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Starting to ramp things up.....

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Wow, looks and sounds like a major project there Cat, hopefully the weather will co-operate, and you be careful out there :fing32:.

Can you get me on the D-8 ? I'll work cheap and make you proud :fing32: I'd much prefer to run a D-9 .. but the 8 will work :thanku:

Cat, where's the company going to move to?
Those bridges look like they have "roundabouts" on the ends of them, what is that all about? Looks like a heck of a project!

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The 8 is in the same area I am, it is my 'road maintenance' machine. Both 9's are staying off this jobsite, no scraper work for them. And the 10 isn't leaving the pit in the foreseeable future.
Funny thing about our 10, it doesn't have a ripper on the back. So, it has metal plates that act as counterweights. 1 1/2" thick, about 5' x 9'. Six to eight of them stacked up back there. Looks goofy.

Amazing how easy those big Cat's are to run. I learned on an old JD that had the brake levers, and manual transmission, but did have full hydraulics on the blade (no cables!). Ran a D-9 about 10 years ago (for a short period of time) and it was just a pleasure to operate!

Wow, that should keep you busy for a couple years!! I'm not sure about those round-abouts, they have a few others here in the "Cities" that I have run into. The single lane ones are not bad but the multi-lanes are a nightmare for me. I don't have enough eyes to watch all the other cars when traffic gets heavy. My first introduction to round-abouts was in the Middle East and many of them over there and in Europe can have 5-6 lanes. You are in big trouble if you get stuck in the inside lane!! Personally, I'll take traffic lights any day.

That's quite an interchange. It's starting to look like NY.
They have been adding roundabouts here for a couple of years now. In one location there are four within a 1/4 mile. With moderate traffic they are OK, but when traffic gets heavy, that's when the accidents start. People just don't like to wait, so they jump in, cutting off drivers already in the circle, who are probably going too fast to begin with. :00000060:

Bit of excitement on Saturday. Running a Cat 345B excavator with plumbing for axillary hydraulics. Wasn't using them, just a bucket. But with all the extra plumbing, there are additional accumulators on the machine. They are cylinders that are tied into the hydraulic lines, and help take the 'shock' out of surges, by giving the oil a place to go, that has some give to it. There is a large one in the engine compartment, even with the top of the engine. (3" diameter, 5' long) Got a very large puff of smoke at about 9:00 am, so shut it down to investigate. Top of engine was wet with oil. So have someone else start it up and check the functions to see if I see anything. Nothing. So, the plan is to walk it out of the hole to a place where the mechanic can access it. Start walking out, and get more smoke. I had to reach out and drag myself out, so I had to keep going. By the time I got out of hole, cars were stopping on the off-ramp 75 feet away and staring at the flames shooting five feet above the engine compartment. The accumulator had a crack on the end cap weld that would spray oil out only when doing multiple functions at once, and then abruptly stop one. And spray it directly on the exhaust pipe. Got off to the side, grabbed the extinguisher, climbed up and put it out. Luckily, no wiring on that end. Removed accumulator, capped it out, and finished the day. The machine has 5 accumulators, its overkill unless you have the muncher or the grapple arm on. And I was still in the running for Employee of the Week, up until that point. Darnnit. :banghead3

Not the best pic, but a picture of something that I dislike doing: mucking. The idea is to remove all non-suitable soil and replace it with sand. This was a swamp, and had to be dug out. There will be a access ramp and a frontage road going through there when we are done, so the black 'peat' has to be removed. Water at the surface, with the water table being about three feet down. The black dirt area next to the D6 is what was left for yesterday. Average depth to remove the peat is about 12 feet. Worst spot was 20 feet. In there, I sit on wooden mats that are logs sawed at 12" square, 36 feet long. Like these: They are in place in the pic above, but not visible, because they sink quite a bit when walked on. In the worst part, the machine sways a lot sitting on them also. My hats off to the ITO drivers who hauled this muck out for us, its not fun. PS - Many thanks to our Utility Coordinator, who dropped the ball on getting that overhead electrical re-routed before we got to this. That was fun to work under with this:

That looks like a lot of fun there.
Out of curiosity, what becomes of the "muck" you're hauling out? Sounds like it might wind up on the shelf at HomeDepot.

Office pic:

Awesome pics, cat. You have a fun-looking job😀. The plan pic at the top looks like a work of art!

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