Utility related work...

[245dlc]

During my travels this past week I had passed this demolition crew tearing down this concrete grain elevator and spotted this Hitachi ZX650 high reach demolition excavator that I guess was being either dismantled or put together for this job. I've always wanted to work for this company in the past but they have a very low turnover rate which is amazing for this part of the country some days . From what I understand they are a very professional demolition outfit unlike many others they work with various engineering firms for difficult demolition and remediation work this machine in particular is their second UHD excavator as they had bought a lightly used Cat 345B UHD from New York, USA after the terrorist attacks in 2001.IMG_2737.jpgIMG_2738.jpgIMG_2739.jpg

[245dlc]

Friday finally came around, which meant working for the City Streets Department and replacing an old catch basin in good old downtown Winnipeg. I waited probably half an hour for the city guys to show up which was alright by me as I was feeling a little knackered from some difficult maneuvering on the previously mentioned jobsites and trying to keep from running anything or anyone over. I felt fascinated to find out that this catch basin was built out of brick and that this street had no granular base beneath the concrete underlay as this is one of the oldest streets in all of Winnipeg. Plus the City crew that showed up were quite a comical bunch so I was well entertained.

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[245dlc]

And finally some pictures of a couple Kommie D-155AX dozers at the City Landfill one for pushing garbage etc. equipped with a winch and another used as a tractor pulling scrapers loaded with clay for burying garbage. IMG_2735.jpgIMG_2734.jpgIMG_2736.jpg

[d4c24a]

pile cracker

very nice set of photos mate
that is called a pile cracker round these parts

[Stock]

I also spent a day hauling fill from a sewer and water job for which I didn't get any photos until I saw this piling crew on the jobsite can you tell me what this attachment is?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1943[/ATTACH]

pile cutter

[245dlc]

No foolin you guys.

[245dlc]

I spent most of this week working on a street light installation job for a new highway, however unlike last week there were some long spans of cable to install and the cable plow that they had used two weeks prior was unavailable so they brought a Vermeer chain trencher mounted on steel tracks in to do the work. Some places the slope of the ditch we were working in was too soft for the trencher so I had to open cut with the JD 160DLC excavator equipped with a 36" bucket which was a bit overkill but worked well until I got into better ground I also had to trench across a large box culvert to avoid damaging it with the Vermeer.
The backhoe loader that I ran last Friday almost new too.

This is what it does most days. lol

Starter pit for the directional drill I dug with the loader backhoe last week

The drill itself...

[245dlc]

The container on this truck has two 500 gallon tanks for mixing drilling fluid as well a high pressure pump and related equipment.

Packed up and ready to go early Tuesday morning

The Vermeer trencher has a self levelling feature as you can see as it starts it's trench

It can cast spoil left and right as well vary belt and chain speed and extend the belt left and right depending on what's needed for the job.

Most of my job was backfilling the trench and regrading anything we disturbed I had about 500 feet of ditch to regrade and did a better job than how it was before.

[245dlc]

Trenching through the goo on a slope that was both too slick for the Vermeer and too soft as the track on the lower side just kept digging in, wasn't much better for me with triple grouser pads but at least I can pull, push, dig myself out.

Getting into some limestone rock base material while a concrete paving crew slipform's it way through a very hot and steamy day of about 38 degrees celsius with the humidity.

Now since we were in rock base plastic conduit was installed to protect the cable

Just trenched across the box culvert I couldn't go as deep as they would of liked for obvious reasons.

The stake here was for a street light so that's why I had to go around it like that.

[245dlc]

Now some up close and personal pictures of the Vermeer at rest. It was apparently bought for wiring in a large housing subdivision that was eventually contracted out so it hasn't seen much use and usually sits in a shop and it is quite the beast when it's at work it could probably dig a trench 1 km long at 1 metre deep in about an hour!







They also have a special chain with carbide teeth for digging through frost and another chain that digs a trench two feet wide.



And the box culvert and the concrete paving crew slipforming their way across it.

[245dlc]

And if certain people on this forum think Landrover is bad for reliability try driving a Ford, stupid piece of junk kept overheating on me on my way back to the shop.

I spent most of yesterday (Thursday) trowelling this ditch back into shape without a laser or any kind of grade reference just my MK I laserguided eyeball.

It sure looked a lot better than it did before. I know the road contractor will f#*%ck it up in the end.

I was up to my swing most of the way till I got to the box culvert where the ground was better drained and compacted.

As I had dug the trench I kept a little pathway beside it so the guys on the ground had a better place to walk and put the cable or conduit in the hole, most other operators around here don't do that...

Finally some better ground and a little bit of rip rap I suppose.

[245dlc]

This is some of the mud that was bunged up in my tracks that I managed to dig out while it was still cool out this morning.

One of the pre-cast concrete piers that the lamp posts will sit on.

Last bit of trenching we did today on the overpass that appears to have been built out of minus 6" limestone rock.

It was really quite impressive to see this beast chew through the limestone.

[ianoz]

Looks like you had a productive Week Bert .
Great Photos ,Sure is some sticky crap that you get to work in .

[245dlc]

Thanks Ian, yeah I guess after two or three weeks of these guys 'dogging' it the General Contractor is breathing pretty hot down their necks to get it done. lol And yeah I never seem to get out of this wet poop we've got here. lol

[Stock]

I would have taken that as standard practice Bert, Here when digging a trench you place the spoil the depth of the trench back from the edge to prevent collapse of the side wall, you know a meter down then a meter back rule anything over a meter deep is then stepped.


https://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_v/otm_v_2.html