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1775
Old 6 Road, PO Box 535, Brooklyn, IA 52211-0535 USA |
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Creative
Problem Solving |
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On
May 15, 2001, the Recreational trail in Grinnell was let.
We were the low bidder (only bidder) for this project.
The trail starts just North of the Grinnell High School
and continues west for 1.5 miles and ends at the Jasper County
line.
The trail consisted of 2700 CY of Class 13, a wide
variety of pipe, aprons and intakes. Clapsaddle-Garber out of the Marshalltown office was the
engineering firm for the project. Sheets Excavating from Montezuma did the majority of the work
prior to the asphalt and came back to finish the earth shoulders
and backfilling. It
was the first time that I myself worked with Sheets and found
them to be well organized and very efficient at what they do.
This trail is supposed to continue on over to Rock Creek
next year and I would like to see the same people work on that
project as well. The Asphalt portion of this project was fairly small in
size but the operation we used was our first.
The trail consisted of 6 of Asphalt 8 wide for a
total tonnage of 2350.
We knew when we bid this job that we would not be able to
back trucks into the paver.
The center of the trail measured 15 to 20 off the
edge of the roadway with a 2 to 1 on the fore slope in between.
So, we set out to find something that would convey mix
from the road to the 8 paver we borrowed from the Ames
division. We went to the main man (Jimmy the Bimmy) to figure
something out for us. Jim
rented a unit from Gomaco that was placed under Manatts 9500
trimmer. All the
belts were removed and new hot belts were installed.
A lot of work for 2350 Ton of hot mix.
Brent Upah and the boys at the Brooklyn Shop did all the
work and never complained a bit (?).
Brent and Lonnie came out and ran the trimmer for us.
It took an hour or so to work the bugs out when we got
started, then down the road they went.
This operation worked extremely well and the final
product looks very nice. My hat is off to Dale McCammant and his crew, Brent,
Lonnie and the boys at the Asphalt plant.
It takes everybody to make a project go well. In
other news . . . This
year started really slow and continued into July.
It was a slow process but we have been able to pick up a
considerable amount of work.
As of 9-1-01 the commercial crew has about 43,000 Ton of
mix to do before winter sets in.
They are putting surface on V-18 and then will shoulder
that job.
Some of the work we have picked up goes as follows: Benton County 12,000 Ton, Jasper County 12,000
Ton, Iowa County - 1500 Ton, Jasper County - 5000 Ton in various
locations and a variety of commercial work gets worked in.
It will be a busy fall. It has been a while since Ive introduced my crew and
we have had a few changes. Dale McCamment Superintendent over road crew &
plants, Keith Jones Paver operator, Kevin Matteson
Screed operator, Steve Jordan Screed operator, Walter Ponce
Breakdown roller, Ramon Ortega Finish roller, Dave Doran
Whatever Dale tells him to do. At the Asphalt plant we have Randy Cooper Plant
operator, Dewayne Veverka Loader operator, Fred Petrie
Ground man Steve Ranfeld and Joe Babinat are our go to guys.
They do a variety of different things from grading ahead of the
Asphalt crew to crushing to maintenance on our plants.
Randy Cooper took over the plant operator job awhile back
and Steve Ranfeld has spent most of his time in training.
All of these people take great pride in the work they do.
It makes my job easier to do when I have people like
these behind me. Thanks
Guys!
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