Just spent the last 3 days grading haul roads for a major peat moss company. It's an annual event that I have done for the last 15 years. It's kind of pointless really. The roads are built over bogs using logs, geotec cloth and about 3 feet of sandstone. The sandstone is tramped into Oblivion by eight wheel tractors hauling wagons, vacuums, any number of tow behind impliments, and a fleet of loaders with monster truck tires. The material is very difficult to cut, and what you end up with is a mixture of powder and rocks. Crown is key there, wider roads have up to a 12% crown. The main haul road, about 5kms was a bit flat this time at about 6%, so I took extra time today to grab as much powder and rocks as I could find and drag it to the center. Not ideal but it does get tramped by all those rubber tires, an more important, it keeps the field boss happy for another year. Just as I was finishing up, we got a freak rain. I thought it was the end of days. Walked the grader back to the float, loaded up, chained her down and headed for home, about an hour away. I watched in the mirror as my powder and rocks crown rutted up under the weight of my truck and grader. So much for that. Could also see a fleet of vacuum trailers bring up my rear as well. Better luck next year
Woah, that's a big bucket o suck, for sure.! Sorry your efforts were in vain. Good practice though, right?
Sounds like they should have you there monthly rather than annually. Would there be any advantage in wetting it up as you grade?
They have their own drags that they haul behind their tractors. Like a snowmobile groomer but a lot bigger. Over time, they scrape off the crown. They get me there to build it back up. Hence the once a year trip. Normally once I'm done, it gets tramped pretty good by their traffic. The heavy shower was a freak occurrence. A bit of water would help before grading, but would be difficult. While main haul roads can be 60 feet wide, most access roads on the bog are only 15 feet with no turn around. I have to grade, then back up for a mile. Ok for me but time consuming for a water truck
So why don't they haul it out in the winter?
It's too hard to rake and dry the moss in the winter. If they had an all summer operation there that baled it up, then they could haul in the winter, but I don't think that's how the peat moss guys work.
They do stock pile and cover with plastic tarps for hauling in winter, and wet days. They vacuum every dry day they can. This particular bog has a good 80 feet of moss . Mostly women operating the tractors on site
80 ft thick?!
Correct. I'm told it's one of the most plentiful supplies of moss around
PEI also has a peat moss plant in Foxy River, I have been there, a buddy of mine was a foreman there, he took me on a tour one day of the plant, he also pointed out a few tractors that were lost in the bog, all that was sticking out of the bog was the aerial on the roof, this was in January when everything was froze up, the tractor had 8 tires in the rear and in the front you would never know it by looking at it, but it hit a sink hole and sunk, the operator just got out, risky business, not feasible to bring in a dozer and a big crane to pull the tractor out risk losing them also, he said this does happen but not very often, not sure if this plant is still running though, this was a few years ago now.
The white hats and the mechanics use ATVs to get around. They have wide tracked machines with some kind of ripper with 2 spinning wheels to clean out these deep ditches. Sometimes the wind will fill the ditch and the lose moss will eat an ATV if you lose your bearings
Yes for sure lol, on another note how's your summer going have you been fairly busy?
Dead. The government snapped the purse shut. Dexter's had a 93 million dollar bypass to build, but got cancelled after the election. 2 government paving jobs in this county, and Northern construction from Edmonston got the only one with any grading. We got the other, but it's a white line to white line pave job. If not for private work, it would be dead. Could be an early layoff this year. There is talk of building 100kms of road in the Northwest Territories. Hate to have to leave home , I have an 8 year old daughter. Hopefully things pick up.
That doesn't sound very good, the new government seems to be cancelling a lot of projects in NB, robing peter to pay Paul they say, lots of cutbacks here also, most of our money is going to twinning the TC, Pretty much leaves nothing for the county roads, out west seems to be booming, our foremen just got back from BC and said signs are everywhere looking for operators, one hates to leave home though to work out there, hopefully things will pick up.
I’ve seen my work destroyed by rain many times. I didn’t know you guys had hit the skids out there a bit. What’s the economy like there?
Yeah rain can cause your work lots of problems, we call it job security for grader operators doing county roads here, lol, the economy is so so here in Nova Scotia Canada, but lots of cut backs in all sectors and taxed nearly to death on everything, nearly 70 cents on the dollar after its all said and done, hard to live on what's left, out west has higher paying jobs and a lot less tax but is offset by a higher cost of living, makes it harder to live out there when your not from there, that's why camp jobs are attractive for out of province workers if you happen to get in a good one, the only way to make a good living in Canada now is if you are a refugee from another country but that's a hole other issue and I could "SNAP" if I talk about it, there's a old saying here … a honest man will starve to death here in Nova Scotia.
We aren’t taxed to bad here in Alberta, but the hits seem to keep on coming. Another round of layoffs 3 weeks ago from the gas producers. Something like 70 cents per gig for Nat Gas. Wood Buffalo has been trying to put the screws to the oilsands producers to try to force some of the camp people into Fort Mac. I hope they get told to take a hike.
New Brunswick is kind of a drive through province for people headed to other provinces. It's been booming for road work for a few years under the line, but now the cons are trying to build the bank back up, so no spending. I will applaud Mr Higgs for blasting the Quebec premier for refusing the energy east pipeline, but not the provincial transfer payments