Underground Construction - May 2019 - 15

Plains in Catoosa, Okla. "Given the amount
of rock we were working in, a few of our guys
were a bit concerned that the T855III was
too small for the job, but it ended up having
plenty of power and did a nice job cutting
through the hard rock," he commented.
Crew members used the trencher with an
8-foot boom to cut a 36-inch wide trench,
5-feet deep before laying the 10-inch steel
NGL pipeline. In common ground conditions
for the area, they were able to open 1,500
to 2,500 feet a day. When working in harder
rock, production slowed to between 800 to
1,200 feet a day.
"Given the ground conditions, we were
thrilled with the production," expressed
Baggs. "We went through some teeth throughout our rental, but that's to be expected."
More importantly, Baggs said renting the
rock trencher was the right decision. "There
was no way we would have been able to cut a
trench using track hoes alone cost-effectively,
and for the time we ended up being on the
job, using a subcontractor would have been
even more cost-prohibitive. Ideally, we'll end
up purchasing a few track trenchers as we
continue to grow."

Unexpected delays
While the work went according to plan, the
project did take Horizon Pipeline's team longer than expected because of bad weather-
and needing to complete another stretch of
pipeline for Targa. "The fall of 2018 was one
of the wettest we've had around here," Baggs
said. "It rained several days almost every week
we spent on this job. There was a week we got
nearly 40 inches of rain. It was terrible!
"We had a semitruck that was completely
demolished in the floods, and one of our HDD
subcontractors lost a reclaimer," he continued. "They were set up on the top of a 15-foot
river bank. The river rose so quickly, they
couldn't get the machine moved out of the
way in time. I've never seen anything like it."
Heavy rains forced the trencher crew
members to shut down for several days.
However, they operated so efficiently on the
days they were able to run, they managed to
make up most of the time lost. "There is no
way of knowing what the weather is going to
do, so I'm sure glad we decided to rent a rock
trencher," Baggs added. "Without it, we would
have been even further behind."
Horizon Pipeline was awarded another
project for the Grand Prix Pipeline Oklahoma
extension, a 50-mile stretch between Velma
and Davis, Okla. "That job had a very tight

deadline, so we had to pull a lot of people from
the Hickory Hills job over," said Baggs. "For
the most part, we kept the trencher going,
but we needed just about everyone else on the
other project to keep everything on schedule."
Crews wrapped up the Hickory Hills job
and the 50-mile stretch in about nine months
despite setbacks. The team also used the
trencher on the 50-mile project, where it was
used to dig another 30,000 feet.

Baggs points out that "we have a lot more
pipeline work coming up in West Texas, and
we may need to rent another trencher as we
fight with the hard caliche rock in that part of
the state." *
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Horizon Pipeline & Construction,
(918) 429-1200, horizonpandc.com
Vermeer Corp., (888) 837-6337, vermeer.com

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UConOnline.com | MAY 2019

15
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Underground Construction - May 2019

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