|
Each year more
than 24 million vehicles travel on Interstate 74, inching
their way through Peoria, IL, and the surrounding tri-county
area, on a highway designed to handle only a fraction of today’s
traffic. Built in the late 1950s, prior to the formation of
the interstate highway system, I-74 is no different than so
many other urban routes. Growing congestion and the wear and
tear of time have led to fighting for federal funding and
meeting the challenges of major infrastructure improvements.
Increasing motorist safety is key in this battle. The top
five accident spots on I-74 exceeded the average statewide
accident rate by anywhere from 290% to a staggering 1,490%.
That’s three to 15 times the state average, and that
includes the heavily traveled areas of Chicago and East St.
Louis. Much-needed upgrades on I-74 began in 2002. At a cost
of nearly $460 million, it’s the largest downstate highway
construction project in Illinois history.
Currently the I-74
upgrade is in the home stretch as contractors race toward
a December 2006 finish. It’s crunch time—and one
of the subcontractors on the project expresses that in a literal
sense. As the owner of his own excavating company, Terry Laible
says he’s “crunching” (he prefers that term
over “crushing”) approximately 40 bridges within
the stages of this four-year demolition and construction process.
He’s tackling the job with a hydraulic multisystem jaw
attachment that turns his excavator into a versatile demolition
workhorse—even in tight spots where traffic is pounding
right next to his job site.
The Right
Fit for the Application
Mounted
on Laible’s John Deere 892 excavator is an MS25R hydraulic
multisystem jaw, manufactured by Breaker Technology Inc. (BTI).
One of four models within the MS Series, the MS25R features
interchangeable crusher, plate shear, demolition, and pulverizer
jaw sets that turn an excavator into a virtual tool carrier—and
that means flexibility, adaptability, cost efficiency, and
greater safety for contractors such as Laible.
 |
PHOTO:
BTI |
 |
PHOTO:
BTI |
For the I-74 bridge
demolition, Laible consulted with Martin Equipment of Illinois
Inc., a longtime John Deere and BTI dealership that focuses
on solutions for construction, utility, and forestry contractors
in the tri-state area. Martin recommended the use of the BTI
MS25R, over the traditional use of a hydraulic hammer, for
a variety of reasons. Laible’s number-one obstacle is
working efficiently within a small job site next to a moving
lane of traffic. “The problem with a hydraulic hammer
on this job is that you can’t position the excavator
properly. You can’t square up correctly to the specific
area we’re breaking on the bridge. To work safely away
from moving traffic, we’re sitting on a 45-degree angle,
and in that position, the chisel on a big hammer just glances
off the concrete,” says Laible.
 |
PHOTO: BTI |
 |
PHOTO: BTI |
The BTI MS25R allows
for a continuous 360-degree hydraulic rotation. This means
that Laible can work effectively, even on an angle. He eliminates
the time-consuming process of continually repositioning the
excavator, while minimizing fuel consumption and reducing
excavator maintenance and wear costs. “With these old
bridges, you have to have just the right tool. If you do,
it will go pretty fast,” he says. By using the MS25R,
Laible averages just a two-day time frame to demolish an entire
vaulted bridge abutment, crush the material to a transportable
size, and load it onto a truck.
Most often, Laible
switches between the pulverizer jaw and the demolition jaw
set, the latter being used when more rebar is present. The
jaws can easily be changed in the field in one to two hours.
When using the pulverizer set, he is working with a 31.5-inch
jaw opening and 104.5 tons of crushing force at its outer
tips. “This unit just grabs a hold of that concrete wall
and crunches it, cutting the rebar all at the same time. Importantly,
unlike the use of a hydraulic hammer, it does it all without
any concrete debris splattering into the traffic lane,”
says Laible.
The unit’s
replaceable teeth are another timesaver, he says. “Instead
of the old way of taking a welder out on the site and hard-surfacing
the teeth for several hours every other day, we can take a
hammer and a punch, pound out a pin, and the tooth falls out.
It’s just like changing a tooth on a backhoe bucket.
In a matter of minutes you can put on a new tooth and you’re
right back at it again. It speeds everything up, but it also
prevents the problem of wearing out an expensive jaw set because
you didn’t hard-surface enough. That’s critical,”
says Laible.
Side-by-Side
Comparison
As there are many different contractors and many different
pieces of equipment being used on the massive I-74 project,
Laible has the opportunity to gauge his performance against
others, and his BTI MS25R jaw against competitive options.
“Some of the other units are the same size, but they
don’t have near the amount of power. You can watch some
of these units hitting resistance. They simply will not break
some of this material. My unit may slow down when it hits
resistance, but it will continue to crunch material,”
says Laible, who attributes this to its two-cylinder design
(versus a one-cylinder offering on comparable models). This
delivers a higher clamping force, he says. Greater strength
is then maintained through the complete stroke, and the maximum
force is obtained at the maximum jaw opening. A speed valve
provides fast open and close times, for fast cycle times.
Also, BTI says
it’s engineered the MS25R with a large bearing design
that incorporates a double row of balls with a large diameter
for increased life and less maintenance. Additionally, the
unit features well-protected cylinder rods and hydraulic components
for long-term reliability.
The Big Picture
Construction delays often cause the motoring public to
forget why they had asked for a better highway system. When
this occurs, the Illinois Department of Transportation is
quick to remind folks that I-74 was originally constructed
when Dwight Eisenhower was president, Ed Sullivan had the
number-one television show, and the Beatles didn’t even
exist yet. It was time to bite the bullet. And it was time
for contractors like Terry Laible to demolish the old, antiquated
structures, opening the way for new overpasses, new pavement,
safer entrances and exit ramps, and brighter lighting and
beautification.
Lastly, those like
Laible, who work these heavy highway demolition projects day
after day, and year by year, know that they have to meet deadlines
and operate with maximum cost efficiency. Combining an excavator
with a multisystem attachment tool creates a powerful package—one
that allows today’s contractors to minimize labor and
downtime, increase productivity, and do the job profitably.
GEC
- November/December 2005
|
