Grading and Excavation Contractor Issues

More than 2,400 attendees at the Underground Construction Technology (UCT) conference and trade show were treated to exhibits of the latest in trenchless pipe placement and rehab equipment—and a few open-cut exhibitors as well. Attendees at the show, held in January in San Antonio, included utility contractors, owners, municipal officials, engineers, manufacturers, and dealers.   Photo: McLaughlin The On-Target System uses hydraulics to control line and grade.   Photo: ICON ICON’s steerable au...>... More >

HUSQVARNA CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS Husqvarna Construction Products is proud to unveil the latest addition to its lineup of high-speed diamond blades: the Husqvarna Versa-Cut. The Versa-Cut blade features alternating turbo segments with a total height of .400 inch (.300-inch diamond depth; .100-inch segment base) that enables the blade to cut faster. The Versa-Cut is a general-purpose blade made to cut a wide variety of materials. It facilitates fast and smooth cutting of cured and reinforced concrete, bric...>... More >

Alpine Equipment www.alpinecutters.com Bair Products Inc. www.bairproducts.com Bobcat Co. www.bobcat.com Bonnell Industries Inc. www.bonnell.com Dragon Products www.dragonproductsltd.com Efficiency Production Inc. www.epi-shields.com Federal Signal/Vactor www.vactor.com www.elginsweeper.com Gehl Co. www.gehl.com HCSS (Heavy Construction Software Systems) www.hcss.com J&J Truck Bodies & Trailers www.jjbodies.com John Deere Construction Equipment www.deere.com Kobelco Construction www.kobelcoameri...>... More >

If you have no idea what it is like to be crushed and trapped by earth in a trench, you should meet somebody who has suffered that trauma…and can talk about it. I know such a man. He has great difficulty talking, walks slowly and painfully with two canes, and doesn’t work at the job at which he used to be a well-paid expert. Just once, just for that one occasion, they didn’t bother to shore the trench they were working. Apart from crushing Dan, the soil ruined a backhoe. “It was only a small trench, les...>... More >

A study by ESI International, a management firm that specializes in staff development, recently established that, despite the billions of dollars companies spend annually on training in the United States, too little of what they pay for actually gets applied on the job. Common missteps include insufficient involvement on the part of management in how training melds with a company’s goals, the lack of a companywide strategy, and insufficient feedback mechanisms to determine whether training has been effe...>... More >

These days, it seems impossible to go very long without hearing a mention of “green.” From green energy to green roofs or simply just “going green,” the topic of green seems to be everywhere. In the equipment industry, green fleet is the term that’s creating plenty of buzz and leading a new trend for fleet managers and their crews. So why the obsession with green? In many cases, green practices are viewed as a way to save money. Others see it as simply the right thing to do for the planet and future. On...>... More >

Even the smallest project is made up of several bits and pieces, isn’t it? Equipment, employees, local regulations, and time are some of them. They all combine, like voices in a choir or singing group, to produce a harmony that is pleasing and profitable. When we are considering software that can make our construction projects more efficient and profitable, a most important question must be: “How would these different software programs work together to give me a complete conclusion?” The conclusion for ...>... More >

If you have ever played cards or board games with family or friends, you know how engaging, entertaining, and memorable such games can be. Games such as Trivial Pursuit or other knowledge-based contests can be educational as well—in fact, even more educational precisely because you’re having fun. If you apply gaming principles to the working world—say, in health and safety—you have a formula for creating knowledge and power, says Dan Hannan, a certified safety professional who is a safety consultant for...>... More >

Natural-gas engines make progress, as do diesel models.>... More >

PRECISION LASER & INSTRUMENT INC. Precision Laser & Instrument Inc. can provide you with the information you need to achieve the best results in the field or office. Whether it’s data for machine control, stakeout, earthwork volumes, or basic CAD information, Precision’s data management service can give the information needed to get the job completed in a timely and cost-effective manner. Precision Laser and Instrument Inc. supports machine-control technology suited for a broad range of earthmov...>... More >

The compact equipment market has more than come of age, and manufacturers are catching up—with the emphasis on versatility, operator comfort, and serviceability.>... More >

Will excavator grade control deliver the next game-changing competitive edge?>... More >

Bobcat Co. www.bobcat.com BPT Components & Parts Inc. www.bpt.on.ca Citgo Petroleum Corp www.citgo.com CW Mill Equipment Co. Inc. www.hogzilla.com Denis Cimaf Inc. www.deniscimaf.com Doosan Infracore www.doosanequipment.com Dragon Products www.dragonproductsltd.com Eager Beaver Trailers www.eagerbeavertrailers.com Efficiency Production Inc. www.epi-shields.com Evans Cooling Systems www.evanscooling.com Fecon www.fecon.com Gehl Co. www.gehl.com Geophysical Survey Systems. www.geophysical.com HCSS www...>... More >

The Marcellus formation in the northeast US holds one of the country’s largest shale gas deposits. Estimates of its content range from 260 trillion cubic feet (TCF) to 490 TCF—the equivalent of as much as 87 trillion barrels of oil. While only a fraction of that volume will ultimately be recoverable, the push to establish wells throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (as well as parts of Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland) has been moving forward at a blinding pace. Installing drilling pads, one ...>... More >

When it comes to moving and digging earth, these workhorses do more than pull their weight. And with so many attachments available, it’s hard to imagine a task the excavator can’t handle. So many attachments, so many models, and so many manufacturers. We can’t cover them all in one story, but here’s a cross section of new product innovations that are helping contractors improve their productivity and efficiency. There’s nothing like a trade show for taking the pulse of an industry, and at the last ConEx...>... More >

While many jurisdictions require recycling of the C&D materials—as well as imparting restrictions on burning it—instead of shipping the materials offsite to be reduced to mulch, aggregate, or fill for someone else’s use, some companies are processing it onsite for onsite use. Trendsetter Construction is a Gladewater, TX–based construction company that started out building house pads and, in the early 1990s, began to expand into oil field work. The company also constructs athletic fields. Client site...>... More >

How often have parents told their children that enough is enough? It’s usually said to stop the littler ones from getting too excited, tormenting the neighbor’s cat, or getting generally out of hand. There’s a similar saying, too, not heard as often, except in the offices of doctors and dieticians. Enough is as good as a feast. Both sayings are true and both could refer to the equipment we use in our daily work. It’s not long ago that all excavators seemed huge, that dozers seemed better if they were en...>... More >

In these days of tight profit margins and many bidders per project, daily cost management becomes very important. You need to track daily costs against your budget. That way, you can tell if you’re running on the estimate, ahead of it, or behind it. With a number of software programs, profit or loss shows up daily. You don’t have to wait weeks for your accounting department to tell you about it. Consider, for example, SPS New England Inc., a bridge construction contractor from Salisbury, MA. “Until rece...>... More >

The truck, trailer, and transport industry is on a natural high, serving a frenzy of well site construction needs in a round-the-clock construction boom that includes the installation of roads, well pads, and pipelines, which means that every contractor must get the right equipment to the right job site at the right time. The boom began with improved hydraulic fracturing technologies that make it possible to produce oil and natural gas in places where conventional methods are ineffective. It uses water ...>... More >

I shudder every time I hear that our federal government is sitting down to solve some major problem, but nothing shivers my timbers harder and faster than when the subject is so redolent with vested interests as the critical elements of our nation’s basic infrastructure. Waves of outrage, fear, and incipient panic brought about by any failure of the delivery systems that fuel our economy—indeed, our very way of life—invariably bring about demands not only for a detailed accounting of what happened but h...>... More >

Some business decisions are big. A recent one for Jack L. Massie Contractor, Williamsburg, VA, was literally and figuratively big. The company acquired the first production model of John Deere’s massive 764 High-Speed Dozer (HSD), equipping it with a Trimble GCS900 grade-control system to maximize performance. In many respects, the decision to purchase the massive 31,000-pound dozer, with its 132-inch-by-30-inch blade, was easy. The groundwork and history leading up to it made it seem almost inevitable....>... More >

Dennis Drake, owner of Drake Excavating of Champaign, IL, became a certified installer for precast concrete foundations last year. He selected Superior Walls by Precast Concrete Solutions of Springfield, IL, because the company manufactures a Green Approved Product certified by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center. It also qualifies for the Energy Star rating from the Environmental Protection Agency. Superior Walls provides an R12.5 insulation factor and requires no additional damp-...>... More >

EVANS COOLING SYSTEMS Evans Cooling Systems offers the only waterless engine coolant available, providing superior benefits not found with water-based coolants. With a boiling point of 375°F, Evans HDTC has the capacity to safely operate at higher temperatures without overheating, resulting in less downtime. Fuel economy is improved with the higher operating temperature and reduction of fan-on time. The waterless formula is a safer, environmentally friendly alternative to water-based coolants. It protec...>... More >

Spurred by a tough economy, a move toward retaining construction equipment has emerged with a renewed emphasis on environmental concerns and simple practicality.>... More >

When it comes to heavy-duty equipment in the rugged grading and excavating industries, extending the life of a contractor’s investment increases the benefits associated with the amortization of the original purchase over time. According to Bob Straw, vice president of sales and marketing for IPD, “The longer the effective and efficient useful life of the equipment, the greater the benefit can be in terms of contractor operations cost containment.” IPD, established in 1955 and based in Torrance, CA, is a...>... More >

Most grading and excavation contractors use either loans or leasing at some point to finance their equipment. The two options are different in significant ways. Loans usually require down payments and the promise to repay with interest over time. With a loan, you might have to offer fixed assets for collateral, and equipment can be seized in the case of a default. At the end of a contract, the borrower legally owns the equipment. A lease may be thought of as akin to a rent payment. You have and use the ...>... More >

Common wisdom has it that when times are tight you pull in and cut expenses. Forgo new purchases, avoid discretionary spending, and, most of all, do more with less. But common wisdom can be wrong. As counter-intuitive as it might sound, a down economy is a great time to invest in training. In fact, say the experts, you avoid it at your peril.  If the 1990s were the years of global abundance, the 2010s will likely go down as the age of scarcity, which means there’s no doubt that trimming waste, tigh...>... More >

Manufacturers and system providers of machine-control systems and productivity-enhancing tools are responding to what they acknowledge is a tough market in which budgets are tight by providing high-tech solutions at lower costs. It’s a response to some contractors who are not investing in technology because of cash flow challenges and also to those who want to “test drive” entry-level technology before embracing more capable technological levels. Scott Beathard, president of GeoShack North America, rece...>... More >

As recently as 10 years ago, many of us would have scoffed at the idea that joysticks and computers would replace levers and mechanical linkages or that we would find ourselves relying more and more on space-age wizardry to do jobs that only a lifetime of experience had until recently allowed us to approach with total confidence. In an industry certainly more noted for its conservatism than forays into the ragged edge of the technological envelope, you have to wonder what got into the equipment designer...>... More >

From infant- to toddler-stage, construction equipment telematics tracking and management is on its feet.>... More >

The contractor’s toolbox has grown a lot more technologically advanced in the past few years—thanks to cellular and Wi-Fi capabilities and a range of real-time devices.>... More >

To train or not to train? It’s no longer a question.>... More >

The demise of the backhoe loader is not imminent.>... More >

Mid-State Paving & Excavation is an 11-year-old, $3 million company that serves central Pennsylvania with 40 employees. Prior to using Maxwell Systems’s ProContractorMX, the company had been using a combination of spreadsheets and software. Doing so necessitated re-entering data in several places and didn’t allow the company to have the job costing information needed to manage efficiently, effectively, and profitably. “We could look at week-by-week cumulative costs and compare them to the original b...>... More >

Alpine Equipment  www.alpinecutters.com Atlas Copco Construction Equipment  www.atlascopco.us Bair Products Inc.  www.bairproducts.com Chrysler Corp/Dodge Truck  www.dodge.com ConExpo-Con/Agg  www.conexpoconagg.com Doosan Infracore America Corp.  www.dhiac.com DRB America  www.drbamerica.com Evans Cooling Systems  www.evanscooling.com EZ Grout Corp.  www.ezgrout.com Gehl Co.  www.gehl.com Geophysical Survey Systems Inc.  www.geophysical.com Gomaco C...>... More >

I went to lunch last week with a social media guru…an impresario of the arcane reaches of the Twitter/Tweet/In-Your-Facebook phenomenon that has taken over a significant chunk of the universe with the use of tools that can get lost in your shirt pocket and cost little more than a meal for two at a mediocre diner. Still, after too many helpings of rajma chawal—a dish some Indians consider food—I waddled off no closer to an understanding of the situation than before. Perhaps it was the curry that kept me ...>... More >

Cold in-place asphalt recycling (CIR) has been around for over 50 years as a way to deal with decaying roadways, but because of its environmental and financial qualities, it is becoming more and more popular. As its name implies, the technique involves using the existing road material rather than bringing in new asphalt. The “cold” refers to the fact that a hot asphalt mix does not have to be brought onsite. The Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association (ARRA), a trade association of recycling contra...>... More >

Alpine Equipment www.alpinecutters.com Auto Crane www.autocrane.com Bobcat Co. www.bobcat.com BPT Components & Parts Inc. www.bpt.on.ca Case Construction www.casece.com Caterpillar Inc. www.cat.com Citgo Petroleum Corp www.citgo.com Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment America www.doosanequipment.com Dragon Products. www.dragonproductsltd.com Efficiency Production Inc. www.epi-shields.com Evans Cooling Systems www.evanscooling.com Federal Signal (Elgin/Vactor) www.vactor.com www.elginsweeper.com ...>... More >

In my callow youth I had the privilege of wallowing in mud, choking on dust, and enduring insults and inane commands from the mouth of my Drill Instructor, whose unenviable task it was to turn me and 29 other miserable scum-sucking civilians into Marines. His name was “Sir,” followed very quickly by the rest of his name, “Yes Sir.” And it was only after I had graduated from his care, that I found that he had other names…Sergeant Daly and even Ralph to his contemporaries whose ribbon-bedecked tunics spor...>... More >

Workers with limited English language skills are at much higher risk of injury and death, says Curtis Childress, a senior risk engineering consultant with Zurich North America, a major insurance company. Some studies indicate that workers with limited English skills have a death rate 45% higher than workers that speak and understand English. Workers from a different culture may be less likely to ask questions, even though they don’t understand what is expected of them. We need to manage all workers for ...>... More >

The National Road Authority in Ireland has a plan. It intends to upgrade the N18 Limerick to Galway Road to a new dual carriageway with hard shoulder. Lollygagging sheep beware. Currently there is work being done on a 1,000,000-euro, 22-kilometer, dual carriageway scheme extending from Ballinger’s Corner, north of Gort, to Cragard, south of Crusheen, where it will tie into the existing N18 Ennis bypass. The project also includes 10 kilometers of local road realignment, 12 kilometers of accommodation acc...>... More >

Bobcat Co.  www.bobcat.com Case Construction  www.casece.com Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment  www.doosanequipment.com Dragon Products Ltd.  www.dragonproductsltd.com Evans Cooling Systems  www.evanscooling.com Griswold Machine and Engineering  www.gme-shields.com HCSS (Heavy Construction Software Systems)  www.hcss.com Hi-Vac Corp.  www.hi-vac.com John Brown & Sons Inc.  www.brownbronto.com John Deere Construction Equipment  www.deere.com Kub...>... More >

If you think compact equipment is mostly about mini-excavators, backhoes, and skid-steers, you could be shortchanging yourself on job-site applications, says Brian Stanley, national accounts manager for United Rentals. “Those machines are a big part of the story, but not the whole story. Demand for compact aerial equipment is growing, and manufacturers are devoting the resources to develop compact lines.” Stanley says that small, self-propelled vertical lifts are an extremely popular rental item, in par...>... More >

When Jeff Bremer was hired as the equipment division manager for Aggregate Industries’ western region in 2008, the heavy construction and paving company had a fleet of approximately 110 trucks, more than 1,400 pieces of yellow iron, and not a single Global Positioning System (GPS) among them. Today, the company manages its 408 most-used trucks and pieces of equipment using a fleet-and-asset management solution from Trimble—technology that paid for itself in the first year’s fuel savings alone. “Our 450 ...>... More >

In 1994, Jon and Jeff Rood opened a two-man lawn and landscaping service with one truck and some big dreams. The brothers proceeded to “go to school” on ways to build their business. They proved such quick studies that their Livingston, TX–based company, Tri-County Construction, is now playing a major role in actually building schools—and other large site-preparation projects—in southeastern Texas. The brothers reached into their proverbial backpack for just the right resource, Topcon’s 3D-MC 2 machine-...>... More >

Allied Construction Products www.alliedcp.com Alpine Equipment www.alpinecutters.com Bituminous Insurance Companies www.bituminousinsurance.com Bobcat Co. www.bobcat.com Case Construction www.casece.com Chrysler Corp/Dodge Truck www.dodge.com Doosan Infracore America Corp. www.dhiac.com DRB America www.drbamerica.com Efficiency Production Inc. www.epi-shields.com EZ Grout Corp. www.ezgrout.com Gehl Co. www.gehl.com Hemisphere GPS www.hemispheregps.com Historical Construction Equipment www.hcea.net Hitac...>... More >

SAERTEX MULTICOM  The Saertex-Liner is the next generation of CIPP liners designed to rehabilitate aging and deteriorating pipes. The Saertex-Liner is manufactured under strict quality controls in an ISO 9001–certified plant. The unique construction and use of glass fiber creates a high-strength, thin-profile, UV-cure, GRP liner with exceptional flow characteristics. With the ability to fit various-shape pipes, the Saertex-Liner can line diameters from 6 to 48 inches and has a tested 70-year life. ...>... More >

In every business, it’s essential to make sure that what you’re offering is what the customer wants or needs. And as customer needs change over time, survival dictates that businesses change with them. There comes a time when persistence is no longer a virtue and refusing to change can doom your enterprise. As a professional magazine serving the construction industry, we pay close attention to what you’re doing and what you’d like to see from us by conducting regular readership surveys. These surveys re...>... More >