Rob,
I was also surprised at the number of pines and how thick the woods are here in East Texas. When I tell people about it, I tell them to think of Louisiana. If left alone, the woods are too thick to walk through. Half of every plant here has thorns on it, and if they don’t get you, the vines will. About an hour West of me, between here and Dallas, there’s a line where the pines start. One minute is all scrub stuff, than you’re in the pines. I've been told the soil has to have a certain level of acidity to it for pines to grow, which exists from here all the way to the East Coast.
kenmac,
The water department guys said they have clamps to handle their largest pipe, which is 16 inches. I’ve only dealt with low pressure clamps myself, the ones with the hose clamp type fastener. Never seen these before, but was impressed with how stout there were.
GaryM.
Funny you mentioned cast iron pipes. I asked if they had any iron pipes around to deal with. There are all sorts of steal ones in the ground from when the Army had a base here 60 years ago. There is a section that they are constantly having to repair that is just about all clamps now. Why they don’t replace the entire run is anybodies guess.
beenthere,
Things are very different here in the country, and Texas as a whole, compared to where I’m from in California. I’ve only seen ditches shored up on really big projects in the city. Never on smaller ones or anything out of city limits. The soil is all clay and I just guess cave ins are so rare that nobody ever thinks about them. In California, people were always in the new from dying from cave ins while working in ditches. They did have goggles, but the funny thing is they didn’t use them. On the cut in the ditch, both guys had their goggles on their heads!!!
Scotty,
It’s a small Water Department, but they buy quality stuff. Watching them work with it, I kept thinking how nice it would be to have one of those, but I really have no use for it.
Eddie