How many feet per day?

[unimog]

Hey guys I'm new to the forum, wish I had found it sooner. I've done a fair amount of trench work and pipe laying but never bid any jobs by the foot. There's small pipe laying job (8 & 12") I'm going to bid but need to get an idea on how far a cat 320 with a 30" bucket can dig in an 8 hr day. I'll also be using a Kobelco ED150 with a 36" bucket. This of course assume no rock, no utilities to cross, just fairly easy digging in midwestern soil. Thanks!

 

[tylermckee]

more info such as what kind of labor force you will have? how deep? using a pipe laser? can you use native backfill? how many structures will you have to set, etc. laying straight sewer pipe 8-10' deep with one pipe layer, a guy on a 160 digging (draging an 8x16 trenchbox) and a guy on a backhoe backfilling and compacting we do ~150 feet a day give or take

 

[unimog]

Sorry I should have said it's water main, 42" deep. Only thing I was concerned with was knowing about how many feet the machine could manage. I may just take them out and dig for a half hour to get a rough estimate.

 

[RonG]

I worked with a crew a few years ago that laid nearly 800' in one day of 12" ductile iron water main.They had one crossing that I can remember but it was ideal digging in sand with a 325 Cat,quick change buckets because you had to overdig in the sand to avoid using a trench box.The only obstructions were the utility poles and wires along side the road which was crossing farmland with tobacco fields on both sides of the road.The pavement was sawcut and they had a dumptruck and Cat 950 loader to help move pipe and with the backfilling and they also used a remote control trench compactor.
I was backfilling with an air conditioned John Deere 450H which does not leave you prepared to get out and run roller/compactor in the hot summer sun either.:bouncegri
This was probably a 10 or 11 hour day to be fair but that is the most pipe I ever saw go in the ground in one day and the conditions were very favorable to say the least.
To be fair the company I worked for actually owned the property for generations so they knew where everything was underground as well.
We routinely did 600' a day,always with the gate valves and hydrant T's etc.
Water main is fun until it doesn't pass the pressure test.:thumbsup Ron G

 

[SlickNick]

Hey guys I'm new to the forum, wish I had found it sooner. I've done a fair amount of trench work and pipe laying but never bid any jobs by the foot. There's small pipe laying job (8 & 12") I'm going to bid but need to get an idea on how far a cat 320 with a 30" bucket can dig in an 8 hr day. I'll also be using a Kobelco ED150 with a 36" bucket. This of course assume no rock, no utilities to cross, just fairly easy digging in midwestern soil. Thanks!

This is very hard to just give a number on what it can do in my opinon as there is many factors to take into consideration like :

are you digging in sugar sand, Clay, is there large rock in the way?

Utilities can really slow you down when you have to hand dig for an hour to find some electric and gas lines, and than dig ever so careful around them after you locate them.

Is the work done in the middle of a street where you have to worry about traffic control and safety, if so your work speed will move to a crawl. Also if your working on the street you have to contend with all the dirt that leaves the hole and where its going.

Is the operator skilled?

Plenty of different factors involved in your question with no easy answer with the info given.

Just take all these points in mind and think real hard, you should be able to come up with a number yourself.

BTW when I was laying 42†storm drain in a open field in 8’ sections, tar jointed, it was a great day to get in 12 – 15 pieces of pipe and a structure, and backfill and compact.

 

[tylermckee]

I worked with a crew a few years ago that laid nearly 800' in one day of 12" ductile iron water main.They had one crossing that I can remember but it was ideal digging in sand with a 325 Cat,quick change buckets because you had to overdig in the sand to avoid using a trench box.The only obstructions were the utility poles and wires along side the road which was crossing farmland with tobacco fields on both sides of the road.The pavement was sawcut and they had a dumptruck and Cat 950 loader to help move pipe and with the backfilling and they also used a remote control trench compactor.
I was backfilling with an air conditioned John Deere 450H which does not leave you prepared to get out and run roller/compactor in the hot summer sun either.:bouncegri
This was probably a 10 or 11 hour day to be fair but that is the most pipe I ever saw go in the ground in one day and the conditions were very favorable to say the least.
To be fair the company I worked for actually owned the property for generations so they knew where everything was underground as well.
We routinely did 600' a day,always with the gate valves and hydrant T's etc.
Water main is fun until it doesn't pass the pressure test.:thumbsup Ron G

Sounds like fun, i love laying waterline, but your right teasting can make a guy nervous. Little off topic but what do you have to test at in your neck of the woods. Here we have to pump it to 225PSI and it has to hold for 2 hours, you are allowed to drop 5psi in the 2 hours. A city inspector comes out and sits there the whole time.

 

[dayexco]

this crew needed a minimum of 7 miles a day, always tried to get 10

http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i182/dayexco/work pics/?action=view&current=PlowTrain.jpg

 

[Gmads]

At 3.5' deep, I'd be surprised if you didn't get a MINIMUM of 800' a day assuming you're in dirt and there are no conflicts/impediments with existing utilities or surface encumbrances. The biggest grey area is the time allotment you allow yourself for a worst case testing/tie-in process.

 

[atgreene]

7 miles a day!

We're lucky if DOT can paint the yellow stripe down the center of the road 7 miles in a day around here, say nothing of lay pipe!

 

[RonG]

Water line in this area has to be 5' (60") to be below the threat of frost.
I have forgotten the numbers now for the test PSI,it seems like 200 lbs for conventional water lines but if it is a fire line for a sprinkler system it was a lot more,maybe even double that and it had to hold over night it seems.Funny how that stuff slips away when you aren't using it any more.:Banghead Ron G

 

[dayexco]

here waterlines are spec'd at 7' of cover. those 4 d-9's pulling that plow in that picture kept everybody busy

 

[tylermckee]

We have it easy here, waterline only needs 30" of cover, mild winters here.

 

[Ford LT-9000]

Its the same with us you only need to be 36 inches into the ground but it can be a tough 36 inches. You dig as much as you can then phone the blasting contractor and call it a day. If its a tough go getting 100 feet in a 8 hour day your doing good :bouncegri

 

[Dozerboy]

We would average at least 800' a day on the crew I was on in Neb. doing new construction and we where damn good team. 5' of cover, no utilities to cross, hydrant every 300' IIRC, 2 hoes one dig one backfill, a loader to shuttle pipe and rock, a track loader backfill, 2 pipe layers, and a backhoe that the backfiller would run to dig for the hydrants if it was a short run.

 

[unimog]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys, it's a big help. Since there are utilities to cross, some definite rock probably floaters, and some shallow rocky creek beds with trees to clear a 500' average is probably what I'm looking at. There are also hydrants, valves and Ts but those installs are priced separate.

 

[smalltime]

It also depends if you need to pass a compaction test. Another thing that seems to slow us down is jobsite congestion. If there are several trades on a job, each with a delivery that has to be planned for, then that will KILL a day or two. In my experience, we seem to always be limited in footage by the backfill & compaction rather than how fast we can dig. Getting it out is usually the fast part.

 

[dayexco]

we run 200 sized hoes installing water main, one digging, one compacting, loader operator, 2 pipelayers....if everything is "in place"....hydrants, valves, tees, etc....we'll ave. 500' a day out in a new development

 

[Ford LT-9000]

I got to work with a professional pipe crew man they were fast they could bang together the 8 and 10 inch diameter blue brute quick and it was a perfect job. It sure helps when you have a crew that knows what they are doing because allot of pipe can be layed in a day.

 

[928G Boy]

The record for 8' deep 15" waterline at the company i work for is a mile in a day. That's with two pipelayers in the hole, I think a brand new 345B digging... this was a several years ago now, the record still stands. the pipe wasn't blue brute though it was nice light stuff easy to butt by hand, blue brute is a bitch to butt by hand even 12" stuff, i get the hoe to do it.


My record this summer for the bigass 1500 concrete pipe I was helping put in (that's like 60" inside diameter) I think was over 20 pipe a day. thats' with a 345B series 2 digging, we totally coulda used a 365. we were definitely limited by our lead hoe, when the digging got easy a 963C and 330C struggled keeping up backfilling. I forget how deep we were at times but we needed to stack cages. Musta been 20 feet. The retardedly massive manholes on that job were the killer, tried to pick one of them up with two 345Bs, barely could budge the son of a bitch and that was just a 2400. we also had a few 2700 manholes on that job, we used a 345 and a big rubber tired crane. :spaz stupid design, totally overkill coulda used online manholes and saved a ton of money but that's the engineers problem not the contractors. This was at the winnipeg international airport expansion project.

 

[unimog]

On the subject of butting it together, is it worth having a smaller excavator on the 12" pipe crew to lift the pipe into the ditch and butt it together? My thinking was it would let the digging hoe go on about digging and not lifting and pushing pipe together.

The 8" we thought could be put together on the surface and rolled into the ditch. Someone we know has a skid steer attachment that is supposed to roll it on over into the ditch.