AIS helps fix part of New York City's Water Supply

AIS is working for Barnard-DA Collins JV on an upgrade of the 85 year-old Gilboa Dam in the Catskills.  We are doing demolition of the dam crest and downstream face, plus a few other chores.  Barnard-Collins will rebuild the dam so it's safe for another 100 years or so.

Alder Creek Slide Repair, Highway 1 south of Big Sur

AIS is fixing a large landslide south of Big Sur.  Caltrans called us in late April to help them fix the slide and get the road open again. This photo (courtesy of Caltrans) shows the slide, the highway and the ocean.  If you look carefully, you can see two of our spyder excavators and two bulldozers near the top of the slide.  You can also see a few brave souls on the toe of the slide next to the water.  Wonder how the equipment got up on that slope?  We flew 'em there with a helicopter.  This heli-repair concept should be more commonly used than it is - you can avoid the need to cut in an access road, also saving the effort needed to restore the access road at the end of the job. 

Scaling Rocks at Kalalau Beach

AIS just completed an interesting job in an exceptionally beautiful place: we scaled rocks from the cliffs above Kalalau Beach on the Napali Coast of Kauai.  All of our equipment was flown in by helicopter, and the chopper also hauled the scaled rock off the beach.  The crew camped on the beach - it was a fairly idyllic spot, although you can see that the poor guys were forced to rinse the dust off in the ocean. The beach and access trail were closed while we did the work (hikers and falling rocks are a bad combination).  The area is scheduled to reopen about November 1.  The local paper has some video of the project: 

http://thegardenisland.com/vmix_59e8093e-cdd1-11df-8b20-001cc4c03286.html

AIS helps keep Ohio drivers safe

In late July AIS scaled rocks from a slope above Route 7 along the Ohio River.  On July 21 a rockslide closed the westbound lanes of Route 7 just across the river from Huntington, West Virginia.  The Ohio Department of Transportation concluded that more rocks were in danger of coming down, so they brought in the Alan Stone Company of Cutler, Ohio to perform emergency work. AIS worked as subcontractors to Alan Stone. This photo shows our crew with some of the boulders scaled off the slope - you can see why traffic was impeded!   Here's a link to a local news report on this project: 

http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=83192

Press coverage of the Iron Mountain cleanup project

Recently a few newspaper articles have come out on the Iron Mountain cleanup.  Here's a link to one of the shorter ones focused specifically on the dredging:
http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2010/08/25/epa-continues-cleanup-activities-at-iron-mountain-usa/

Of course, the engineers (CH2MHILL) and contractors (AIS (dredging), AHTNA Government Services (sediment conveyance system) and ERRG/Granite (the treatment facility)) would prefer that our names be plastered all over these articles.  However, we're happy the project is getting any publicity at all.  After you work on one of these things for the better part of a year, you really feel like it's your project.  In that sense, a big project like the Iron Mountain cleanup has a lot of people who feel like they own it.

Several projects in Hawaii coming up

AIS has done work in Hawaii over the past several years, and it looks like 2010 will continue that trend.  We are starting a rockfall mitigation project above Kalalau beach on the Napali coast of Hawaii.  Here's a link to a blog with more information:

http://www.napali.fr/english/kauai%E2%80%99s-napali-coast-trail-and-kalalau-valley-closing-for-two-months/

Steep slopes versus Really Steep Slopes

Spyder walking/climbing  excavators can work effectively on very steep slopes.  Frequently we do work in areas that are too steep to walk on.  This picture shows one of our spyders drilling holes in the left abutment at Big Tujunga Dam in southern California.  At this site the machine was put into place using a large crane. 

Spyder excavators are really handy.  Often we wonder why there aren't more of them around the United States.  It might have something to do with a shortage of qualified operators (the factory training programs are all in Europe).   Once you've had a spyder work on your project, you start wondering how you ever got along without one.