Page 18 • December 29, 2012 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • California State Section • Construction Equipment Guide
Recycler Finds Way to Keep More Material Out of Landfill SOLUTIONS from page 17
MSW to wood and scrap metal,” he said. “We love the versatility the machine offers by giving us the ability to handle several different material types,” Carroll added. Because the Terex Fuchs handler is working with a variety of material, Ketchum recommended the 0.5 cu. yd. (0.40 cu m) four-tine Rotobec grapple attachment. “This style of grapple is a bit more forgiving than a fivetine, so it allows the operator to handle a broader range of material and assists with quickly loading the trailers,” he said. Steve Brezinski, Terex Construction heavy equipment product manager for material handlers added, “The MHL320 D also comes standard with an 11 kW generator to run a magnet for sorting and clean-up, should C&S need this type of attachment in the future.” Offering an elevated cab design with a maximum eyelevel of 17.0 ft. (5.2 m), the handler improves trailer loading efficiency in addition to sorting efficiency. “The elevated cab allows the operator to peer over the sides of the trailer, so he can properly load the material. The cab also offers a birds-eye view of everything, so the operator can easily see the workers on the ground,” said McCracken. C&S reports that by using the material handler, workers have reduced the time it takes to load a trailer by one-third. More importantly, it is helping to improve the process for diverting more material from going to the landfill. McCracken estimates that an additional 25 to 35 percent of recyclable material is pulled from the waste stream at the transfer station. This is on top of the recyclable material from the blue and green cart programs that are already being diverted. This experiment with the Terex Fuchs MHL320 D material handler has proven that by rethinking the traditional transfer station concept, a company can save money, improve efficiency and reduce the amount of material that is landfilled. “Material handlers at transfer stations are the wave of the future,” said McCracken. “The handler will ultimately replace the In the business of diverting material from the landfill, C&S Waste Solutions uses a Terex Fuchs MHL320 D to increase sorting and trailer loading efficiency at its larger loaders at our other transfer stations,” transfer station Carroll added.
They considered new approaches to construction as well as new types of equipment to help sort, move and load waste and recyclable material. A major change for the new 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858 sq. m) building is that the entire concrete floor surface is level. There are no elevated portions or excavated tunnels for loading trucks with a wheel loader. “In addition to addressing a safety concern for us, this saved the company several hundreds of thousands of dollars on building construction,” said Carroll. The savings and unique construction approach were made possible, in part, because C&S bucked tradition and decided to use a Terex Fuchs material handler for loading trucks and assisting with material sorting. This move also eliminated the need for push-wall construction and maintenance required with the use of wheel loaders. “Anything we can do to be more innovative and forwardthinking helps our customer by stabilizing rates,” added McCracken. C&S also incorporated an “open” design to the structure by eliminating the doors and some of the enclosures. Nearly the building’s entire 170 ft. (51.8 m) front span and 150 ft. (45.7 m) of one side feature a clear span design with no obstructions. Interior beam height is 33 ft. 8 in. (10.3 m) and the ceiling is 36 ft. (11 m) high, which allows plenty of room for both end-dump truck offloading and material handler operation. Different lane designation signs allow for the floor area to be segmented into loads of yard/wood waste, MSW and recycle material. “The new transfer station in Lake County is built for efficiency, to quickly sort and load material into trailer for further processing or landfilling,” said Jason Ketchum, account manager of Road Machinery, a Terex Fuchs material handler distributor in California. Wave of the Future According to McCracken, the company’s decision to switch from a wheel loader to the Terex Fuchs material handler as the primary loading equipment at the transfer station is paying off. “The handler is more efficient than
the loader,” he said. Ketchum and Road Machinery assisted C&S with selection of the right size material handler for the operation. “Due to the 33 foot, 8 inch height restriction, we recommended the Terex Fuchs MHL320 D with a 31.4 foot reach for working inside the building without damaging the ceiling.” The MHL320 D is powered by a 114 hp (85 kW) diesel engine and delivers the torque required for up to 8 RPM swing speed to increase loading productivity. Its four-point hydraulically operated stabilizers and wide underbody help to offer impressive lifting capacities. Solid rubber tires and rigid front axle with 30-degree steering angle allow the operator to easily navigate around the yard. C&S uses the Terex Fuchs handler to help improve the workers’ sorting efficiency on the floor. “If a load comes in with heavy items such as high dimensional lumber,” said McCracken “the handler will pull it out of the pile, making sorting a little easier for the workers. We use the handler to pick up everything, from concrete and
High-Speed Rail Must Hustle to Keep Its Federal Funding LOS ANGELES (AP) California will need to build its high-speed train line in record time if it doesn’t want to risk losing federal funds — indeed, it will have to be the fastest piece of transportation construction in U.S. history, experts said. Under a federal deadline, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has until September 2017 to finish the first segment of the line in the Central Valley. In that time, the project will need to acquire some 120 permits, 1,100 parcels of land and a huge workforce. At a projected cost of $6 billion,
California would be spending $2.7 million a day to finish on time, according to an estimate by John Popoff of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a consulting firm working with the rail authority. The figure could reach $3.5 million a day when the cost of buying land is added to construction, management and environmental costs, construction experts told the Los Angeles Times. By comparison, the spending rate for the $6.5 billion Bay Bridge replacement project in Oakland is tagged at about $1.8 million per day.
Construction of the Alameda Corridor freight rail line in Los Angeles, completed in 2002, also ran about $1.8 million per day. “It is a very aggressive plan,” said Manuel Garcia, associate director at the Construction Industry Institute affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin. “It does appear that it will be a challenge.” Delays caused by legal, political or technical problems could leave the first segment uncompleted by the deadline, which potentially could halt the flow of federal money. The project is nine months behind schedule in securing approval from the Federal
Railroad Administration, a consultant for the rail authority said in a status report. Land acquisition also is facing problems, Mark Ashley said. “It is dicey right now whether that is going to hold up our construction or impact our schedule,” he said. Contractors must submit bids by September to build the first section, from Madera to Fresno. The rail authority contract terms call for builders to face $1 million per day in penalties for failing to meet final deadlines after March 1, 2017.