Allmand Bros. is currently promoting the Light Sequence Commander, an automatic sequencing mechanism that allows eight on/off sequences in the course of a day, a week, or a month. The unit is programmed to start the engine at the programmed time; check for high temperature, low oil, and low fuel; and, when the engine is running at 1,900 rpm, turn on the light switch. If a condition develops that might damage the engine, such as high temperature, the controller will automatically turn off the breakers and shut down the unit (the same procedure occurs when the fuel gets within 10% of empty). The lights stay on until they're programmed to go off. Commanders are available for all the engines Allmand Bros. features with its towers; an optional photocell sensor can be substituted for a timer, and there is an optional wireless modem module that allows a site manager to control one or more light towers from a central, remote location, a feature useful for remote sites.

Dewatering

In Montana, Kelly Rowe of Rowe Excavations works out of his truck and usually shuts down at dark, which means no light towers and hardly ever a generator. Rowe specializes in pond reclamation and streambank restoration, which means dewatering is a way of life. To run his 12- and 16-in. Crisafulli pumps, he hooks them up to a power take-off on one of his tractors. "We usually pump out to a 16-foot depth, and we use the tractor because most often we're out in remote areas and want to stay compact," says Rowe. "When we're not pumping, we can unhook the tractor and use it for something else. The only time we might need a generator is when we build a bridge across a stream." Likewise in Missouri, Lyle Derr of Lyle Derr Farm Company typically takes along one of the Crisafulli 16-gal. submersible pumps he uses on his farm. "They're versatile. You can idle them down and they don't pump very much, or they'll pump 10,000 gallons a minute. Usually we don't need any electricity at our remote sites, although we do have a small portable unit we can use to run a welder or a grinder when we have to fix something."

Godwin Pumps's Abbott says the biggest mistakes contractors make when it comes to pumps is flying by the seat of their pants. "Take my phone number, tell me what you want to do, and I'll get the right pump to you on the first delivery. If you're going to pump up a hill, you've got different needs than someone who's pumping on the flats. We have an engineering department here; contractors can send us soil borings, and we'll use these to recommend what pumps they're going to need."

To Shelter or Not

Dirt contractors are often the first to arrive at a job site; they get their work done and are on their way before the rest of the crew arrives, which means setting up an operations trailer can be an unnecessary expense and a nuisance. "We don't have an office," says Rowe. "We don't sit around and drink coffee. I figure if you do away with the office, you won't have a coffee-drinking problem. Everybody in our crews [17 in peak season] is hands-on in the trenches. On the bigger jobs, you need to have a manager to keep things rolling, but that's my job and I'm pretty mobile. I put 70,000 miles a year on my pickup." Derr agrees. He never rents an office trailer unless he's forced to. "If I'm working on a job for the Army Corps of Engineers or the Natural Resources Conservation Service, they're going to require an office, so we rent a trailer; same with your wildlife people

In San Antonio, TX, Santos Valadez works as a utility subcontractor excavating trenches for sewer and water mains in new subdivision construction

Keeping Things Moving

To fuel his vehicles, Derr trailers an 800-gal. tank and has a local distributor top it off while he's in the field. In Concord, CA, Bruce Carone of Carone Grading and Paving uses trucks equipped with 1,500-gal. fuel tanks. His fuel distributor fills the trucks at the company's main yard, where they're parked until they're dispatched to a work site. "This gets us away from doing a lot of permitting," says Carone. "We'd have to have a lot of capital to put a tank in and maintain it."

"Permits are the name of the game," says Kent Robinson of Gasboy International in Landsdale, PA, manufacturers of fuel management systems. "In the old days, you'd just get an old tank, put some fuel in it, and pump. Not anymore. You're dealing with a hazardous fuel and you have to follow local regulations, which are usually written according to tank size. A lot of contractors will use a pump and tank contractor, someone who's in the business and knows what the restrictions and regulations are. Sometimes oil companies will supply the tank; sometimes it's a petroleum equipment dealer, and then the contractor arranges with a supplier for the fuel. And if the operation's large enough, it may keep track of what it fuels with bar codes or programmed pump keys, which limit operators from other crews having access to its facilities."

Once the fuel's on-site, the challenge is to streamline the refueling process. "You can save a lot of time and be a lot more efficient if you are organized about how you park your equipment," says Brad Van De Veer, production demonstrator-instructor at the Caterpillar Edwards Demonstration Application Center in Peoria, IL. "A lot of companies will park their equipment in one or two lines so that whatever side the fuel cap is on is toward the center. I've seen dozers backed up in a line together so all the fuel caps face the same way. The less time the fuel truck has to be moved to get to another machine, the more efficient it is."

Keeping good drainage is another important site management consideration. "If you keep good drainage, crews can get back to work after it rains," says Van De Veer. "It takes a little planning ahead, like determining where you're going versus where you started the job, and then it takes routine work. When it gets close to shutdown time, for example, it's not difficult for a dozer operator to pull off early and knock down high spots and fill in holes and ruts to make sure the site drains. The other thing is to dress the borrow pit so that it all drains to the sump end and you can pump the water if it rains. Also, fill needs to be knocked down and typically bladed off, and sometimes it's a good idea to compact and blade it and keep it crowned so water doesn't stand anywhere. On one hand, it's a matter of having competent operators, but on the other, the site manager needs to make sure this gets done."

Another commonsense element is operator scheduling. Van De Veer suggests assigning operators who have been trained on more than one machine to remote sites. And because replacements might not be easily available, safety is crucial. "Wear seat belts and always maintain three points of contact when climbing on or off a machine. You don't want your good operators getting hurt." As with safety, equipment maintenance becomes more crucial on remote sites. "Some contractors are very good about taking care of their equipment," says Van De Veer, "and others wait till something breaks

If there's more than one crew on-site, Van De Veer advises keeping all equipment in separate areas so the different contractors can keep track of their respective equipment and maintain and fuel their own machines. Contractors who want to control access to equipment on remote sites where there might be minimal supervision can take advantage of Caterpillar's new Machine Security System (MSS). It uses electronic keys, each with a unique digital ID, to limit operators (to prohibit access, for example, to a machine an operator isn't trained on) and designate the time frame for machine startup so that equipment can be totally locked down when it's parked over a weekend. The system is available factory-installed or by a retrofit kit. In San Antonio, Valadez installed an MSS system the two Caterpillar 420D backhoes he uses to dig the utility trenches he specializes in. "The work I do requires me to leave the equipment overnight," says Valadez, "and I used to worry about it. If I was out having dinner with my family, I'd drive by the site to see that it was still there. I bought locks that keep you from being able to raise a boom or a stabilizer, but you could still turn on the machine and move it. Being new in this business and investing $80,000 in each of these machines, it's well worth it. I sleep a lot better at night." Aside from controlling machine access, the keys can also be programmed to expire after a specific period of time. "There's a lot of flexibility in how the system can be designed," says Steven Morrison of Cat electronic parts marketing. "A fleet owner can have one key that works on all his machines and individual keys for all his operators. For rental machines, the keys can also be programmed to expire after a specific period of time. The customer can manage key access to fit his needs."

Theft deterrence and security are major planning considerations when you're working at remote sites. "Park all your equipment together, number each piece, lock it behind chain-link fences, and hire a security guard," recommends Van De Veer. Other options include lighting the area where your equipment is parked (Lockwood recommends using high-pressure sodium lights) and installing an onsite monitoring system. Construction Protection Services in Gardena, CA, provides eCamSecure, a self-contained trailer that includes cameras, power, and lights. The cameras are equipped with motion detectors, and the system is accessible from anywhere at anytime via the Internet. The images are transmitted to a command center, where they're monitored by eCamSecure personnel.

If fences, guards, and patrol services aren't appealing (fences are easily cut and one guard might be hard put to keep track of an entire site), look into equipment manufacturers and third-party suppliers that market systems to help owners keep track of their vehicles. Caterpillar's Product Link tracks individual machines and feeds back their location. An e-mail or pager alert goes off if the machine is outside a designated area or has ventured into an area that has been programmed as off-limits

If work on a remote site means you'll be moving equipment across a public roadway or otherwise involved in controlling traffic, consider using mobile traffic signals, such as those offered by Horizons Signal Technologies in Wayne, PA. The solar-power units resemble regular streetlights and can be programmed to control civilian traffic to allow construction equipment to cross a public roadway. They can also manage flow when traffic on a public roadway is detoured or otherwise diverted. "We're moving about a million cubic yards of dirt from one side of the road to the other," says Dave DuBose of Sternhahl Enterprises in Sun Valley, CA. "To do that we have to cross a county road. There are two pairs of signals, two for street traffic and two for construction traffic. When you have high-speed traffic like we do at this site, people pay attention to the lights [more than they do] a flagger because they can see the lights from farther away. The system sets up easily, and the lights are easy to program."

Farther north, Bruce Carone used the same system when he had to control traffic while repairing a slide. "We reduced the road down to one lane using K-Rail [fencing rail], and we used the lights for 24-hour traffic control

And while Rowe doesn't have to worry about controlling traffic on public highways with the pond restoration work he does in Montana, he does have to keep track of where his crews are on the job site. "The people we work for are very particular

Journalist Penelope Grenoble O'Malley is a frequent contributor to Forester Communications publications.

 

GEC - May/June 2003