Lowered labor costs, faster operations and less incidental damage to the project site added up to make the Bodine heavy-duty grapple the right choice for a Pennsylvania heavy contractor.

J. D. Eckman Inc. of Atglen, PA, a heavy, highway and general contractor with a 55-year history of operations in suburban Philadelphia, recently received a $6-million contract to rehabilitate a 5-mi. (8 km) stretch of Highway 3 in Westchester, PA. The contract included patching and/or replacing a 24-ft. (7.3 m) wide stretch of highway, as well as reconstructing the shoulders.

In those areas where the road had to be replaced, Eckman saw-cut the 10-in. (25 cm) thick pavement into 5- by 6-ft. (1.5 by 1.8 m) squares. Then a Cat 318 wheeled excavator with the Bodine grapple would pick up each piece and neatly stack it in a dump truck for transport to a dump site. Eckman had originally planned to haul the slabs to a crushing machine for recycling into aggregate for future use as a highway base. Unfortunately, it was cheaper to dump the slabs in a landfill.

Previously, Eckman had used a 30-ton (27 t) all-terrain crane to remove the slabs. This entailed hiring a man on the ground to hook up and unhook each piece. The use of a bucket or dozer was ruled out because, according to Project Superintendent Mike Eckman, “disturbing the sub-grade, contractually, is a major no-no. The grapple is much faster and you don’t have to disturb the sub-grade. It’s a nice, smooth operation and eliminates the hook-up man — overall, a big saving.

“We’re moving 110 cubic yards of slabs per day,” Eckman explained.

Shoulder reconstruction entailed excavation, and installation of new drainage covered with aggregate and an overlay of 2 in. (5 cm) of binder and a 1.5-in. (3.8 cm) wearing course. The use of a wheeled excavator, rather than a tracked crane or excavator, allowed faster movement of the machine with no damage to the paved surfaces.

J. D. Eckman purchased the grapple from Bob Payne at Atlas Used Parts in Bear, DE, one of Bodine’s local dealers. Payne used the project to demonstrate his line of X-Ergon exothermic oxygen touches. Concrete manhole conduits had to be cut off as much as 18-in. (45.7 cm) below grade. The X-Ergon torch, just like the torches depicted in the movies as “cracking” safes, cut through the concrete as easily as through butter. Unfortunately, the labor cost to operate the torch below grade was more than that for saw-cutting, so Eckman stuck to the old tried-and-true concrete saws.

“Bob Payne was right-on when he recommended the Boding grapple,” said Mike Eckman, “so he must be right about the torch.”

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