Brighton Lakes, a 900-home development in Kissimmee, FL, will keep Clint Yates’ Circle Y Inc. busy for about two years.

But Yates is working on another residential development — Boggy Creek in Osceola County — at the same time, and just finished work on a commercial center with 12 commercial sites. Circle Y also is keeping its hand in municipal work with some road work for Osceola County.

“We’re going to stay with residential work for a while,” Yates said, “but I want to keep in touch with the country work in case the economy slows down.”

The Brighton Lakes development, for which Circle Y has done site development and serves as general contractor, “is really impressive,” Yates said.

When completed the community will have an elementary school, a clubhouse with a gym and weight room, a pool and tennis courts.

“The entry wall is amazing,” Yates said of the 22-ft. (6.7 m) tall landscaped entryway, complete with planters. “That, alone cost $1.2 million.”

The developers are Brighton Homes out of Miami, Yates said.

The first phase, including about 180 homes, is expected to be occupied by October, he said.

“We’re working on the second phase now. That will be another 200 homes.”

This project is Circle Y’s “largest one ever,” Yates said. The company started out five years ago doing work in citrus groves and working dirt pits in some of the groves. For the Brighton project, about 750,000 cu. yds. (573,421 cu m) of earthwork was required for the first phase, Yates said.

Besides basic sitework, Yates is excavating more than 100 acres of lakes, has built “an old-time bridge with brick pavers and gaslights” between two lakes, is paving the roads, and is installing the development’s storm drain, water and sewage lines.

As part of the sewage work, Yates said, “We had to dig some really deep lift stations. We used the Kobelco 235-SG, one of two prototypes — the only two in the state,” he said.

He said the lift station required an excavation of about 45 ft. (13.7 m) in depth and required the crew to work in really tight quarters.

“This is a really impressive machine,” Yates said, perfect for working in narrow spaces because of its zero-tailswing feature.

Circle Y also has used four Kawasaki loaders, Kobelco excavators, Volvo A-25 and Terex 35 trucks for earthwork and excavation.

A John Deere rubber-tired backhoe also was used, along with a Sakai roller for trench compaction as storm drainage and utility lines were installed.

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