Roseburg, Oregon-based Weekly Bros. Inc. is one of the Pacific Northwest’s top heavy civil and mechanical contractors. With more than 40 years in business and now in its third generation of family members leading the company, Weekly Bros. delivers on some of the toughest, most complex projects even when working in some of the area’s most inhospitable areas and conditions.
Weekly Bros. is currently working on a 4,500-foot pipeline replacement deep in the central Oregon woods. It involves the installation of 66-inch HDPE electrofusion pipe, which is heavier duty than traditional plastic, to tie from the inlet to the outlet of new concrete structures to provide water to a powerhouse for a utility provider. The approximately year-long job also includes putting in some steel piping around the powerhouse.
The project began with the demolition of old concrete and removal of wood stave structures. Weekly Bros. is currently doing erosion control, stacking riprap buttresses before drilling and blasting occurs. The old flow line will be changed from above grade to buried due to the topography of the area, and concrete inlet and outlet structures, head gates, and metalwork will be done.
“This isn’t a typical site; it’s difficult to access,” explained Nick Weekly, one of the company’s third-generation owners. “It’s basically one way in and out on narrow rimrock road with minimal turnarounds. It’s also steep. All that went into consideration as we planned for taking the staves out, rock excavation and pipe backfill. We reached out to our Modern Machinery rep Ed James, who we have dealt with for a long time, and he showed us the benefits of using Terramac rotating crawler carriers.”
Weekly added, “We looked at the specs and the capabilities Terramac offers and knew they were going to be what we needed. The ability to drive directly to the point of dumping or point of loading and rotate to dump is a major advantage. The operators can pull up to where we are working, turn the bed, offload and drive out without backing up like is needed with a truck. We’re also working on a road that’s right up against a slope on one side, so the Terramac’s ability to work in limited space is very helpful.”
“It’s simple to learn and operate,” stated operator Jacob Kellum. “I started up in the waste area, which is pretty open just to get used to it. It didn’t take long. It’s like running a big skid steer with just a couple of joysticks that control forward and reverse and left and right turns, and another that lifts the bed up and down and spins it. It has two speeds, so I have control over how fast I’m going depending on the terrain. Even on the steep slope coming up out of the site loaded, it has no issues getting the job done.”
Weekly Bros. rented two Terramac RT14R rotating rubber-tracked crawler carriers that each have a 28,000-pound carrying capacity. They will be used during every phase of the project, including hauling shot rock and boulders from the current erosion control site to a dump location then carrying aggregate back for backfill. With complete 360-degree rotation of the upper structure, operators can easily offload at any angle.
Weekly Bros. plans to configure the Terramac RT14R crawler carriers that feature a loaded ground pressure of 8.3 psi to carry pipe as the project progresses.
“We have 20-foot sticks of pipe that will be brought into the pipelaying operation, and it will be handy to have the Terramac crawler carriers be able to get to it, rotate and drop the pipe,” said Weekly. “That versatility is another nice feature. So is the fact that they are low-ground-pressure machines because the pipe’s designed to only have a certain pounds-per-foot load on it. Once we get it laid and start backfilling, that will come into play more and be another advantage.”
