Off to the races. Getting fully setup to run 3D on my motorgrader.

Georgia Iron said: They have such nice new expensive equipment, I feel honored that i was still chosen to bring in final grade with my 30 year old tractor. Click to expand... Well from what I'm seeing of their "work" they need someone with some finesse. That's some of the sloppiest curb backfill I've seen in a while.

I bought a 140 last year to do finish fine grade for concrete best investment we made especially the laser system its way tighter than GPS one day I will spring for 3d so we can do a total station or GPS but with laser we can get within a 1/4 inch consistently. After the first 40,000 sq ft of grading I went shopping for a scrapper cause you can cover an insane amount of ground cutting out 2 to 3 inches with a blade and on scrapper to chase windrows

Sorry if everyone else knows this but what is a 140?

smifwal said: Sorry if everyone else knows this but what is a 140? Click to expand... I'm guessing a Cat grader

smifwal said: Sorry if everyone else knows this but what is a 140? Click to expand... It's a grader. https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment/motor-graders/motor-graders/15969811.html

AzIron said: I bought a 140 last year to do finish fine grade for concrete best investment we made especially the laser system its way tighter than GPS one day I will spring for 3d so we can do a total station or GPS but with laser we can get within a 1/4 inch consistently. After the first 40,000 sq ft of grading I went shopping for a scrapper cause you can cover an insane amount of ground cutting out 2 to 3 inches with a blade and on scrapper to chase windrows Click to expand... That sounds like a great idea. Do you have any pictures of your work and this combo?

Georgia Iron said: That sounds like a great idea. Do you have any pictures of your work and this combo? Click to expand... Out west no one runs a blade without scrapers Everyone gets on a blade and toys to windrow across a job after 2 passes cutting pushing up a windrow your mold board is full and you are out of weight to push the windrow and cut doesn't matter what kind of material it is this is the problem A 613 cat scraper is the best tool when doing finish work cause its nimble I bought a 615 cause it was dirt cheap and needed to get by and didnt want a 623 because of the size there really hard to do finish grading in a tight tolerance because of there weight. There are lots of videos on you tube showing this set up in action My uncle has been a finish blade hand as long as I have been alive I remember riding with him at a very young age in a blade anyway he is the one running my 140 his requirement as soon as he came on with me was I had to have a scrapper or he was going to retire I could not imagine using a dozer to move dirt on a finish job I have used a loader and that works until your muck bound scrapper is the tool with a blade keeps the windrow small when your cutting and you just move on across the grade

AzIron said: Out west no one runs a blade without scrapers Everyone gets on a blade and toys to windrow across a job after 2 passes cutting pushing up a windrow your mold board is full and you are out of weight to push the windrow and cut doesn't matter what kind of material it is this is the problem A 613 cat scraper is the best tool when doing finish work cause its nimble I bought a 615 cause it was dirt cheap and needed to get by and didnt want a 623 because of the size there really hard to do finish grading in a tight tolerance because of there weight. There are lots of videos on you tube showing this set up in action My uncle has been a finish blade hand as long as I have been alive I remember riding with him at a very young age in a blade anyway he is the one running my 140 his requirement as soon as he came on with me was I had to have a scrapper or he was going to retire I could not imagine using a dozer to move dirt on a finish job I have used a loader and that works until your muck bound scrapper is the tool with a blade keeps the windrow small when your cutting and you just move on across the grade Click to expand... I have been on 2 recent jobs that could not have been completed without at least a 750 sized dozer. One was for a 4 story building ( 1 million square ft) that had limestone gravel put down that turned into concrete. Another one in the photos you have been seeing me post. They are mixing powder cement into the sand and rough grading it. They are supposed to cut it a 1/2" low, they measure and measure with a rover but it is always off. Probably because the base station is too far away. This site is 300 acres. The dozer sometimes take 5 passes to remove 1" of material. The tracks digging ruts at full power and speed often does more cutting than the blade. They have one of the autonomous rollers working all day long on this site, that CM was talking about in his tread. We just had a major rain event that caused possibly 100k in damage. It washed out the road, concrete curb, soil cement, concrete pipes and filled the lake which was not ready yet for water. The lake was around 60' deep and it was 25' straight down to the wash. After I left the whole road washed away. That was about 50' of bank that washed away first. They left a break in the curb and it was supposed to be a poured concrete gutter into the lake. It was not done yet and it all blew out. All that water was ripping into the lake from the upper gutter and the lower 48" concrete pipe. Must have been a 5" or something rain in 2 hours. I don't see an easy way they can fix it. the water level is now over the pipes. The access to the area is almost impossible now. And all that water, it was something to hear and see 48" pipe blowing out as much water as could fit through it. The site contractor put a earth berm to block the pipe it was not supposed to flow. Too much rain and the earth berm got washed away. Then every thing else. I was the only one there to witness it, picking the grader up to head to a 100k sq ft parking lot job. It will be interesting also I will try to get some pictures. I am sure this damage is going to set us back weeks. Things happen on the big jobs so often unexpected expenses, if you don't have a CYA in your contracts stuff like this can bankrupt you. It has been raining here almost every 3 days...

Holy ****! That's more than $100K worth of damage.

300 acres seems like a big area for one site. What is it going to be? The geography around here doesn't allow for anything that big.

materthegreater said: 300 acres seems like a big area for one site. What is it going to be? The geography around here doesn't allow for anything that big. Click to expand... 5 Buildings, a rec center, not sure what else. Most of the tiltwall Buildings are used as distribution centers, storage etc. I have heard that if they build say a new car factory say it is 5 million square ft, then they will need 10 to 20 times that amount in offsite warehousing. The manufacturer get a tax incentive on the main plant all the other buildings get taxed. The scope of construction is large and the money I suppose can go into the billions of dollars. The geography around here can get expensive also. This site was built in a swamp land they were moving 4 thousand cubic yards a day for months. The next site they are moving 25,000 yards a day... and they apparently will be at it for months.

Georgia Iron said: I am sure this damage is going to set us back weeks. Things happen on the big jobs so often unexpected expenses, if you don't have a CYA in your contracts stuff like this can bankrupt you. It has been raining here almost every 3 days... Click to expand... The GC and/or Owners builders risk policy should kick in unless the carrier determines the damage not covered. Then it's all parties involved GL policies that will kick in. Or the GC is making so much money they just fix it at move on. Either way that's a mess. Are these buildings for the Rivan plant?

CM1995 said: The GC and/or Owners builders risk policy should kick in unless the carrier determines the damage not covered. Then it's all parties involved GL policies that will kick in. Or the GC is making so much money they just fix it at move on. Either way that's a mess. Are these buildings for the Rivan plant? Click to expand... I don't think they are for the plant. I have not even seen that plant yet. I believe this group is related to port shipping. I know that each tractor trailer load of powdered cement is about $7000.00. They went way over there estimates and had to remix large areas, and too many men on site for too long. Over time hours has been stopped. There is a lot of different ways that money can get over spent. Having too many rental machines on site can add to quick.

Yikes $$$$

Working in louisville, Kentucky. Heavy duty concrete 8" for an equipment company parking lot. Main site contractor left and there is pumping soils, and about 8 surveyor stakes were ran over and gone. You know the important inner stakes needed for my drainage. The surveyors marked top of curb on one side and top of concrete on the other. 500 tons of gravel on the ground 1000 trucked in so 1500 tons to spread and make a model. With no support ... borrowing the plumbers equipment to remove wet soils. He wants to move the mountain with the skid steer. Need a wheel loader or 2 backhoes. They only contracted me for 2 days... Main site contractor left a mountain of top soil right in the parking area so it is also in my way. Another words lots of problems to make a hard job that much harder. I made a model of the site when I arrived. The software wants to connect side to side and fill the drainage area. I had to come up with 6 or 8 elevations to tie in the inner flume. Got some factory help on how to set up a better contour view. It is easy to make mistakes on the model. I had to tweak this model 4 times. Points 51 through 55 are not a measured point, they are points i made up to keep the gravel fill and drainage correct. It was wanting a foot of gravel, too much. They paid the surveyors and engineers to redesign this drainage channel... surveyors can't get back out while I am here...*** They left me no way to tie into there plans other than the edge stakes. So I had to remake the channel. They actually wanted me to grade this out using a laser....

Do you have any concern that you are creating the final design therefor taking responsibility for it? Or do you have an exclusion in your contract?

CM1995 said: Do you have any concern that you are creating the final design therefor taking responsibility for it? Or do you have an exclusion in your contract? Click to expand... After listening to the GC back pedal, ask if what was being done was correct and his inability to work towards fixing his site issues you realize how some people are clueless and or looking for free work. This building project was 4 months behind schedule when we got called up. I am not involved in it in any way, just a silent observer. This particular job has turned into a big problem for them They made an agreement for the paving company to remediate the failed areas. Luckily, the company I work for had terracon sitting on site for 2 complete days. After digging out the soft areas 15" to 24" his probe rod still went all the way in. They stopped remediation work and called for more approvals. The cuts got opened up, the gravel yard stopped sending gravel and then a 2" rain hit. Everyone left the site, I was told to plan to come back that they would have it ready next time. Stupid thing is it would have been completed with no extra cost had the GC done his job correctly. He should have never mobilized till they were ready to do the work. Now the grading and paying prep is going to cost double. Liability is always a concern, what i am always worried about is workers walking across the work area behind me. The machine does not always stop how you think it would or should. As far as my work I provide my services which is simpley to put it on grade 1 time. Sometimes I get a grade pin and it's straight foward and then there are situations like this which would take there surveyor saying it is wrong etc. I asked for there surveyor and brought the issue up front and center. He was not available. It will be brought up again in writing on the return trip. The people I currently work for i know and have worked for years, they have deeper pockets and lawyers help getting them paid. I sub out to them. I don't take out of town work for new customers unless they want to pay me when the work is done. Too many graders don't get paid. What I do is highly technical and most dirt site contractors don't want to be responsible for the final product. Too much back and forth over who is paying for the extra concrete. I walk hand in hand with the paving crews to get it like they want. I rarely regrade for free. I have a few times. In every case it is because they decided to change the pins after I left. Now I watch for that and don't rush away until my work is checked. As much as I don't like grade checkers I do because when they clear me I am done. 3D paving work they can't always check. They have to know to follow my profile or their concrete yields will go way over. They must pour it as I built it. At this point a lot of times they ask me how to fix it or what would I do. When you go to as many sites as I have and almost everyone has its problems, repairing the soft areas really is not so complicated, some make it out like it is. Remove wet "whatever", install material that is more dry, water it, pack it and proof roll it. Problems always come about.... we don't have water, we don't have equipment, there is no good dirt left etc..we are out of money .... These guys I work with are pros they use an engineer, document everything, write reports and clear repairs before they happen. So that everyone gets paid. Straight from that one to this one. Some 2d work in Gainsville GA. Seems easy after the 3d ...

A lot of the water and sewer jobs we get here. The underground work is designed, but they get us to design the road profile. One of our engineers just loves that stuff He would rather do on site work and pound stakes than sit in the office but he spends the off season at his desk doing design. I saw him this morning doing the days layout on a water and sewer. But he's an engineer that will show you the layout then ask your opinion

Georgia Iron said: This particular job has turned into a big problem for them They made an agreement for the paving company to remediate the failed areas. Luckily, the company I work for had terracon sitting on site for 2 complete days. After digging out the soft areas 15" to 24" his probe rod still went all the way in. They stopped remediation work and called for more approvals. The cuts got opened up, the gravel yard stopped sending gravel and then a 2" rain hit. Click to expand... Totally understand that. Terracon is on our current project monitoring UC in a building pad. 6.57' cut below FFE then bring to grade with structural fill. Alot of contractors treat the testing guys like an enemy and it's the 180 opposite if you have bid the job correctly per the specs. The testing guys are there to represent the owner in a QC position which will cover a contractors butt if something goes wrong after the project is built and the engineers signed off on everything. Liability is always a concern, what i am always worried about is workers walking across the work area behind me. The machine does not always stop how you think it would or should. Click to expand... Preaching to the choir on that one. Absolutely hate when we have to be on a job when the finish trades are there working on the building(s). They will walk right behind a CTL or dozer with their face planted on their phone and expect the world to revolve around them. What I do is highly technical and most dirt site contractors don't want to be responsible for the final product. Too much back and forth over who is paying for the extra concrete. Click to expand... No doubt. Your scope of work is in concrete column which is getting the final stone to grade. We dirt guys scope it to take a rough site from trees, buildings or parking lots to within +/- .1' of finish grade with all the underground installs to go with it. The last thing I want to do is be responsible for the finish stone grade under concrete, we have enough to be held accountable for.