Job-site preparation is a growing business within the construction industry, even though the economy had been on the wane until recently, points out Jerry Morey, president of Bandit Industries.
“There is a lot of clearing going on, especially to build the infrastructure for the distribution lines for the natural gas they’re finding,” says Morey. “There is a lot of work out there for the clearing contractors as the economy is starting to come back. It’s a very vibrant industry right now.”
Proper job-site preparation is important to help the overall construction team meet its deadlines, points out Morey.
FAE mulcher
“Generally, these projects are on a fairly tight time schedule and in some cases, there are penalties throughout the contract for not meeting them,” he adds. “They are always under the gun on these projects because they are always the first in. The project is often not completely put together until the last minute, but then they expect the clearing contractor to start at the last minute and get it done as fast as they can.”
On new construction sites, contractors are generally clearing, grubbing, and removing material, not only removing aboveground foliage, but also trees, and grinding stumps into the ground.
For most occasions, two types of Bandit Industries systems are used for the task, says Morey. “If they have to pull and remove the stumps, generally they will use one of our self-propelled Beast Recyclers because it’s capable of grinding stumps and all kinds of material. It’s used to recycle shingles.”
Contractors will primarily use the Beast Recycler, working it in conjunction with an excavator that will pull the trees—and depending on the size of the fit in the machines—throw in all of the debris, including the stump and the tree, and grind it all up.
Bandit Industries offers four towable, four self-propelled, and four electrically-powered Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders.
The machines are built to process everything from stumps and slash to construction waste, shingles, tires, and plastic pallets, among other materials.
Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders range in size from 16- to 45-inch capacity with engines of more than 1,000 horsepower. All Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders can be outfitted as electric units.
In some cases, depending on the job specifications, the debris is left onsite as erosion control material. Doing so helps re-establish the foliage to help hold the ground in place and also provide stormwater mitigation focused on better water quality, says Morey.
“They can make a mulch out of it that they can possibly use onsite,” he adds. “Sometimes it’s hauled offsite to a recycling operation that makes mulch.”
Terex PT110 performing surgical forestry land clearing
Another process used in job-site preparation is the use of a Bandit Forestry mower, which serves three purposes in one machine.
Track carriers feature Bandit-designed mower heads up to 108 inches wide with as much as 600 horsepower. The machines perform tree take-downs, belowground stump grinding and processing material into mulch.
The Bandit whole tree chipper is used to chip all of the material above ground. The company offers nine towable and six self-propelled whole tree chipper models. The company offers a track whole tree chipper. Disc- or drum-style chippers are available ranging in size from 18- to 36-inch capacity with engines of more than 1,000 horsepower.
“That’s a fairly common practice in right-of-ways, especially for utilities and mainly for gas lines where in a lot of the right-of-way clearing they just need all of the aboveground material removed,” says Morey.
Bobcat T630 equipped with box blade
In that case, the forestry mowers with carriers are used to mow the landscape up to 8 inches in diameter, and then a self-propelled whole tree chipper will be used to chip the material and leave it onsite.
Morey notes there is a new movement in clearing in the agricultural industry, where the machines are being used to grind up all of the aboveground material removed to put land in for agriculture production.
“It’s less costly and a better approach than putting the stuff into a plow and putting a match to it,” he adds. “All of that organic material works back into the soil and adds nutrients to the land for ag use.”
In that case, contractors will use a combination of the Beast recyclers, whole tree chippers, and forestry mowers.
FAE—which provides land clearing equipment for a variety of market segments—offers a skid-steer mulcher, the UML/SSL VT. It is available in 63-inch and 72-inch cutting width and is designed to cut brush and trees up to 8 inches in diameter.
The machine features a heavy-duty design, a 110cc VT (variable torque) motor, and an FAE smooth rotor system designed for better mulching and less fuel consumption. It also features a HY mulching door with the operating cylinder located in cylinder housing that is completely protected, a Poly Chain belt drive, Hardox counter blades for optimal material sizing, a pressure gauge, an adjustable four-position push frame, an adjustable three-position skid, multiple tooth options for all applications, bolt on rotor shafts, and hinged service panels.
Giorgio Carera, FAE USA CEO, points out that while job-site preparation is site specific, “a constant part of site prep is the removal of trees and other branches and foliage in order to have bare land to perform whatever other jobs are required.
“The land clearing is the first step to site prep. It is imperative that it is done well and professionally to obtain a perfect site for developing whatever project is intended to be accomplished.”
Site preparation can entail the physical removal of foliage as well as a more high-tech endeavor that can involve mapping and telematics, says Carera.
“It could be a basic clearing for a food plot, garden, or similar, or it could be a more technical systematic job using GPS coordinates that have to be exact such as power lines, roads, oil stations, lots for homes, and similar,” he adds. “The tractors and FAE-dedicated carriers can operate using the GPS and leave no error for the operator.”
FAE USA supplies equipment for all aspects of job-site preparation, including PTO/HYD mulchers for the initial land clearing; PTO/HYD forestry tillers and multi-purpose machines for stump removal, and to incorporate loose branches and other material left after mulching into the ground; and PTO/HYD machines that can mix additives in the ground for a final clean, stable surface.
Geith ripper
For erosion control material, “the mulch from the tree can be incorporated in the ground with FAE forestry tillers to create a base of more than just dirt and reduce the ground’s erosion drastically,” says Carera.
One company that uses FAE equipment is Carl W. Neutzel Services of White Hall, MD. The company is small and performs a lot of services, and as such, must use equipment to run lean, says its president, Carl Neutzel.
“Our biggest concern is we’re trying to be more efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly with the use of equipment,” he says, adding the equipment is used to doing onsite job preparation where the organic matter stays onsite. “We also are concerned about run-off into the Chesapeake Bay.”
Carl W. Neutzel Services started off in the landscaping business in 1972, then progressed into doing work in grass seeding, mechanical, and chemical invasive species control, and wildlife habitat work on sites ranging from a half acre to 100 acres for the private and government sector.
Carl W. Neutzel Services does job-site preparation for building lots, wildlife habitat, seed plots, and other purposes.
Neutzel says the work is divided between aboveground and belowground tasks. Aboveground work entails grinding trees, brush, and invasive species. Belowground work encompasses grinding up stumps and roots and working the debris into the ground.
“A lot of the invasive species work is to get rid of anything that’s non-native because it becomes part of the whole cycle of native plants and animals and disrupts the whole cycle,” says Neutzel, adding many have come from other countries either by accident or intentionally.
“Some of it also is along the highways, growing in the ditches and causing problems with drainage and maintenance of power lines and lights,” he adds.
Neutzel uses FAE equipment for his company’s tasks. The company’s fleet includes:
- One FAE UML/SSL 175 forestry mulcher on a Supertrak SK120, which shreds up to 8-inch diameter trees.
- One FAE DML/SSL 150 forestry mulcher on a Kubota SVL 90-2 with FAE oil cooler, which shreds up to 6-inch diameter trees.
- One FAE SSL/ST 150 forestry tiller on NH TV 145, which grinds to 11 inches in depth and is used for soil stabilization and incorporating stumps, roots, and branches.
- One STC/SSL150 rock crusher on Supertrak SK120, which crushes rocks, concrete, and field stone, among other materials, up to 3 inches of depth.
- One RSL 150 on NH TV 145, which recycles black top, tar and chip, and gravel roads up to 11 inches of depth. Materials can be reused onsite. Polymers can be added with a water attachment to profile and compact the road.
Neutzel is cognizant that his company’s work is critical to the overall success of a project.
Gehl hopper broom
“You’ve got all of that material out of the way to begin with so they don’t have to deal with it later. They can see what they’re doing a little bit better,” he says. “We do some site line work for surveyors, clearing it up so they can get in and work. It makes their job easier because it’s gone when they’re getting ready to start.”
Most times, the crew of Carl W. Neutzel Services works the foliage back into the ground with a forestry tiller.
“That’s helping with the carbon footprint because we’re not using extra fuel to haul it away,” says Neutzel, adding that it cuts down on costs. “It’s not going to a landfill—it gets worked right back into the ground and it can add organic matter into the ground, too.”
The organic matter also acts as ideal erosion control and stormwater management.
Bobcat E63 with bucket and clamp
“When we get finished, we grind it up and work it in. It’s all matted and knitted together with the roots and little pieces of branches and wood that we’ve ground up and you can drive over it with a car when you’re finished because it’s pretty smooth,” he says.
Neutzel points out that the use of equipment makes it easier for jobs to get done without the need for excess labor. And for those people working on the crew, the equipment creates a safer environment, he adds.
“One of the things that’s important with the equipment is we can do work safer in the cab than people out there doing it with chainsaws and brush cutters and putting it in a chipper,” he says. “With vines hanging from the trees, it’s a lot safer when the operators are in the safety of the cab.”
Neutzel is so impressed by the benefits he’s derived using the FAE equipment for job-site preparation that he did a demo project of an FAE rock crusher for a company building an earthen dam in Virginia.
Cat G325B grapple handling scrap material
“We demonstrated one so they could see how it worked and they built the whole dam with them, putting crushers on the tractors,” he says. “The foreman explained to us if they moved their rock crushers in, they would have to handle the rock so many times. This way, they just dug them out, put them on the ground, and ran over them with the rock crusher on a 350-horsepower tractor and used it to build the dam. It saved them on fossil fuel, time, and labor.”
Job-site preparation is “very important because this is where you are going to define a lot of the parameters that will affect productivity of the job itself,” points out Tom Hover, product manager of tractors, tracked carriers, and drills for Fecon.
“For instance, you’re going to do the clearing work that is necessary, but the job-site preparation also encompasses grading in such a way that it drains correctly so that in inclement weather, it doesn’t just shut the job done,” he adds.
That leads to lost time and productivity due to flooding or bad storms, adds Hover.
Job-site preparation also defines the entrance and egress from the job site. “A lot of the preparation defines the productivity and accessibility of the job site,” says Hover. “Other parameters are: what is the type of job site, what sort of terrain do you have, what are the challenges of the grading work, what is the purpose of the job site? Is it a well-drilling site in the oil and gas business? Is it a building site or is it strictly a road? Is it an addition to a road? Is it widening a road? All of these parameters can define how the prep is done.”
In terms of clearing, the approach is similar: what does the job site demand?
“Is it going to be a clean cut where every piece of vegetation is removed—perhaps in the construction of a large single-story building like a department store?” notes Hover. “Everything has to be cleared over a fairly large expanse of acres. However, if it’s a smaller building or even light commercial or residential, perhaps the clearing is done more as thinning the woods, and there is a desire to keep certain vegetation.”
Fecon manufactures land clearing equipment, primarily mulching tractors which can cut down to the surface small and large trees—mostly a lot of brush and unwanted species of brush and woody vegetation, says Hover.
“In addition to mulching attachments for existing tractors or our purpose-built tractor line, we also offer other types of attachments for milling machines which can go down into the ground and pulverize the woody mass of the root material and mix it with the ground or abovesurface handling tools, such as grapples, root rakes, and stump grinding,” he says, adding such equipment is suitable for more “pointed and directed small work.”
Hover sees his company’s equipment being utilized to provide material for erosion control.
“One of the things that Fecon machines and other lines of mulching equipment do is to mulch the vegetation to the ground, but not below the surface,” he says. “If you want to protect against erosion, you can leave the stumps and root system in the ground.
“If you’re looking at reusing the mulched material for erosion control, our machines will mulch it down and lay it and distribute it over the surface of the job site, so not only for erosion control but also to a certain extent for vehicle traffic in and around the job site.”
A clearing contractor’s fleet always will include excavators of all sizes, says Hover.
“There is certain work you do in site preparation that’s going to be related to underground utilities,” he says. “With the attachments we manufacture for excavators—such as the tree shears, grapples, stump grinders, or the mulching attachment—it offers another method of revenue generation for the clearing or the grading contractor. It’s another way to make money with an existing asset.”
