Thought I'd post some pictures from work I've been involved with this year. The winter pictures are from a utility company I was working for while it was so miserably cold last winter. The company is based in B.C. and didn't really have much of a clue how to work on the Prairie's we had numerous equipment issues as they wouldn't hire a proper mechanic and very little to no maintenance was done to the equipment if any of the machines made it to 2,000 hours it was pretty much shagged right out and was sent to Richie Bros. after.
The fella with the Madonna bra was probably the hardest and best worker in the company and a very pleasant person and even he went back to working at a grocery store before the winter was over. The pipes in bottom of the trench are where the power lines, telephone, gas lines, and any other type of cable go through so we don't have to dig up the roads or directional drill under the road. We put everything in a common trench so almost all the utilities are installed at once and most of it is installed in the winter so as not to interfere with other construction work going on in the housing subdivisions. We also had lots of trouble with snow filling our trenches as most of our gas line fuser people had been laid off in the fall, likely so the company could train new guys and not pay the bigger wages of the more experienced personnel...unreal.
One of the ways we rolled out pipe was with this home made device we were later told it wasn't rated for whatever weight load we put on it and wasn't considered safe....week later we were using it again as we hardly had any safe cable reel trailers. Some of the jobs if not most of them required us to plow back eight foot high snow drifts with no more than a tractor backhoe took me a week to clear a 200 foot long area and some jobs had over a 100 services.
As winter faded into spring which took an eternity it seemed a friend called me asking if I had found any work as they had some highway related construction work which kept me rolling till September. Most of the work was ditching as June and July had been quite wet. I was really surprised how that the section of highway #12 I was working on only had 6" inches of A-base gravel under the concrete little wonder the concrete was in such poor shape.
After I had helped dry things up on that job and finished some sub-grade excavation I was moved to a tricky job located really in 'gods country' where there is no cell phone communication and the closest town has a population of about 15 people and the surrounding country side is largely forest and cleared farm land. The tricky thing was that Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation wanted to use an old forestry road as a bypass for Hwy #12 while a couple of old rotten concrete bridges were replaced over the winter. Only problem was that this road which had existed for many years goes over a bottomless peat bog with springs that run 24/7 even through our harsh winters. So prior to my arrival on the job site my boss had been there for a month clearing beaver dams on an adjacent creek, replacing culverts and cleaning ditches. Some of the ditches had to be accessed from the back slope of the road, he had to knock down trees to make himself a corduroy road just to stay a float despite having 36" tracks on the SK210 he was using. At one point he took a 25' Black spruce and shoved it into the peat as far as he could and still didn't hit bottom!
And after I arrived I still spent much of my time removing the peat curbs left behind from years of poor maintenance where all that was done to keep the road useable was peeling the grass off with a grader. Afterwards geotextile was rolled out and gravel was put down and compacted in lifts. The original road itself was actually a corduroy road just with clay and whatever suitable fill dumped on it. It was however still very soft and had settled into the bog over the years, I talked to my dad who is a retired Geo-technical Engineer said they should of also used geogrid to help cope with the semi-truck traffic that would be running over it. It was kinda neat when a gravel truck would pass behind me and I could feel the ground under me move like a wave and even move.
Get the Bad out of the way , before getting on with the Good Bert . .
Those are some challenging conditions, glad I don't I have to deal with peat bogs. Geo-grid is a good product, expensive but good. Thanks for the pics.
Yair . . . 245dlc . Interesting thread. It is hard for me to imagine having to work in those conditions. Nice piece of posting too . . . the way you did the block of text and then the pictures. More please when time permits. Cheers.
Glad you guys like the pictures, working in the peat was most certainly a challenge but most of the time I was working from the road itself. Some of what I was required to do was pointless and didn't yield much for results. For example there was an old railway roadbed where my boss had cleared out some beaver dams and established a decent drainage ditch that helped keep the water away from the road. The ditch was working very well and no water was pooling up, the ditch ran into a creek but we couldn't connect the two properly because the highways department or as we call them "The Department of Holidays" didn't want to spend any money on silt fencing or any other erosion control products in order to make our ditches work properly. Also when you dig in the peat it's so soft that there is little to no resistance so it's hard to make a decent grade but with all the running springs any over dig is quickly filled in with eroded material so really I was digging for no reason and any over dig either filled with water and backed up, or filled up with eroded peat and made it's own water course. We also had some brush from clearing the ditches to burn I was against the idea simply put because we were in a peat bog but Manitoba Conservation had given them a permit to do it and amazingly we didn't start a peat fire or a forest fire for that matter. lol
So eventually we burnt all we could burn and it was time to play with water so we could go home for the day and get on with the job. That little water truck the main contractor had sure was a handy piece of kit to have all it needed was a remote control monitor but the side cannon worked quite well.
I'm surprised to see a water truck on a site where one is fighting water. What's it's purpose, other than putting out fires?
What I don't show in the photo's is the hole I dug in the peat to bury the stumps and ashes as we weren't suppose to disturb it for some reason. But we didn't want that stuff smoldering forever so what better way to put it out? Dig a hole that fills with water and backfill. lol A few days later they started laying out geotextile and A-base gravel I also started on resetting a number of culverts and took some pictures of some abandoned buildings in town. There use to be a more substantial population and several businesses including a bulk fuel station serviced by the CNR, a bar serviced by locals and young Americans from Minnesota as the legal drinking age in Manitoba is 18 and a number of other small businesses.
Lol! It's purpose was largely for compacting the gravel as they put down probably a foot of material and compacted it in lifts also for dust control as it didn't take much sun for the dust to come out. I thought it was silly too but further up the road was all gravel escarpment and the conditions were the exact opposite believe it or not.
Thanks for the explanation, I figured it was for the stone. LOL, I've been around long enough that nothing surprises me anymore.
We reused most of the old culverts and replaced a few of the couplers as they were either rotted out or damaged as the bolts were facing up when I was digging them up. I usually put the coupler bolts down or to the back so they don't get snagged when being exposed. It was kinda neat digging in that area as all the wells in that area are fed under pressure from the natural aquifer in that area so no pumps or pressure tanks needed. So as we were resetting the culverts we came across a couple of abandoned water lines that had just been left to run. Little surprise why there was so much water in the ditches.
We had one large culvert to replace as the old one was rusted right through, didn't take much to squish it and fold it up for later disposal it was replaced by one of the new black plastic ones which are much nicer to use than the galvanised ones.
I took some pictures of how they were loading the tanker during some slack time it has it's own onboard p.t.o. powered 3" pump but it was easier to leave a Honda powered 3" pump by the creek to load it. And then I did some ditching and even found a baby garter snake little wonder there was one around with all the frogs and toads hopping around.
I took a few pictures of the little guy he/she must of been a hatchling. And a picture of the peat bog they were trying to drain in a typical half arsed manner. We even offered to laser grade all the ditches to make them drain as efficiently as possible.
I also made some more videos for my youtube channel from that job site I did a bit of work on the escarpment too but it wasn't as much fun as the bog. lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7PUquFNLPI&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3HRuylE6jE&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2b6EpvHG7g&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w
After that job was finished we moved on to doing some pipeline related work where we had to clean out some containment cells that were used as a place for vac trucks to dump. We had quite a bit of this work to do and it took us all over the country. Since the material in the cells was pretty much slurry we mixed it with sawdust after we got the results of whether or not it was contaminated with any kinda hydrocarbon related material. I took some pictures of the jobsites we were on but I can't disclose the locations in case it's any kind of conflict of interest.
We didn't have anything to do with the actual pipeline work but they had some pretty neat equipment.
Well kinda hard to tell if anybody is actually interested in this thread but I've got some pictures from working in Saskatchewan the first place we had to set up a second cell due to a manpower shortage. It only took us a couple days to set up and the most difficult part was placing the liner and even that didn't take all that long with three guys working.
Our next place had us mixing what was basically bentonite slurry (that's the natural clay in the area) with sawdust and took I think four big trailer loads of sawdust to 'dry it up'. Some of it was still pretty sloppy and after some logistical issues were resolved we got it cleaned up and cells dismantled and we were headed for home. The slurry had a deceiving crust on the top but even after mixing it up a lot it was still quite sloppy the saw dust came from a number of sources like furniture factories and a place that recycled wood products like pallets and lumber etc. They hauled it in 53' walking floor trailers that were about 75-80% full to give you and idea on how much sawdust we needed.
The pipeline company that was also working on site was kind enough to help move some rig mats around so it was easier to maneuver our trucks in and out. I was surprised that their skid-steer could handle the mats as well as it did as I had a little bit of experience moving them with a Volvo L-70 loader last fall and they weren't light.
Our stay was extended a week as they weren't really done all the hydrovacing which was kinda frustrating as my wife had just delivered a baby girl a few weeks prior and I had been told the job was only going to take a week. lol But the vac guys were kind enough to use their pressure washer to hose out my rad as some of the sawdust was quite fine and became airborne quite quickly and the warm weather was starting to make the machine overheat.
The fancy chromed Peterbuilt with the equally shiny aluminum trailer only hauled a couple loads of muck....I was surprised he even hauled one. lol After returning home I had a nice little demolition job tearing down an old community centre which didn't take me long but was an enjoyable job and something I wish I got to do more of. I documented most of it with my video camera (gopro) the little Case dozer was fun to play with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Yalfyre4U&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w&spfreload=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE1Kko_LueA&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_K6tB2Fjc&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgqv4KOrCA8&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9lpfVtN_sc&list=UUV3su6TSJuHdVybDvAeZg_w
I tried using a piece of the footing to clean things up but didn't have much luck as the concrete was in such poor condition it crumbled away in to gravel so I got to use the little Case dozer which worked quite nicely. The town had also hauled a lot of clean fill hauled in that they were going to use but there really wasn't much of a hole left as the community centre didn't have a basement.
I worked on a couple of little brushing jobs with the Pro-Mac mulcher, at first I was suppose to mulch about a 1/4 mile of overgrown poplars and willows but the municipality changed their minds (typical) and I did about half. It was my first time using one but it was fun and I sure appreciated the safety of the thick lexan shield to keep me safe. lol
I have some videos of the mulcher in action that I meant to edit and upload but haven't gotten around to it yet and our computer has been giving us some grief the last little while so eventually I'll get it done.
Interesting work with the containment cells. They look to be portable. Do they follow the pipeline and staged as needed? I am assuming the brush cutter works off standard hydraulics?
Yeah the sheet metal panels and legs can be dismantled and are staged wherever there is hydrovac work needed. The liner and the geotextile underneath however are disposed of as they get pretty torn up. Yeah the mulcher is run off a separate pump that they had installed as the existing pumps can't really supply enough oil to run the mulcher efficiently.
I just discovered your thread and checked out a few videos. Very nice finish work with the Kobelco. :drinkup
Thanks JNB I try hard this is a tough province to make a decent living in and most of the jobs are hourly, so you often hear the phrase 'take your time'. lol
One of my last jobs before the snow landed was to do some culvert installation work and apply geotextile and rip rap to the outfall side as well repair some outfalls that were washed out as they were improperly done the year before. This project was part of a larger project to alleviate spring flooding but the budget is pretty tight so a lot of things were done on the cheap hence the washouts.
The rock used for rip rap is in the 18-24" size and is limestone, placing the geotextile was fun as it was often windy while I worked on this project and sometimes like playing twister as I was trying to hold it down with my feet or hands while reaching for a lump of clay or rock so the wind wouldn't blow it away. lol
I tried to recycle some of the rip rap from the washed out areas but because so much material was washed out in spots and was saturated I ended up using much of the old rip rap to fill in the holes and then dragged the slop up the slope and smeared it into the slope on the backside of the ditch.
The guys that did the work last year also didn't put very much rip rap down nor did they put any geotextile or shape a proper spillway and it was still signed by an engineer amazingly.
Finally I did a small side job for my sister who lives in the city and had a new garage built this fall. I was contemplating renting a walk-behind ditchwitch type chain trencher but my brother who is an electrician told me that the city inspectors require that a sand bed be put down and 12" of sand be put on the cable! as well some caution tape. Which we found kinda ridiculous as Manitoba Hydro (The electrical and gas utility here) doesn't put any sand whatsoever on their cables or gas lines. So I rented a Bobcat 324 mini-excavator with a 12" bucket, ordered 2 yards of fill sand, and a load of washed rock so I could put a piece of weeping tile at the back window of the house as it's a bit of a wet area in the spring. I also let my brother try running the mini.
We also took pictures to show the inspectors....I sure as heck wasn't going to dig it up again. The size of the Bobcat mini was good but that long boom and stick sure didn't give it much breakout force and the little dozer blade with it's pin-on extensions was kinda useless as they were too bent up to slide back on to the blade as intended. I think we got pretty lucky that we were able to rough grade everything after as the rain started and turned to snow and ice overnight and now it's all frozen. But at least in the spring when the frost comes out I'll see if I can rent a walk-behind skid-steer and properly grade her yard and put some nicely screened topsoil and grass seed on it. And despite the lack of power and a decent dozer blade setup that little machine was just the right size for that job maybe after my wife and I move next year (I hope) I might find myself a Kubota for doing little jobs like that.
If you're wondering if there's any interest in this thread, click on the "excavators" forum. You can see how many views each thread has had. This one is at 2169, which is definitely above average.
Great thread, love seeing the posts.
Great pics and videos! Looks like some interesting work. Which machine is smoother, the kobelco 210 or the 160 hitachi?
Awesome pics! I love seeing what other operators around the world are getting to do!
I would say they are both equally smooth, but the Hitachi needs it's pin's and bushings done and that thumb can make it tippy when it's stretched out. The Kobelco's however are very well balanced even with a thumb and the wrist bucket. The Kobelco's are also very powerful and fast I find and very efficient on fuel in 15 years of operating different brands I give the Kobelco machines a big thumbs up....two of them in fact.
Welcome to the Forums Aron3406!:drinkup Me too. I've learned a lot from HEF. On that note, 245 I can't get over how black that dirt is. We don't have anything in my area that looks like that except for coal dust. Red, orange, tan, brown, grey and yellow dirt/clay and all different types of rock - we have that.
I had some German relatives come over many years ago and thought they were seeing black asphalt or like you said coal dust. But yeah from the Ontario/Manitoba border to the Rocky Mountains and down in to North Dakota and I'm assuming most of Montana the topsoil here is black as night.
great pics!!!
Thanks!