Construction Industry News and Articles
Ranch owner Art Guttersen turned a blizzard into a business. “Nobody could get to work, and there were oilfield companies installing wells on the property. I leased a motor grader to move the snow and open the roads for them. I think I moved the same snow every day for three months,” he recalled. Guttersen saw an opportunity to provide additional resources to the oil and gas companies working the 32,000 acres that comprise Guttersen Ranch, and that was theRead More
Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS) is one of the largest waste and recycling companies in the Chicago area. In order to process the massive amount of waste material that comes through its seven locations, LRS requires equipment that is dependable, versatile and durable. It found a solution with a fleet of 15 Komatsu PC210LC excavators outfitted with Komatsu waste packages. “Our PC210s run up to 20 hours a day – sometimes as many as 11 hours straight – which is vitalRead More
Mark Ballard, President, R.A. Alexander & Sons Advantages immediately apparent “Augmenting our fleet with intelligent Machine Control equipment made us 40 to 50 percent faster, and we’re achieving accuracy within two-tenths of an inch,” stated Ballard. “Having a model that we can plug in and follow, speeds us up significantly. We save the most time on minor details associated with parking lots and streets. It’s also phenomenal on earthmoving projects with major grade changes. There’s no lost time with operatorsRead More
Liesfeld Contractor takes pride in being at the forefront of construction technology. The Richmond, Va., earthwork contractor was one of the first in its community and surrounding area to use a dozer with an aftermarket GPS grading system. “It was awkward, but it was cool; and, at times, it would grade by itself using an indicator system,” recalled Vice President Joe Liesfeld III, who along with his father, Joe Jr., own and operate the firm. “The technology continued to improve,Read More
The Midway Division of Waste Connections, Inc. serves the Chicago area through its Winnebago Landfill in Rockford, Ill. The 500-acre facility accepts 16 million pounds of solid waste daily, so having reliable equipment is paramount to the operation’s success. When his dozer fleet began experiencing earlier-than-anticipated component failures, Midway Division District Manager Lacy Ballard decided it was time to make a change. He turned to Komatsu and his local distributor to add a D155AX-7 dozer with a waste package, whichRead More
Since opening his own construction company in 1998, Bryce Ricklefs has always looked outside the box to find a hidden niche to help his company, Boomerang Corp., thrive. More than 20 years later, Ricklefs continues to search for those advantages, which is why he selected a Komatsu intelligent Machine Control PC490LCi excavator with integrated GPS technology. “We were one of the earliest adopters of GPS because we knew it would help save time and money, and it’s a strategy thatRead More
Cody Weaver started moving dirt at the age of 12 and hasn’t stopped. Throughout the years, the owner of CW Construction learned how to do it as efficiently and competitively as possible by maximizing production time. Recently, he upped the ante with the addition of a Komatsu D51EXi intelligent Machine Control dozer. Weaver uses it to prep subgrade for roadways, level pads, cut and move massive amounts of dirt, as well as place sub-base materials, among other tasks. The dozerRead More
When Randy Ellis and his wife, Trisha, prepared to build a home on the family’s ranch, he was shocked at the price to purchase 300 loads of dirt for the pad. Instead of paying for the material, Ellis bought a dump truck and a rubber-tire backhoe, dug a pond on his property and used the dirt for the house pad. While he didn’t realize it at the time, this was the origin of what today is a successful earthwork andRead More
Good decisions are often directly tied to profitability and prosperity. Justin Lott, Co-owner/Senior Vice President of Southern Transport & Equipment, LLC, learned that lesson after completing fire school. “I had my sights set on being a firefighter, but I had to finish EMT training as well,” recalled Lott. “The summer after I graduated, I took a job working for an oil-field company to make some money. I quickly realized that type of work paid much better than I was projectedRead More
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] recent global fraud report showed that more than one third of construction, engineering and infrastructure firms were victims of theft during a one-year period. Count Jackson Plumbing and Ates Construction as members of that unlucky group as both companies had Komatsu compact excavators stolen from jobsites. One morning Alan Ates, Owner of Ates Construction, needed his Komatsu PC55MR excavator for an emergency water-line repair, only it wasn’t where he left it the evening before. “We were doing a jobRead More