WOW--- That's awesome!
HUGE Thank you to Arron, Tim and the team!
You all rock!!
- Pam C
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 11:21:56 -0600
Subject: [BexarGrotto] It is done- a Honey Creek update.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
-------- Original message --------
From: "A. Wertheim" <[email protected]>
Date: 03/07/2016 10:40 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: Victoria Sommers <[email protected]>
Subject: It is done- a Honey Creek update.
Well friends, the Honey Creek road repair project is finished. The road to the
shaft entrance has never been better and will probably never be as good again.
Team “Go Big Or Go Home” brought their best game in a road-working tour-de-force
and not only repaired Joyce’s damaged road but made it useable for many years
to come. All the stops were pulled out to make this project a success.
Here’s the rundown:
Volunteers:
Tim Ramon- Project Leader
8!, count-em, 8! of Tim’s employees volunteered to help on a Saturday.
Kim Freund- Food and drinks
for a lot of hungry, dusty men
Kurt Menking- Equipment
operator, planning, organization, landowner relations
Arron Wertheim- That’s me. I got to
run some equipment and swing a chainsaw.
Victoria Sommers- Photo documentation,
lunch
Robert Bissett- Equipment
operator, fundraising, organization
Gregg “Breaks Thumbs” Williams Fundraising
Equipment:
(Courtesy of Ramon & Sons Demolition, Inc.)
Case Backhoe
Case Compact Track Loader
Takeuchi Compact Track Loader
68000lb Kenilworth roll-off truck with a 20 YARD dump box
500 gallon Water Buffalo
Trucks, Trailers
Replacement drain pipes
Replacement gate posts donated for future installation
(Courtesy of BCI & Bracken Bat Cave)
8000lb Tandem Dump Trailer
Funding:
Bexar Grotto
TCMA
TSA
Mr. Jerry Atkinson
Mr. Joe Ranzou
Mr. Greg Passmore
Greater Houston Grotto
TCR
Project Timeline:
Saturday and Sunday, March 5 & 6 2016 with good weather.
Project Plan and Action:
The original plan was to rent a couple skidsteers and borrow the dump trailer
from Bracken to patch the road. When Tim volunteered to help out and review
the project, it quickly became apparent that almost a mile of damaged road would
take a lot more time and effort than a couple Bobcats would be able to handle.
The heavy fall rains had made the road damage more pronounced. Beers would be
spilled trying to drive it. Unacceptable. Several different repair options
were discussed and a final few were
selected based on the value of this work and on reasonable fundraising
expectations. It’s a ranch road, not paved access; and while it was damaged
during a rainy caving trip, it also had not been properly maintained since it
was originally built. Ultimately
a backhoe, skidsteer, and bumper-pull dump trailer were decided on with
expected costs of up to $1400/1500.
When Kurt and I showed up Saturday morning there was A LOT more equipment than
expected, men in orange vests, traffic cones, a low-boy trailer, and tons of
things going on. Tim had taken a second look at the project scope and confirmed
his initial thoughts that to get the work done in one weekend we needed to go
big or go home. He asked one of his crew to help out on a Saturday and that
quickly grew to 8 hard-working men in steel-toe workboots, hardhats, and safety
vests doing what they
do best.
Tim’s guys worked till 5:00 on Saturday and moved enough material to re-pack
the whole road. A 20-yard dump truck can load a ridiculous amount of material.
The box is 23ftx8ftx4.5ft. Caliche weighs 2430.57 lbs/cubic yard. That is
48611
pounds of material per load (as an engineer I just had to know.) A Bobcat
has a ½ yard bucket. The dump trailer can load 4 yards. Anyways, watching the
driver gently back that loaded roll-on behemoth between oak trees without so
much as a nick to the bark
or a snapped twig was amazing. Joyce had been adamant about protecting her
oak trees. Well, without the 20-yard dump truck and experienced equipment
operators this would probably have been a 2 or 3 weekend project with
additional rental and transport costs.
Kurt and Rob ran the Bracken dump trailer loaded to the max until its
hydraulics whined in tired complaint. When the dumper decided to take a dump
from being overloaded, we grabbed shovels and unloaded it by hand. Short loads
only after
that! When it had to be lifted by the track loader to dump we knew it was
finished.
Tim ran his track loader at redline all day long to keep up with the dump truck
and dump trailer. Some of you may not know this but a 9000lb skidsteer loader
can do wheelies! With the Case loader and Case Backhoe working the caliche pit,
it didn’t take long to get more loads of material up to the road. The water
buffalo ran big loops from the well, wetting the material so it would pack in
nice and tight and last a long time.
Kim and Victoria brought lunch for the whole crew. The guys ate quickly and
went back to work, determined to get their job done in one day.
On Sunday, Kurt, Tim, and I returned to do some touch-up work on the road, set
the better culvert pipe at the gate, and fix an extra section of rutted road on
the main property. Victoria saved the day with sandwiches, chips, and cold
beer.
We finished working around 5:00 and finished the beer around 6:00.
Big equipment isn’t cheap. Hauling costs are high and diesel burns fast when
working fast. Without the big equipment there is no doubt this would have been
a long-term project. All settled-up, the cost was $2000. For 30% more money
there was easily 500% more work done in 1/3 the time.
Special thanks to Tim and his guys for donating their time, equipment, and
expertise. Thank you to everyone who helped out and everyone that pitched in
to cover the costs. This project goes a long way to keeping a good
relationship with
the landowner. Obviously such an endeavor cannot be routine so let’s all
remember to tread as lightly on the surface as we would underground and to take
care of the wonderful properties we have been given access.
Happy Caving!
Arron
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