Demolishing Concrete Wall

[centex]

Now it is on to the North side of the bridge. It will take between 400 and 500 yard of fill to repair this side.

 

[centex]

This a shot after four 8 hour days of work. It is not as good as it looks as I am just trying to get a path to drive the tractor across completed and then I will have to go back and widen it. I think I am about 1/4 of the way to completion on this side.

 

[centex]

This is the source for the fill and the large boulders. Of course the boulders are on top of the hill where thy could do real damage if they feel on the tractor or me.

 

[centex]

One of my neighbors is a retired heart surgeon who pays to have all kinds of work done. He estimated that it would cost $100K to have this done. I will spend about $2000 to do it myself not including the $40K tractor that I wore out.

The attached picture is of the backside of the source of the fill showing a lot more boulders.

 

[Junkman]

wondering how the project came out now that a year has passed...... If you tried to do this in the Northeast, it would take you a lifetime just to get the permits to do it, not to mention all the environmental impact studies that you would be required to complete......

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Oh Don,

If only you had known me and Iris before you opened the wallet. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I would have recommended a skid steer.

I have all the respect in the world for farm tractors. They will out pull my skid steer not only anytime, they'll do it just about anyway. But when it comes to construction they are no match.

I was given two hundred dollars for two hours work a couple of weeks ago. A survey company was wanting input from a skid steer manufacturer. So they offered a bunch of us two hundred dollars cash money each to spend two hours in a conference room discussing skidsteerology.

What surprised me from my co-dollar-takers was the assumption that a skid steer owner should expect ten thousand hours of work before major repairs if normal maintenance is kept up.

That is amazing when you look at what skid steers are put through. Your chunk of concrete would have been gone now for the cost you have in electric jack hammers. It would only have been a hydraulic hammer rental expense but the power and efficiency of those things are almost beyond belief.

An operator of a small skid steer will do twice the work of a conventional tractor with a FEL if it's just moving material.

Of course a skid loader isn't worth a flip a pulling a plow. They can do it. But only if you're used to going backwards and your neck never gets a kink in it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Boondox]

I realize you've made a lot of progress on this already, but I just noticed the thread. Way back when, long before 9-11, I knew of a couple of friends with similar issues. They called the local national guard who were glad to blow it in place for practice, provided no buildings were nearby.

Do they still do that sort of thing?

Pete

 

[centex]

"They called the local national guard who were glad to blow it in place for practice, provided no buildings were nearby."


My place is near Ft. Hood and I thought about seeing if they wanted to use it for target practice with one of their Appache's but I don't think the neighbors would have approved.

 

[centex]

Harv, I know what you are saying. I was sick when JD made their 110 available a couple of months after I bought my tractor and for almost the same price. It is not a skid steer but it is a commercial and noticibly more robust. I have noticed a lot of wear and play in my FEL after only 400 hours of use on the tractor - a lot less on the FEL as I spent maybe half of the tractor hours running a PHD. At least what I am doing now is not a boring as watching a PHD run day in and day out!!!!

 

[Boondox]

Oh yeah, neighbors. I keep forgetting most folks have them. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Pete