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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:05 pm
by Dave_L
Night before last we were prepping a road for resurfacing and had Tetlaw in with their metre planer taking off 40mm.
Last rip up through at about 4am and the machine settled into the surface and as it was the last bit, we were all well up with it with not a lot to do so wwere watching it at close quarters.
All of a sudden the cutting cylinder appeared to light up/catch fire, followed by a huge bang and the 280PS engine running it was stopped dead due to overload.
"What the flip is that!" exclaimed the worried driver.
Lifted the machine off and found a BURIED 675x675 cover FFS!
Exposed the drum and found 35 sheared pecks and a lightly damaged manhole cover.
Didn't realise a metal detector would be so useful in such work!!
Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:45 pm
by Injured
The joys of ground works 
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 12:38 pm
by oioisonnyboy
seen similar myself...on a job in Ashford, macarthur glen shoping centre, huge multi million pound job, all the shops were arranged in a ring with car parking in the centre, all in about 2 years work for the groundworker, galagher contractors.
my old foreman was struggling a bit, tarmacers on site friday and there were about 10001 manholes still to be bricked up.
"get a road plate and a bucket of sand on top of every biscuit boys, and we can gun it out on monday...it's only a bit of base"
midnight the day before all the stores opened working under diesel tower lights 6 men three compressors all gunning away to find these buried manholes "...its only a bit of base" :laugh:
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:06 pm
by Dave_L
haha! Yep, seen that before too! Plating over the MH's will make the tarmac laying su much easier as the machine will go straight over them - otherwise it's lift up/sit down numerous times around the covers.
Aslong as the covers are all marked on the kerbs/footpaths doing it that way will be fine - but not good if any are missed out!!!!!
It's amusing seeing the expressions on groundworkers faces when we turn up on some sites when they're not quite ready - the look of fear!
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:26 pm
by GB_Groundworks
i was flail mowing with a big 2.5 metre flail mower on the back of a 175hp john deere, flying along all of a sudden black smoke and stalled. turns out i'd caught a bit of barb wire and pulled 200 metres of wire fence round the mower drum oops haha was only 17 haha going to fast with the tunes on.
Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1246131168
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:33 pm
by rab1
how long dose it take to drive a tar lying machine?, 3wks ago we had a 40ft wagon turn up on a Sunday morning and this big yellow tar machine in the road - ask every ground worker/machine man can you shift it. answer yes until they looked at the controls. ???
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 10:29 pm
by Dave_L
Fairly easy to drive/move but you've got to know what switches to flick etc etc otherwise you could end up dragging the screed down the road/shooting the wrong way etc etc
It's driving it when laying material that takes skill/precision - as the steering isn't often that precise, especially when you have the screed filled right up - it can be sliggish to turn if you have a full screed (which could be 3 tons of material). This is where a tracked paver has its advantages.
@GB - blimey, I bet that wire took some removing!!!!!
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:55 am
by Tommy
GB_Groundworks wrote:i was flail mowing with a big 2.5 metre flail mower on the back of a 175hp john deere, flying along all of a sudden black smoke and stalled. turns out i'd caught a bit of barb wire and pulled 200 metres of wire fence round the mower drum oops haha was only 17 haha going to fast with the tunes on.
I was using a 35 hp JD ride on with a Trimax flail deck last summer.
In less than a week I managed two punctures, a deck full of barbed wire, then cutting a rough plot next to a tributary steam, sunk below the axles.
Wasnt the flavour of the month :laugh:
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:39 am
by seanandruby
I worked on one job where tarmac was beig laid that night and i ( under protest ) had to brick the manholes and gully covers up to ffl with that ready mix s**** with retarder. this happened over the entire site at different stages. kept me in work for a while repairing, some of them were six courses deep on top of biscuit ( yes i know max 4 but some firms are a law unto themselves ). the best thing was they were already platted so could of done after. It breaks your heart when you do a good job, no straight perps, spread joints and zero tolerence only to have it all destroyed by a machine, visions of H G Wells. :laugh:
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:40 am
by GB_Groundworks
dave,
took me a day with the mower hung off big excavator with grinders, oxy acetylene, crow bar to get it all out and had cut into the barring so had to replace the barrings as well and the fence!!. dad wasn't best pleased with me haha.
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:31 pm
by rab1
Dave,
I`ll quote you on this "fairly easy".
This thing had 2no steering wheels and more switches than the star ship enterprise, lay in the same place for 2 days as nobody knew how to move it.
Watched it working one day, the hopper opened up to take the wagon load and then moved up and down to set levels etc. fancy bit of kit, guessing they cost a few pound?. ???
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:41 am
by oioisonnyboy
I hate it as well when you make a nice job of benching the manhole, rub it up and trowel it up like glass, only for it to get covered in concrete if its in the middle of a bay and then get covered in muck when bricking up 
best way I have found of bricking up a gully is to park my arse on the kerb, feet inside the gully pot and brick around, saves all the bending and reaching...6 courses of english bond...engineers have been shot for less I am sure :;):
the buried manholes did all get found eventually, at least the plates all stayed on...at kent university heard a story from a mate who spent 3 days shovelling 6f2 out of the manhole when the yellow plastic roadplate snapped...whoops
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:13 pm
by seanandruby
oioisonnyboy wrote:I hate it as well when you make a nice job of benching the manhole, rub it up and trowel it up like glass, only for it to get covered in concrete if its in the middle of a bay and then get covered in muck when bricking up
best way I have found of bricking up a gully is to park my arse on the kerb, feet inside the gully pot and brick around, saves all the bending and reaching...6 courses of english bond...engineers have been shot for less I am sure :;):
the buried manholes did all get found eventually, at least the plates all stayed on...at kent university heard a story from a mate who spent 3 days shovelling 6f2 out of the manhole when the yellow plastic roadplate snapped...whoops
Well if your concreting a bay in surely you box out the manhole and rebate it for the cover to sit in? Dont normally have brick rising in a concrete slab. When laying bricks on a biscuit i cut a piece of ply 580 square and sit it on the 4 corners, maybe tack a bit of DPC around the edge and stand on the ply to lay the bricks, no droppings, or very little on the benching. Seems an awkward way to lay bricks on a gully? Head down arse up and crash it in, its only a ten minute job at most. Also soup sucker is good for cleaning out filled manholes. Sorry if it seems like i'm rubbishing your ideas, i'm not.
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:06 pm
by oioisonnyboy
manholes in a bay - sometimes we make a boxout for the manhole cover and infill once the bay is poured. more usually in a large bay we use lengths of stock at angles to the corner of the cover tied to the mesh as "Transverse crack control bars".
I did one job for carillion where we were asked for boxouts and flexcell isolation joints around all covers, then another job the same year, for carillion again, different site manager, where we put the extra bars in...swings and roundabouts really. I usually put polythene in the manhole now as well, as I usually got the job of cleaning snots off the benching anyway.
10mins for a gully lid...fair play to you Sean, I will admit I struggle with brickwork, especially in engineering brick. give me another 10 years and I might be able to crashe them out :;):
as far as rubbishing ideas go...everyday is a schoolday, and when you stop being willing to learn then you should stop working as well. :;):
