Highway construction NOT using scrapers

[dawoodwa]

We will use scrapers if conditions are right, we use 627''s and TS-14's on some jobs if it is a short haul and not a significant cut. The double barrel scrapers work good on lake construction and grading for chicken house pads. On jobs that have deep cuts we will use a mass excavator, usually renting a Komatsu PC450 with a large bucket and short stick and loadout 35 ton trucks. We have used a PC650 with a large bucket and were able to load a 35t truck in 3 passes. I prefer sitting on the excavator than sitting on a scraper and having a dozer giving me whiplash when he falls in to push.

 

[Turkeyman]

My hunt club is in a working rock quarry that is expanding. They estiamte that in 5 yrs they will need to move 26,000,000 cubic yards of overburden. The spoil pile is 1 1/2 miles from the pit and they use 6 CAT 794 mining trucks that hold 45 yds (w/ side boards). They load it with a 385 CAT track hoe and a 8 yard bucket, 5-6 buckets per truck. So far in 9 months they have moved 5% or 1,300,000 cu yds. The dirt pile is 110 ft tall and covers 40 acres (incld dikes and 3 catch ponds). They get about 8 dumps per hr. D-7/8 push the piles and it is very impressive to watch.

 

[caver]

 

[Foton404]

Depends on the job. Scrapers are much better suited for hauling large volumes of dirt. Small jobs are better suited for truck hauling. Large jobs like major highway construction are not conducive to dig and haul. Scrapers can go where trucks can't go. I operated a 631 Cat on an interstate job, it was continuous...load..haul..unload, non-stop. This was a million yard job. It is not reasonable that excavators can dig out and load the same volumes of hard soil such as clay without a laborious time consuming effort. Now they have D-11s that can operate scrapers unassisted for smaller jobs. But trucks can go where scrapers can't go, such as hauling on completed hard surfaced roads, so they each have their place. If you are contracting a 500,000 cubic yard job, you'd go with the heavier equipment.

 

[slowzuki]

I have never seen a pan scraper on a highway project here in NB. Not one.

Dozers, escavators, trucks, graders and compactors are the equipment used.

 

[Egon]

Too much rock.

 

[Renze]

Scrapers can go where trucks can't go.

Here in Holland, most contractors use tractor drawn dumptrailers, because they can employ untrained 16 year old labor. With trucks, they'd have to employ certified truckdrivers, comply to the driving time law (which means that you cant drive for more than 3 hours continuously, and 8 hrs a day, so much break time, and you have to keep the tachograph disks to prove it to the police or labour inspection)
Also because tractor drawn trailers on big tires go where trucks cant go.

Trucks are only used on the long hauls. Even in a village, a truck cant go faster than a tractor because you cant speed up anyways...

 

[Taylortractornut]

We use a Paddle wheel/ elevating scraper a JD 762 for our hauling at the landfill dad an I run. We also have 20 yard converted dumpster for haulinf dirt to but it requires and excavarot or a loader. With the scraper especially the elevator will pulverize the soil and make it easier to spread plus yo ucan lay down layers from 2 inches to 2 feet. Its easier to compact out roads. we only use the truck when the scraper is down or we need 2 unist hauling building up emergency stock piles. The scraper is only 11 or 12 yards but its self loading and the self spreading is the main reason we use it. Plus you can keep you own haul roads dressed with it to.