Looking at a job in Iowa, don't really know what to expect. Any of you guys have any experience there? Is the ground gonna freeze over winter where it's undiggable? What's the chances of hitting rock? The borings show no rock just sandy silty clay and rough graded sand and fine graded sand. Showed hitting water about 7' down. Will 631's usually run there? If not 627-637's? Might have to use farm tractors.. Or ADT's with hoe. Is limestone hard to get there? What's it usually cost? 50,000 tons What would 100,000 yards of dirt go for moved about 1/2 mile & installed in lifts with compaction? Lots to ask, but figured someone had experience or knowledge to share.
First off what part of the state are you looking at, it makes a lot of difference in answering your questions. Also a word to the wise, find out who owns the quarries BEFORE you ever attempt to bid the jobs, most area's the quarry owners are those your bidding against and you won't need to worry about the cost of the rock, you won't be able to buy it at any price if you win the bid, you'll truck it in many a hundred a mile one way from their competator to do the job. If your getting prices of rock, get it in writing as to the cost and availability of that rock, friends run deep in these parts and what was quoted one day might not be the price the next, depending on who was bidding the job and who wanted the job, there are firms here that family is involved in many things, so if the owner isn't doing dirt work, their daughers and son in laws might, or nephews or neices might be involved somehow, just something to consider you might not be aware of, so find out beforehand how many quarries there are in a given distance, and who owns them, in some parts of the state, limestone might be hard to come by period, in others there's a quarry in every town, some have many in each town. As for freezing the answer is probably a hard freeze to shut you down, again depending on the winter and where its at, now for water, if its said 7 feet down its there, depending on where in the state, the better question would be how deep do you need to go and can you swim? By the term sandy how far are you from a creek, stream or river? As for scrapers, they are not popular in most areas anymore, either single engine or twins, most is done via tractor pans for some reason, a few locals are going back to scrapers the last few years, but in my area haul trucks and excavators are pretty popular. Lastly whats the dirt being moved for?
Well I kinda figured what you are saying, it's on the west side of the state, Not far from the river I guess you could say. I will definitely have to find the closest quarry. It's a negotiated job, so I don't think they can be too upset. Can you rent tractors and pans up there? Or would I have to get a sub to come in to run them. So basically if water is 7-10 down I'm not gonna be running my trucks in the bottom of a 15' pit? And I guess your saying on the freezing side, I'm not going to be shut down for a month cause if 2' of frozen ground. Just maybe a morning or so?
Well lets put it this way, if your above I-80 plan for several months off this winter with feet of frost if below, enjoy the holidays off and take a vacation during your time off while the frost softens. If your close to the river and in sandy bottoms and you plan to be 5 feet below water level, learn to swim or run pumps 24/7, if your right next to the river and in the flood damaged areas, make sure your not moving hazmat material off site and not to an approved landfill, in other words, ask questions and a lot of them. As for quarries and finding rock, depending on what section of the state your in, read my above statement on that issue. As for renting tractors and pans, I'm not in that area but I'd think there are plenty of places wililng to cash in a rental of those, if nothing else contact ziegler cat, I'm sure they'll be glad to take your excess cash and probably give you a fleet of challengers and pans, just make sure your not paying the undercarriage bill on those machines. Deere [murphy tractor] and a few others would also rent stuff but I'm not in that area so you'd have to ask in the area your going to be working. If your in the flood damaged areas at all, make sure you find out who's responsible for permits from the corp of engineers and if you need permits of any kind, even if its to ask the questions in the first place, get things in writing and have a good lawyer working for you oversee the paperwork before you sign anything, or do any work, again a heads up. As for running trucks I'd seriously doubt you need to bring them this far for the conditions you mentioned, but I could be wrong, some are far more determined than I am and have a larger threshold of grief than I do, so I can't be positive, just a hunch. Good luck on whatever you do, I've heard enough stories out there to last me a while, again, make sure you know what your getting into before you go and make sure the lawyer you hire isn't from there either, bring him from your home.
I worked on I29 (1970's)western Iowa between Glenwood,Iowa and Nebraska City.East of the Missouri river about 10 miles or less.We was running scrapers and pushcats( three to four) pushing all the time.Was using Cat 631,627, and 660 scrapers. We was hauling out of a borrow pit for the interstate.Top 8' or so was slimy black gumbo clay,then you hit sand the rest of the way down.About 25 ft, where we stopped digging.Had 3-8" Cat water pumps running 24/7.Used a dragline to dig a 50' hole at one corner of the pit to set the pumps in.Then keep the pit floor graded back to the pumps everday. We were running 31 scrapers total all day and the pumps would have the pit dry in the morning and by afternoon you would be running in water about 2 too 3' deep.Trying to load was hard because of the water and not being able to tell how deep you was cutting other then watch the hoist rams and watch the banks off to the side of the pit to tell if you was even moving because of the movement of the water. Half a load of sand and the other half was water by afternoon.Haul too the fill until you couldn't wallow through it then move on down the road to another section then start over again.The next morning there was water in the medium and ditches.Where the water had soak out over night.Once the water was gone the road was like concrete to run on.Fast as the scraper would run until you hit the fill then start all over again. Like said back in the early 70's so everyone used scrapers then.Just a guess,so don't go by me,but guessing probably be some 3$ yard dirt ,now,less big outfits left any more ,but a few PCI being one. 100,000 yards of dirt and coming from where your at would seem like small potato.Big expense to get machine here for that amount of dirt?Just me thinking out loud.Good luck
Sounds crazy!! What about running on the surface? Will there be 3' ruts? Or can I keep a tractor and blade or dozer on the ruts and run 20mph? If I can run on the surface then we shouldn't have any issues... It's above hwy 80 so I should expect frost or to be shut down in January? Il be heading out to the site Wednesday, its currently a bean or cornfield.
You can run on the surface it will take a little maintenance though. Yes plan on frost and being shut down. When were the borings done? Last year it was really dry up there, so if its wet this year you might hit water at 4'.
Damn, yup they were done winter of last year, but if its all sand water might not be that big of a deal??