Featured Project - Starpointe Development Phase 2

February 7, 2011.

Seems like an insignificant date, and for the most part it is, except it was the bid opening day for the Starpointe Development Phase 2. On this day, Independence Excavating was read as the low bidder. It was a terrific feeling to be read low on a 2.5 million cubic yard mass earth project. Everyone worked very hard on the bid, as it is a geotechnically complicated site, and we spent a lot of time devising the most efficient sequence possible to gain an advantage. In addition to the rewarding feeling of being the low bidder, the job was scheduled to start immediately. Perfect timing to take advantage of the 2011 summer construction season. Furthermore, we needed the job to keep our crews and big iron busy, and this was the job. Things were falling perfectly into place. It all seemed too easy. As it turns out, it was anything but easy. For various reasons, almost one full year passed before we were able to break ground. A long delay in this business is not something anyone is encouraged about, but in hindsight this has been a blessing in disguise. As most of us realize, 2011 turned out to be one of the wettest years on record. As someone at Independence Excavating famously once said, “dirt + rain = mud”. Instead of moving 2.5 million cubic yards of dirt, we may have been attempting to try and move 2.5 million cubic yards of mud, which would not have made for a fun summer. In contrast, 2012 has been a fabulous weather year. Our crews have taken full advantage of the sunshine in opening up the 145 acre site, located just west of downtown Pittsburgh in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

The site is an old strip mine, originally stripped of its coal in the 1940s, as described in the Civil and Environmental Consultants (CEC ) thorough geotechnical report. So after our typical upfront erosion and sediment control measures, our first step was to install approximately 15,000 linear feet of toe key. This work entails excavating all proposed toe of slopes down to competent material, installing drainage, and bringing it back up with compacted material. Once the toe key was completed, the site was completely prepared for our manpower and equipment spread to move the 2.5 million cubic yards. Currently, our average manpower is 35 people, and we are running an impressive equipment spread with bulldozers ranging from a CAT D11 through a D3, and a Komatsu 1250 excavator loading CAT 775 haul trucks. We have even managed to get some push/ pull hours logged on our CAT 627 scrapers. As we prepped for this job, we had lofty earth moving production goals since we knew that the owner wanted the site turned over by the end of 2012. To meet these goals, we are utilizing three to four separate dirt spreads, with each crew focused on every last detail in an effort to hit high production and low unit costs. We have a fantastic group of people working on the job, and everyone has pulled together to give 110% effort every day. The results of their efforts can be measured by our safe man‐hours, as well as our quantity of earth moved. We have utilized 20,000 safe man‐hours and moved 1.9 million cubic yards as of July 2012 ‐ not bad, considering that we moved our first yards on April 2, 2012.

We are projecting to have the mass earth completely moved by the end of August, at which point we will roll right into installation of surface storm sewer, site grading and seeding. Our goal is to be 100% complete by Thanksgiving and turn the entire site over to the owner, Washington County Council on Economic Development and the developer, Fourth River Development LLC of Pittsburgh. A special thanks to these two organizations as they have been a pleasure to work with and helped in aiding the progress and success of the project.