Just some of my hoe pics from this summer when we were building 1.5km of lease road and 4 production pads. The leases were already cleared and drilled we were just putting in a year round access for the service rig. For the road we just deep ditched the ditches depending how much topsoil there was and threw the clay up for our fill. We were looking for about 1m worth of fill and our road had a 7m top or 23ft. I was running a Deere 350 with just over 1000 hrs. The pads were 50x50m that was mostly borrow material. Pic 1 The start of the road, we had worked about 5 days and had the ditches thrown up and leveled off and then rained out for 5 days, this was our first day back after the rain. 2 The only corner. You can see the ditch is still straight walled and we still had to flop the top soil down. 3 Walking towards the farthest lease with the other 350 ahead of me 4 Daylighting out of the ditch into the swale for the lease 5 lease number 3 stripped
This job took a little over a month but we had a lot of rain where we were shut down, in ideal conditions we should have been out of there in two and a half to three weeks. We had 2 350 hoes, a Deere and a Hitachi, an 8r, 700j Deere, 815f, 3 rock trucks and a 140h. Pic 1, we built 2 pads on this one, there is another well head over by the far tree line. 2 The other 350 throwing up clay, with my windrow beside him. I was going to throw the topsoil back a bit too make room for the ditch. 3 The 8 knocking down our pile and the other 350 continuing on where I had stripped. I am working on my perimeter ditch/swale. 4 We had 2 two year old black bears hanging around the job for a few days. It's the black spot on the road. 5 My ditched trimmed up all the way to the topsoil right after we got pelted with rain. It didn't look like that for too long, our dozer hand on the 700 tried to "clean" it up a bit and ended up with a windrow in the bottom and butchered everything.
Some pics working in the borrow pit. They dug the pit in the winter for fill for some other roads so we took out what was left leaving a berm up between the water and 5 meters away from the through road. 1 The pit. The cut line on the right is the road they put through last winter. 2 The weapon 3 All done hauling out of the pit, I was just itching to start knocking down the berm and flood the new pit. Pics to come later. 4 The pits been shaped up, approach in and pipe installed. 5 Rock trucks at coffee time, we had 2 volvos and 1 penalty box, the Deere.
why was the deere the penalty box? volvos are amazing but we just got some brand new demo deere trucks this week and they seem great
The Deere was the penalty box because the AC didn't work and it was 25-30 for about a week. On all the jobs I have been on, the Volvos are the first pick then komatsu, Deere and finally Terex. We do have some cat trucks but I have never been around them. I ran a Deere truck for a few days and hated it, you have to hit the brake to go forward to reverse like a Terex but your rpms have to be below somewhere around 800 or you just sit there revving your engine and getting that look from the guy on the cat. I would have preferred an old Terex, but that’s what I used to run before I started running iron.
Nice lookin project there. Nice and soupy!!
1 The lease ready for gravel and me coming in on the hoe to finish shaping top soil piles. 2 Area shot of the lease 3 The small pile 4 The mud 5 Good enough.
That is some nasty looking mud. Hate to drive off in it not knowing it was there or something. I am sure someone will though.
HoJay, looks like a great job, thanks! We hear so much about the monster equipment at the tar sands in that neck of the woods, it's nice to see something more typical for all the infrastructure work that must be going in as well. Is it safe to say most roads and such are going in with the type of equipment you show - 35t excavators, dozers, and articulated trucks? Or do they use the really big stuff for any of that, too?
I live ~6 hours west of HoJay but those pictures could have been taken in my backyard - and yes that is the typical size for equipment doing roads and leases. In the dealership I work at, we sell PC270's and D85 / D155's and HM300's like hotcakes. i suspect the reason for this is ease of transport. Once you step up to the next size larger machines you have to deal a lot more with pilot cars, multi axle trailers and the over zealous CVSE guys.
I am with you there on the rock trucks we had some brand new john deere 300d's and when the volvo rentals showed up there was no question way better truck. they pulled faster on the hills even passing the john deeres on the long haul. suspension was much easyer on the driver in the volvos as well. and that stupid ideal down to 900 rpm to shift back in to gear after dumping in the john deeres can drive a guy nuts some days.
I have been away working for a while and forgot about the rest of my pics from this job. 1. Pad 1 and 2 2/3. Playing in the mud. Found a couple cable slings that had been buried for years. 4/5. The pit and letting the water go.
Letting the water go. I love doing stuff like this.
The last couple from this job.
Didn't we all do this stuff when we were little kids with a stick and the heel of our shoes?Ron G
Where abouts were you building all these leases?
These leases were built in the McMurray area. I heard Esso has some leases in the works this winter up the Willow Creek road in Hinton.
Oh nice, I used to drill ratholes, and ive been to alot of places that look very similar to the pictures you were posting. You wanna see real mud though, head out to wabasca! lol.
I've done some work around Wabacsa but only during the winter. Last winter we were up by Chipewyan Lake, about 150km up the ALPAC road. We were doing winter roads, a few leases, and a sump and pushed some seismic line for Suncor. Pretty sweet gig. In 2008 we built 24km of road for Laricina around kilometer 65 on the ALPAC road, a lot of muskeg and tons of culverts.
These pics are from the summer of 04, I used to have a ton but I don't know what happened to them. 1-4 This was on the corner of HWY 63 going around Syncrude. I probably sat on the side of the road for a good hour watching this operation. 2 or 3 793's, 2 d11's and an O&K 200. I took a ton of pics but this is all that's left. 5 The tank at Firebag.
haha problem is... I still like to do this stuff hahaha
It looks like quite a job! Do you have any experience with a John Deere 160 LC?
HEY, COOL! You have pictures of 'Lil Digger. She's where I spend the best part of my days at work!