The BIGGEST Construction Project On the East Coast | Ames Construction

Aaron “I’ve never seen anything like this” witt

Very cool project. The addition of the 2 new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle outside of Waynesboro, in Burke County, Georgia is likely still the largest construction project in the US. At peak they had 10,000 employees on-site per day. Love your videos! Thx

Should have covered the Line 3 Pipeline project in Minnesota. Over 350 miles 36" pipeline installed in 10 months. 2.5 billion dollar project much of it built during winter of 2020/2021 with air temperatures of minus 30 to minus 40 below Fahrenheit. 14,000 people worked on this project.

My first job after I left college was running a CAT 769 Haul truck and loading it with a 988 in a large quarry. I was a 19 year old kid and my old boss hired me and said you ever run stuff like that? I said no sir , he said we'll go slow you'll figure it out just dont break anything. Things were different back then so off I went to load and haul ledge , it was cool for about a week and then it got old really fast. The heat and dust were awful no ac back in the 80s . Changed the oil and filters on the weekends and it didnt take long to get ripped forearms lugging 5 gallon buckets of new oil and pumping the manual grease gun to lube everything. Dumped into a huge cone crusher that took a 10 ft diameter boulder and turned it into rip rap to feed the secondary plant. It was a cool job and I had a great boss just an old school Marine no BS who treated everyone great. I laugh when everyone says it must be fun running that giant stuff but the reality is it gets old like any other repetitive job and if your not paying attention you become a fatalgram published by the Burea of mine safety.

As a former Landscape Architect working on large construction projects, the 'Grading Plan' was the most important document followed by the "Drainage Plan' and 'Utility Plan'. Grading Contractor is responsible to get the Site at right elevations and right slopes so that other construction can follow. Buildings come and go, but a site will usually not change much at all over time. Mistakes made here can be costly to correct or even impossible to correct. Site work will progress through rough grade, utilities, and finished grade at different times in different parts of the project. On site surveying is also very important to control accuracy. If contractor was off a few inches of elevation over a large area, that can result in many thousands of yards of soil to add or remove. Working beyond setbacks or property lines can result in expensive fines or possible litigation. Competent Grading Contractors will closely monitor compaction and moisture. If wet fill is used, it is next to impossible to compact. I'v seen jobs where wet fill had to be dug out and replaced with dry fill. Wet fill can be spread out to reduce moisture content. Fill that is too dry won't compact either. On really large sites, balanced cut and fill reduces costs. Making aggregate onsite is another money saving operation. In this video, Contractor has a variety of equipment. This allows some flexibility when dealing with a mega site. Equipment is used to move, push, haul, and scrape soil in most efficient manner. Dozers are not pushing soil very far, earth movers pushed by dozers are. Front end loaders are not moving soil far, rather track hoes and large dump vehicles are. Managing this is like directing an orchestra. Each piece of equipment doing it's job in the most efficient and safe way possible. And while all this is going on in front of our eyes, much more is unseen. Dust control, erosion control, noise control are important, especially if near residential areas. Smart contractors have their own public relations person. Great video - thank you for taking time to produce and share.

I used to haul for Ames when they were small, they had like 5 side dumps, used to sub there crushing, they were from MN. Did one of there 1st jobs in Utah. No one out west new them. Then they got Denver airport, then goldmines in NV. They hit every big job they could. They were a very aggressive company, ran hard and fast with excellent employees. I remember those old side dumps would actually slide around turns and almost tip over dumping, they went hard then welder would come in every night and fix them up.

I got much respect for this construction company for helping to get people trained and employed

Komatsu 1250 is such a good machine, the size, capability and reliability is top notch. It's like the corolla of the digging world.

This is actually my Job site! I am the lead inspector for soil testing during the night. It truly is a massive job!

The D10’s pushing the scraper’s 😮Epic

Though. Never mentioned, this is the Toyota Battery Plant in Randolph County NC.

Funny that you mentioned the amount of scrapers are here on the East Coast compared to the Western regions. I live in the Buffalo, NY area and I operated a 675 on a very large development. We had 7 of them, and as I thought about it, you may be right. It's a good thing I'd been trained and operated excavators, payloaders, ect. heck the whole nine yards, even an end dump as needed. I've had an enjoyable 30 yr. career with the Operating Engineers Local in our area. Excellent retirement bennies too.

Mechanics, Welders and Lubemen don't get enough credit , without their hard work, long hours and dedication these kind of jobs can't get done , especially on budget and on time .

Love seeing Eric's footage, spent some time working in the dirt world with him in the south east and thoroughly enjoy listening to his knowledge in the industry.

Not a current job. However do a search for the Diamond Valley Reservior project. It was completed in 2000. 60 Cat 777's. 25 Cat 785. 4 Cat 5230 face shovels. 10 Cat 992. 2 Cat 994. About 30 Cat 776 tractors pulling 75 foot Atlas bottom-dump trailers. Around 20 water trucks including 6 Cat 776's with 25,000 gallon Magnum tanks. There were more scrapers at the start of the job that I could count. Maybe 40 dozers from D8 to D10. Tracked Ingersol drill rigs. 16g to 20g graders. Check it out. It DWARFED this job! The contractor was Atkinson/Washington/Zachary (AWZ) and Morrison-Knuedsen.

Wow! Thanks for all the footage of such a cool operation! Those of us who had colonies of Tonka's when we were very young back in the early 70's, are frothing at the mouth. Hahaha 😁 👍👍🤣

Thanks so much for going above and beyond. And declaring it clearly and loudly.

Been moving dirt for 15 yrs now got my start on a Komatsu 350 digging underground utilities (storm drain, sewer) I would recommend this profession to anyone.. takes some time to learn different equipment but once you learn to respect it, it comes easy. Most companies I've work for pay great (based on exp) and it doesn't take a mind wizard, or a college degree (thank god for me 😁) to make a good living.. great video fella's

Worked for Ames on the salt lake airport north project. First time seeing a 870 Deere. Getting loaded with 35 ton on a super side in three scoops was wild.

Crazy how far we’ve come in the equipment world. As much as I hate how they rely on electronics, I love how GPS doesn’t even need poles anymore.