Work Update

Several people have been asking how Michael’s projects have been going. Both projects are moving forward and picking up steam…

We thought that everyone might enjoy a few pictures of a unique piece of equipment that was recently mobilized on the Manwaring Student Center site. It’s called a “Terrain-Leveler” and is used for cutting and milling rock, concrete, asphalt, or mixing soils. This particular machine has a 12-foot wide hydrostatically controlled drum which cuts down on the material and can reach a depth of up to 30-inches in a single pass. It acts much like a power plane for rock; it “mills” the rock in layers until it reaches the elevation required by the Plans and Specifications.

The primary advantages this machine presented for the Manwaring Project were:

- Its ability to work in close proximity to existing buildings. The machine is able to grind as close as 12-inches to the existing structure without disturbing the native rock under the existing footings. As you can imagine this is very difficult to achieve when using explosives for rock removal.
- Unlike blasting the terrain-leveler leaves a relatively smooth, level surface to work from. This eliminates the need to pour leveling pads prior to forming footings (a substantial savings of time and money).