Sky Hooks?

sheepfarmer

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They are building a new freeway interchange near Detroit, 96 to 23, and I drive through there once a week, so have been watching with interest. Much of the new road is pretty elevated, and I have seen dozers piling up dirt at angles that you couldn't pay me enough to navigate. Yesterday I realized there must be about a dozen really big (40 story high) construction cranes scattered around the area, which is maybe a mile square, an unusual sight for highway construction. There was a little backhoe or something perched on a ledge of dirt with maybe a trail straight up a near vertical face. :eek::eek: Wondered how he was going to get down, and thought well maybe they could hook a safety line from a crane to hooks on the tractor just to keep the metal side up and the rubber side down. Silly idea? Or do they ever do that?

I don't think I have ever seen a site that has such extensive and steep dirt workings. They are slapping straw mats on it everywhere since we are normally into the mudseason by now, and there is no reason for that surface dirt to stay put. Hopefully there is a lot of stabilization mat or something under there.
 

skeets

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Well all I know is dozer guys are NUTZ !!!!!!!
 

ShaunRH

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Recall watching a show where a company was going to build a new complex on top of a mountain. They didn't know how they were going to get up there to build the building. So they asked for ideas.

One of their employees, a dozer operator, said if they could get him and his CAT dozer on top of the mountain, he'd build a road on the mountain for them.

The company used a Sikorsky Sky Crane to drop him and the dozer on the top of the Mountain and in slightly over a month, they had their road to the top. This was a steep mountain. He did it with no surveyors, no planning. Just camping out, diesel fuel and a CAT dozer.

Yeah, I agree, those dozer operators are nuts.
 

bh115577

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Recall watching a show where a company was going to build a new complex on top of a mountain. They didn't know how they were going to get up there to build the building. So they asked for ideas.

One of their employees, a dozer operator, said if they could get him and his CAT dozer on top of the mountain, he'd build a road on the mountain for them.

The company used a Sikorsky Sky Crane to drop him and the dozer on the top of the Mountain and in slightly over a month, they had their road to the top. This was a steep mountain. He did it with no surveyors, no planning. Just camping out, diesel fuel and a CAT dozer.

Yeah, I agree, those dozer operators are nuts.

Any chance you remember what show that was? I'd like to see that.
 

ShaunRH

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Any chance you remember what show that was? I'd like to see that.
I've been wracking my brains all morning trying to recall it. As I recall the show wasn't about the road feat itself but about the site... I'm thinking it was an observatory that was built up on the mountain, so I'll keep wracking my brain and working on it.

Still can't find it but found a link of a guy doing the same thing... waaaay back in 1934.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/one-man-bulldozer-builds-mountain-roads/
 
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sheepfarmer

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Asked my friend who's been doing all the grading around my place, and he said yes, it is quite possible they were using the cranes to anchor or lift the machines climbing unclimbable piles of dirt. He also said he hated highway construction work, which probably goes to show he's a smart cookie. Mentioned a memorable time one morning when the bank was frosty and tractor slid down and fetched up against a flimsy fence. He's really good, I think he could butter toast with his backhoe.