity, that is 2000 trips! That is a LOT of hours!!!!
Click to expand...
Quick google maps measuring on that pond give it just over 100,000sqft... which the conversion calculator says is 2.2 acres. ... but the pond didn’t seem that big in person. I’d say maybe 1.5 acre at most?
Took about 1-2’ of cut but didn’t touch the center area. it was a lot of trips in the ctl but certainly not in the thousands!!
I tried to use the better dirt to rebuild the banks and save time moving long distance.
Dumped all the muck and cattails in a large pit the guy carved out with a dozer a couple hundred feet away.

edit: I’d say since I didn’t touch the central area , it was probably around 3/4 of an acre that I actually played around with.
 
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fastline

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One complicating factor/variable in this one is apparently it was clay lined, then a bunch of sand was added. My job is to remove the junk down to the sand layer. Can't say I have ever seen a pond with a sand floor, but that could prove quite problematic loading a CTL. I don't know.

As for the math, I know it is a touch over 1ac, with an average cleanout of 1ft. That is 1600cy plus decompaction, so I am figuring 2000cy.

I don't personally think just using a CTL alone will work due to traction and lack of visibility to see if the cut is right. This all assumes it doesn't turn to complete **** once I start working in it.
 
673moto

673moto

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Yikes!
Clay lined with sand and you gotta be precise, don’t mess up that clay!
Sounds like a headache... bid accordingly
Definitely use your excavator to dig out and maybe have another guy in the ctl making trips back and forth?
Better yet, think you could get a large skip loader(4x4 of course) to move what your excavator digs up? Will have to get a solid path for it to travel on tho
 
treemuncher

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This is what you need to work slop and soft (and steep) efficiently. About 4 psi loaded to the gills. 5-6 tons per load. Dump on side slopes - I've done 30 degree side slopes with 1/2 loads and a load of pucker factor till I got comfortable with it. Runs up 35 degree slopes easily and steeper downhills.
IMG_1016 alt.JPG
I don't use it often but I've held onto it for special projects when I need it. Nothing starts faster after a long sit than a Yanmar. Worst thing is derailments in the slop like this mess below.
C60 in swamp crossings.jpg
I don't know of too many other ways to haul in riprap for water crossings nearly 3 miles deep into a TN bottom land swamp in December. A tracked dumper is a game changer for working in the wet and where materials need to be delivered over soft or steep ground. No reason to stop working just because of a little rain...
 
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