I came home today to an interesting sight…two heavily modified D8 dozers, a D6 and a Cat backhoe working together to pull a 95 year-old steel rail bridge truss back out of the drink.
The cable boom outriggers of the D8’s had huge counter balances welded to the track carriage opposite the boom, but one of the D8’s was tipping over so they held it down with the backhoe…that seems crazy to me!
Edit to add: That bridge span was carried a quarter-mile by the flood here.
Edited 9/25/2007 9:01 pm ET by basswood
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That's a pipeline dozer, used to lower pipe into a trench.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Interesting.They do have two 100 ton cranes right in front of my house that could have made short work of the task, but moving those just a couple of blocks is a big deal...so the dozers were pressed into service.
I was gonna say, is there not a crane in your area adequate for the task?
Someone a few months back posted a story about a guy here who lost an excavator in a swamp. And then another. I think they finally got 'em out.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070706/NEWS01/707060370/0/EVENTS
The flood here last month destroyed 3 railroad bridges and 3 road bridges within a half-mile of my home...the cranes are all busy.
While this may seem like an unusual and unsafe use of the dozers, it is very common in the railroad industry. I've seen loaded railcars "walked" back onto the tracks using this technique. You can read about the company that developed the system at http://www.hulcher.com . I met the company founder in the late '70's or early '80's and he told me about founding the company. He did say that Catapiller wouldn't warrantee their equipment for the use he was putting it to, but I think he was earning enough to take the chance.
Looks like you had a great view of the process.
It was interesting to watch. Thanks for the info.
Well, it must not have been crazy, since it seems to have worked.
You have a point...I do wonder if they might have been pushing their luck though.