John Bush, McElhenney Construction vice president of operations; Project manager Greg Elmore; and Project Superintendent Matt Averett chat with Chris Howard of TEC about Komatsu machines at the jobsite in Orange Beach, Ala.
McElhenney Construction Company, based in Mobile, Alabama, is working on the rapid completion of a boat launch for Baldwin County, Alabama. The project involves the construction of six boat launches, approximately 8 acres of parking and mooring facilities around the perimeter of the entrance, with breakwaters on the end.
The total area of this county-owned property is approximately 40+ acres, of which only 20 acres are used for this construction. The parking lot for the project will be paved and there will be an additional 2 acres of gravel parking, washrooms and a future boardwalk.
“This was absolutely necessary and will help bring boaters down the intercoastal canal to Mobile Bay or the Gulf of Mexico,” said McElhenney’s vice president of operations John Bush. “A county engineer said this will be the largest boat launch on the entire Gulf Coast when completed.”
For McElhenney Construction, this is a 120 business day project, so speed and complete accuracy are key to construction.
“It has to be finished by March 2022 and be fully ready for spring,” Bush said.
The rain was a challenge for the work of the land.
Prior to the mass earthworks which is currently underway, a crane was brought in to help subcontractor Jordan Pile Driving construct a cofferdam. The overall totals for the earthworks are just over 100,000 cu. meters. in a short time with rather damp material. Despite rainstorm after rainstorm, the project is still on schedule and three of the six ramps have been poured.
Sixty thousand cu. meters. material will be transported off site.
The company maintains a steady pace and works on site five days a week, at least 10 hours a day, with 10 to 12 employees. McElhenney Construction carries out all of the work on the project itself, with the exception of water and sewer work, pile driving, associated mooring work and asphalt work. Mobile Asphalt has been selected to do the asphalt work and Grant Nichols Construction will handle the utility work. Other marine work is carried out by Cassity Brothers Construction. The dredging work will be carried out by MD Thomas Construction.
The project began on June 1, 2021. To ensure quick and accurate completion, McElhenney Construction purchased a new Komatsu PC360LC and a new Komatsu D51PXi bulldozer to add to its existing fleet of Komatsu machines.
Full and complete precision is a necessity on the project, and three Komatsu D51PXi dozers and one Komatsu PC210LCi excavator, all Komatsu intelligent control machines, are widely used for continuous digging and grading work. Simultaneously with the earthworks, McElhenney installs approximately 2,000 ft of pipes of various sizes for sewers, water and storm sewers.
Environmentally, McElhenney made sure all bases were covered, including putting up a turbidity curtain, which extends 6 feet into the water to prevent any cloudy water from entering the canal and was placed before the start of any initial excavation.
Asked about the staff at his Komatsu dealership, Tractor and Equipment Co. (TEC)., Bush, of McElhenney Construction, said, “It’s nice to work with them. There’s a good reason you look around this job site and see pretty much nothing but Komatsu. Everything else on the project is mostly a rental or a subcontractor’s machine. “
Bush went on to praise TEC’s service work and service manager Robert Bush’s attention to detail. He said most of the company’s machines are under the Komatsu Care program, so maintenance work is done after machine idle hours.
John Bush also praised the other members of the TEC organization.
“I’ve been working with Chris Howard, our TEC rep, since 2010 and we’ve become friends and he’s been great working with him on all of our purchases.
“We manage a lot of Topcon and TEC’s technology representative, Richie Sievering, helps us get the most out of controlling our machine and all of our electronics. He’s just a phone call away. If we have questions, he can guide us through any problems we might have. “
Josh McElhenney, owner of the company, reinforced what Bush said and explained his thoughts by saying, “TEC’s customer service is way above the rest, and that means a lot to us when we’re trying to do something. thing. I feel like they ‘are part of our team and they make sure you have great tractors and great tractors that work. They provide you with what you need and it goes a long way. “
All earthworks are carried out by GPS and machine control systems.
“We won’t be driving the first issue on this job. There will be no hubs or blue roofs, just machine control and electronics running from a base unit,” Bush said.
Overall, the project seems to be going like clockwork.
At any given time, McElhenney Construction has about six different jobs in progress at a time. That of Orange Beach is the largest of his current projects. Josh McElhenney attributes the success of his projects to “very, very good people.”
“They love to work,” he said. “John [Bush], Matt [Averett] and Grégoire [Elmore] did a great job of keeping this project on schedule.
“It’s a really cool project, and I’m proud that we had the opportunity to do it. We will definitely do it right. We will use it ourselves when it’s finished.”
For more Information: McElhenney Construction trusts TEC, Komatsu Machines: CEG – IFAWPCA