This years contract requires me to mow 4 times (on or near specific dates) Only the very lasy mow of the year do we mow ALL the outside ROW's. They are cut to a maximum of 15' from edge of pavement on rounds 1, 2, and 3. It isn't unusual to have ROW's with as much as 75' of grass/weeds. So round 4 is done in some very hostile conditions.
Part of the bid is "trash clean up" that requires people on foot, bagging trash, and looking for potential problems. They can't see under the heavy growth. The clean up crews stay a couple days in front of the mowing crew. It's not far out of the realm of possibility that a passing motorist can toss something out between the time it's walked and the actual mowing takes place.
Quite often, rocks become dislodged from rock outcroppings along the ROW. THey weren't there one minute, there the next....
Point being, even when precautions are taken, often well beyond what would be expected as "enough", there's still a very strong likelyhood that SOMETHING is going to end up getting hit....and launched.
State budgets have been slashed in the last few years. (That ol' economy thing...AGAIN) We once mowed the same roadway, but TWO additional cuts per year. That MAY save the state a bit of money, but it also serves to leave us mowing in a less "friendly" environmant.
Typically, there isn't a very thick "cushion" in the bid prices on ROW mowing. I'm not interested in doing this as a "pro bono" project, but the bid has to be not only competitive, but it has to be LOW bid. Long story short, we can make a decent income with equipment budgets built upon lower initial cost and lower overall operating cost of rotary mowers, but not so much with flails. They aren't spec-ed in the bids we go after, and there simply isn't the money allocated for bids employing more expensive equipment. Simple explanation, we buy flails and we can't bid competitively.
So....We use 15' Bush Hog batwings, and we buy plenty of insurance. Thing is, we would even with flail mowers. We have demo-ed flails from various vendors. They do a splendid job, but at a cost.
In the 3 past seasons, with as many as 9 mowing rigs operating at times, we've not had one single reported incidence with an object striking a vehicle. 2 incidents were reported, BOTH involved vehicles running off the edge of the road and hitting our vehicles parked in emergency lanes. We may throw a rock now and then, but they throw cars at us...!
