Pictured previously: Arbuckle Reservoir Arbuckle Reservoir, specialized soil cement placer
As Water Needs (and Levels) Rise, P&J is Building Big
P&J’s history is anchored in water resources work – we’re at home on those big dam projects, and we’re starting to see more of them! As market lead Gerry Arvidson explains, “Over the past couple of decades, new construction in water resources has slowed, but as communities start to recognize an expanded need they are looking to new opportunities to build reservoirs and shore up existing structures.” P&J's Water Resources Group is in the thick of this infrastructure development, and in the past year we’ve both wrapped up major projects and broken ground on new efforts. In 2018, we completed three years of constructionat theArbuckleReservoir inLaneCity, Texas, and our quality work at Arbuckle led to P&J starting the Lower Bois d’Arc Reservoir in Honey Grove, Texas. This part of Texas hadn’t seen a major dam project since Ray Roberts Lake in the 1980s, which P&J also built, so we’re watching this new era of development closely. These P&J projects will add much needed water supply to their rapidly expanding populations, supporting growth and quality of life in the regions. Working on such significant projects has required us to think strategically and creatively. At Arbuckle, P&J laid soil cement and carved it into steps to serve as wave
protection for when the reservoir is filled. The steps break up wave action, prevent large waves from building up, and protect against erosion, which is standard in reservoirs where riprap is not readily available. To save crews valuable time constructing these steps, P&J tailored a more efficient assembly line, allowing crews to place and shape soil cement continuously, without having to pause to move and restage equipment. Project superintendent Dirk Peacock explains that P&J placed soil cement steps with a specialized placer, which allowed thematerial to be laid along the stepwhilemoving the machine, with no stop and start. Cat 740 ejector trucks hauled material from two on-site batch plants to the placement, and soil cement was ejected from each truck to a loader, which charged a traveling hopper with an auger that transferred material to the inclined placer belt. This belt constantly followed the placer to keep soil cement moving at all times. A bulldozer followed behind the placer to rough grade the step surface, and a skidsteer followed behind with a custom-built, 45-degree-angle vibrating blade to fine grade and achieve
initial compaction on the step face. At their peak, Peacock says crews were able to lay an average of 2 miles of 8” deep step per night shift.
pg. 18
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