Jul 4, 2012 - 7 years ago
By Supply Post
Helicoptering between
the White Mountains
in the 2.63-million-acre
Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forest is exhilarating.
We still manage to
keep our focus on SBBI
Vice President Ted Walker’s
story about how the
Department of the Interior’s
reclamation project
playing out some 150
feet below us came to
be. “After years of study,
the Bureau of Reclamation
awarded the project
to SBBI last October. The
Bureau’s goal is twofold
— to protect and restore
populations of native fish
while helping to create
jobs for small businesses
like ours,” says Walker.
“One of the biggest challenges
for us was to
source equipment reliable
enough for a remote location
and, of course, actually
get the machines and
workers out here to get
the job done.
Thankfully we had a
lot of help from RDO, our
John Deere dealer, and
beyond to people throughout
John Deere. SBBI is
the right company for
this project because we
specialize in jobs that require
the smart problemsolving
skills the people
on my staff have learned.
But this would have been
tough to pull off without
help from Deere.”

Dam it all
At the confluence of
the San Francisco and
Blue Rivers, Walker and
SBBI not only work closely
with their John Deere
dealer, they also receive
onsite assistance from Bureau
of Reclamation engineers.
These engineers
worked on the design
and construction of the
fish barrier — a spillway
of sorts that keeps invasive
species like channel
catfish, carp, and fathead
minnow in the San Francisco
River where they
belong. With these pesky
non-native fish removed
from the equation, the
fish barrier will also allow
repopulation of native
alumni fish like roundtail
chub, spikedace, loach
minnow, and longfin dace
in the Blue River.
Where the wild Deere
roam
One of the Bureau of
Reclamation’s stated goals
— creating local jobs —
seems certain. Consider
the remote “man camp”
located a few miles from
the even-more-remote jobsite
that houses the SBBI
crew and the helicopter
pilots who fly the workers
along with cement,
diesel tanks, and portable
privies. Then, thereare
the associated vendors
whose work makes this
massive project possible:
chefs, mechanics, engineers,
and — oh, yes —
the dealer and manufacturer
of all that yellow
iron assisting on the project.
“Oh, we have some
equipment at work down
there,” says Walker, now
in the midst of the project.
“And everything that
can be John Deere here
is. There are two 300D
Articulated Dump Trucks,
two 135D Excavators,
two 550J Crawlers, two
444K Loaders, and a pair
of CT332 Compact Track
Loaders. Our other equipment
on the job includes
two rollers, two 2,000-gallon
water trucks, and two
forklifts.” Wait … that’s
a whole lot of iron, Ted,
how did you get it to this
remote location?
Operation Deere Drop
Unlike the wily coyotes
and fleet-footed
roadrunners that live
in these parts, SBBI
couldn’t just run down
the road with equipment
and supplies in
tow. They had to be
airlifted via an enor-mous Sikorsky helicopter.
Even with this giant
chopper, most of
the machines needed
to be disassembled,
airlifted into the site,
and then reassembled.
This requires great skill
from SBBI mechanic
Kyle Lundeen and RDO
technician Lynn Olney,
with ready assist from
John Deere engineers
in Dubuque, Iowa. “The
Sikorsky has a weight
limit of 17,000 pounds,”
says the RDO/Tucson
field tech, “so we had
to disassemble each machine,
with each piece
light enough for the helicopter
to lift. Then we
had to reassemble each
machine onsite. We put
together the 135D Excavators
first so we could
use them to assist in
assembling the other
equipment. The smaller
pieces, like the CT332s,
were light enough to
carry whole, while others
like the trucks needed
considerable disassembly
and reassembly.
It was a unique month
long assignment, but it
went smoothly thanks
to all the help I received
from Kyle, SBBI’s mechanic.”
Iron and concrete
Because the location
is remote, SBBI has created
a totally self-sufficient
jobsite with an
onsite concrete plant so
they can crush rock into
aggregate to mix with
fly-ash, potash, and cement
to rigid Bureau
of Reclamation specifications
for the fishbarrier
concrete. With
the crushing operation
running all day — supported
by John Deere
loaders, ADTs, dozers,
excavators, and CTLs —
cement and other supplies
are flown in by a
Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King
helicopter every 20 minutes
or so.
The day we visited
the site, every machine
cycle was running like
clockwork, with SBBI’s
Ted Walker keeping a
sharp eye on all men,
machines, and materials
in search of ways to
make the worksite even
more efficient.
“All the Deere equipment
has been working
great, and the support
from our dealer has been
terrific,” Walker says.
“They have been particularly
good about thinking
through this unique
project and working
with us to come up with
clever solutions to meet
the demands of this job.
With weight being an issue
on this site due to
the limitations of the
helicopter, we’ve been
using a pair of John
Deere 135D Excavators
with slightly oversized
one-yard buckets.
“I’m really impressed
by the performance of
this excavator. With
its agility, it can load
the truck fast — seven
buckets a minute. And
that machine’s reduced
tail swing makes it perfect
for the tight quarters
on this jobsite.”
Go, fish
As we are airlifted
away from the site, we
can clearly see ground
around the fish barrier
taking shape and almost
ready for the next phase
— construction.
Looking at the beautiful
cactus-dotted backdrop
and shimmering
current, we express hope
that the project helps
return the native fish
population to its desired
level. With SBBI at the
helm, that goal is coming
along swimmingly.