Just wondering if there is any work out there for a 21 cu yd scraper in the east/central Kansas area. Owner/operator looking to expand my horizons!
Scraper work is going way too cheap lately, what there is of it anyway. Most of our fleet is parked currently, or just being used here and there.
Yeah, 'round here it's all a bunch of pond cleaning (which tends to be a little sloppy for a scraper). Just feelin' out what everyone else is putting up with...thanks.
Just finished up a big scraper job in east kansas. 11 631's, 4 627's, 4 623's, and 14 John Deere 9630's.
Yeah, that's a pretty big job! (to me anyway) How far in east KS were you? What were you building?
Yes! . Yes, any combination of scrapers that equals 33 is a large spread. I bet the “Dirt Boss” had to stay on High Ground to keep track of that bunch, LOL. Kelly
Yes and we also had a total of 10 740's, had 3 bosses including myself. It was out in Gardner Kansas, building a rail road yard.
Ok, Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffet? I guess I'm missing something?
Kman9090 Warren Buffett. Owns, BNSF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe.) there the railroad that bought the land and held the permit for building the fright hub, in Gardner, Kansas. There are more, finer details but this is closes enough. Buffett is one of the richest men in the county, he/they, state and local officials spliced a tax deal with the state and also applied for and received stimulus money for the project. Sounds like a very complex and challenging project, one that I would have like to been on….back in the day. Kelly http://kansas.utu.org/UTU_Web/Default.aspx?PageID=2848 http://joco913.com/news/rail-center-set-to-open-next-year-is-already-affecting-gardner-edgerton/
Isn't this just amazing that buffett gets a break!? Hes running around telling everyone that he doesn't pay enough taxes and then sticks his hand out for free-bees! He also is a mentor for obama who believes in sharing the wealth. It's really a great project and one that's needed but look who's paying for it!!!!!
Yes it was a very challenging project, but met alot of great people and had a lot of fun.
I think this is called crony capitalism. We relocated some waterline for some of the road expansion for this project. I've never been around a bigger bunch of a**holes in my life (railroad). I heard through the rumour mill that TJ Lambrecht ran out of money in the first six months of the project and have been operating on BNSF's pitty since. (This is unconfirmed but I threw it out there to see what sort of response it fetches)
LMAO that is definately a rumor, by the 3rd month into the job we were 6 months ahaead of schedule, and way under budget! Stripping topsoil alone we were way underbudget and made a HUGE profit just off of that. In 4 months we had 2.5 million yards moved
Yes those are false rumors, I mean half the job was government funded anyways. So it wasnt coming out of BNSF's pocket at all. Also whoever told you that doesn't have a clue what they are talking about. It was a bid build job not time and material. If TJ Lambrecht ran out of money their bondsman would take over not the owner. The 2nd thing is it was a joint venture project with Walsh Construction so they would take over before their bondsman take over as it would really hurt their bonding power. I mean if it was that easy that if you start losing money the owner just pays for everything whats the point of bidding jobs.
It is not unheard of for an owner to pay a contractor more money to help them out of a bad bid or just to finish the job without going through the bonding company, they work at their on pace, the job wouldn't have continued uninterupted, which would be more important to the railroad than a few extra million. I can think of several cases where this exact thing happened, even public, bonded jobs. That being said, I'll take your word on your company's financial health. I'm aware that construction workers are worse than a sewing circle at times. Congratulations on the topsoil stripping profit. I made a HUGE profit mobilizing for my last job.
In these days it is very unheard of for an owner to pay extra money for a bad bid. Why is the owners fault that a companies estimator messed up on the bid? Now if the owner wants to change an item that wasnt orginally in the bid or scope of work then yes then its the owners responsibilty and then you go through the proper paperwork to make sure said change order gets paid for. If you know of several cases that is great, but in most cases that does not happen. I was just simply clearing up said rumors because like I said whoever said that doesn't have a clue what they are talking about.
I didn't say it was ever the owner's fault. I agree that a bid is a bid and you honor it less change orders. But theory and reality don't always mesh. There may be reasons an owner would want to pay more, perhaps a favored local contractor, perhaps politics. Extra payment would naturally be tucked into a favorable change order for propper apperances. I reject the notion that this is unheard of. I argue this only because I dissagree with you, not to validate said rumor. Rumor cleared up.
I grant that at the level and type of work you guys perform that sort of thing probably isn't very common. Your blanket rejection of the possibility just irritated me into a retort.
Yeah honestly you are probably right, I'm sure there are a few instances where the owner pays more. I just dont see it much on the bigger scale jobs. The rumor that went around in Kansas was that TJL/Walsh jv bid wasn't the low bid, but BNSF went with them because of their reputation. But that is just a rumor as well as I don't know.
I hadn't heard that one. I seem to remember the project bidding more than once though. Not sure the reason. Since we're in the scraper section, while I was working up there you guys had some 623's moving some of the rock from the crusher. It looked like possibly primary run 6" minus, but I wasn't very close. Seems like it would be very hard on a paddle wagon as opposed to a loader and trucks.
Yeah I was all ready gone by then so I can't comment on that. Its probably not as hard on it as you would think unless it waqs alot of 6 inch stuff. Yes that project has bid I think 7 times. They were just trying to get the prices lower and lower. The 2nd to the last time they actually awarded the project to Aimes and then for some reason put it back out for bid again and went with TJL?Walsh joint venture. I know McAninch was the low bidder at one time back in 2006?? but then they rejected all bids again. It was one of the funnest and challenging projects I've had a privledge to work on. TJL and Walsh had an awesome management team up there from top to bottom.