The construction industry in Flagler County, FL, has a real problem.
There’s just not enough available fill material for building pads.
But instead of waiting around for a permanent solution, one local contractor from Daytona Beach, Beckman Paving Inc., has taken to making its own.
Beckman Paving has a contract to do the land clearing and put in pads for a new 70-unit D.R. Horton housing development and also to process much of the material that is currently on site. The project will have 70 home sites when it is completed.
The problem with the site is two fold.
First of all, Flagler County lacks pits supplying fill material for the home pads. Secondly, the site where the development is going had been a dump site for material from a manmade lake and a couple of canals, so there were a couple of hundred thousand yards of excess material.
Rich Beckman, president of Beckman Paving, came up with a unique solution — reprocess the material so that some of it could be used for building pads at some of the company’s other projects.
Then, most of the rest of it could be sold instead of paying to have it hauled away and dumped.
The machines Beckman chose to process the material were a Screen USA Trom 615 and a Screen USA CD615. The Tom 614 is being used to provide two products — No. 1 fines and overs. The No. 1 fines are suitable for the housing pads so it is either stockpiled, spread out on the house sites or sold. The overs are being hauled off the site.
The CD615 is capable of producing three products: No. 1 fines, No. 2 general fill and wood debris. The No. 2 general fill has proven to be a popular product since it has sufficient organic matter to make a good planting base. Much of it will be going to the county school board for use around its schools. Florida Department of Transportation also is buying some for use along roadways.
The wood that comes out is being stockpiled for now to be ground up in a grinder and sold as wood chips. Because of the high speed of the CD615, the wood debris that comes out still has too much dirt in it to be ground up. Prior to being chipped, it will be screened one more time.
The cost savings to the contractor on this project is considerable. Instead of having to pay to haul and dispose the material, it is now a source of revenue. Also, there is no need to haul in expensive fill for the house pads.
The recycling operation, while proceeding smoothly, has not been without its challenges. The biggest problem has been the high moisture content of the material on site. Moisture is always a problem and takes some adjustments to the screening equipment. The two Screen USA machines have, after some adjustments, proven to be very productive. Production varies depending on the material and the machine, but generally is running in excess of 300 yds. per hour.
The Trom 615 is being fed by a loader, which also is used to load the fines into dump trucks or stock pile the overs.
The CD615, because of its track system, is able to move on its own so it is being fed by a Volvo EC240B LC excavator. The operator of the excavator has remote control of the CD615 so he is able to move it along from his seat in the cab as the excavator moves.
Beckman said they moved onto the site in early November for the clearing work. On Dec. 28, they started the screening operation and are scheduled to complete it by the end of March. He is estimating that approximately 170,000 cu. yds. (130,000 cu m) of material will be hauled off site, much of it as a sellable product. Thirteen dump trucks are being used to either haul the fines around the site or haul the rest of the material off site and the screen machines are more than able to keep up with them. CEG Staff
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