High Hazard Pond Dam Breaching Project

let's check out today's new project we're getting started on a pretty good-sized little project um this is actually a pond dam breaching job so pretty much i'll sum this up real quick there's the pond back at their pond dam this was a very old pond it was it busted i think during a hurricane and he hired somebody else to come back rebuild the pond dam long story short it didn't work out very well wasn't done right and the state kind of got involved and classified it as like a high hazard dam so if it does bust it's going to wash out the state road down here and i don't know regardless long story short i think it's a sore subject uh we're contracted to come in here and actually bust this dam and get rid of the pond so this is what i've got to do here is the pond dam this is the road we're sitting in right here what i've got to do i've got the brush cutter on the machine i've got to mow this entire area right here or work area we're going to this area right here is the where the pond dam's going to be breached 60 feet wide 15 feet deep uh take all that dirt out haul it over here stockpile area which will be in this field right here is where all the dirt is going to go so pretty much what i've got to do is build a construction entrance in from the main road up to here mow all this that's what i'm going to do today mow this so we can get silt fence uh out here just from the tree line up to the pond this will be the stockpile area where all the dirt will go and i'll walk up here it's so thick that um it's gonna be i'm not gonna walk out there but i can show you once i get it mowed kind of what's going on it's kind of some sketchy stuff at the other end of this pond but it's actually full the riser was broke off there's a 10 inch pipe in there and it was draining down but i think the beavers have got it plugged up it's a very old pond from what i've heard but i don't know what what the deal is and but they want it to go bye-bye now so i gotta mow all this down and put in a siphon start draining it down but once i get all this mode i can show you the other end down there and kind of explain what's going on a little bit better so let me get unloaded and go ahead and mull this little stuff down so we can see what i got to work with [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so so so so [Music] so so so [Music] [Music] so so [Music] so so so so so so i'm making my way down the pond dam about to where the overflow pipe is just trying to cut what i can with the skid steer it's a lot quicker and then come back go back and get the mini and be able to do the slopes down i've got a majority of it from the back but i'm going to kind of get everything i can with the uh skid steer like i said it cuts a lot faster and then just kind of come back with the mini and clean up the edges so i got everything mowed down pretty good with the uh skid steer there's a big yellow jacket's nest down there so i'm not going to walk down there but i got that field mowed down and got what i could up here dam's kind of narrow and sketchy that's one thing that i try to do when i build a pond is make sure that you can mow the backside of the pond dam you know get a good slope on it like that so you can go up and down it that's almost vertical right there and just no forethought and main maintenance after they built the pond and something's going on right there see how wet it is something's leaking but it's a shame it's pretty little pond it's probably four acres i would say but i'm gonna come back and get the go back and get the mini come down here and hit these edges get all this moat down it's just trying to reach over there with the skid steers just kind of sketchy i can sit right up here at the mini and reach down but that's where the pipe goes through i'll show you something down there i found on the way back but i'm going to show you the uh the sketchiest part of this i've seen some sketchy stuff but this is on the list right here so there's a eight or ten inch pvc pipe for the overflow right there it's clogged up but let me show you what they have over here as the emergency run around so instead of just doing a nice spillway or putting in an adequate overflow oh just wait i saw this the day they put it in or got finished with it i'm like oh my god so over here [Applause] they have i don't know how many pipes but here's one right here i think there's another one right here let's just walk down here and take a look at it instead of just a nice little spillway they put in pipes and they just like dump out like 12 or 15 feet off the ground i mean who thought that would be a good idea especially three of them i see the third one over there those are 42 inch pipes at least 36 it's hard to say from right here now who thought that would be a good idea for that to just gush out and blast a giant hole out behind the pond dam i don't know i've seen some screwed up stuff but that's that one tops it right there i'm walking down here to the where the overflow is our that was nice to hit with the mower i guess this is the valve i wonder if it's closed might be able to open that up huh i might have to come down here and dig around that bring the mini and dig around that i might be able to open that up and drain it was gonna put in a uh siphon i don't know if that's open or closed though huh curious now i'm gonna bring the mini i might bring the bucket and come down here and dig around that where i don't have a fitting to one of the t-handles for a valve but i can dig around that and put adjustable wrench on it just happen to see it's kind of wet back here and they took all the mess and just threw it back here in the woods i guess this was the old galvanized pipe that went through it just smashed it up and chunked it back here in the woods as you can see it was pretty well rusted out wet back here too i was afraid i was gonna get stuck back in here that wouldn't have been good all right well let me go get the mini come back and finish mowing the uh slopes there and see what i can do about this valve well i got my workout this morning i decided uh i just shovel around it luckily uh compaction was not on their priority list so i was able to easily dig around that i'm gonna put the pipe wrench on that and see if that'll open [Music] i think it is opened dog on it it was opened well that'll damper the situation thought i was gonna get lucky all right i got the mini with the wheat whacker so like i said before i use the skid steer to do the bulk of everything as you can tell it's pretty quick and efficient you just can't do slopes too good um going down to the pond and the back side of the dam when it was too steep to go up it so i can sit right up top and run down there and finish chopping that stuff down with this and um i'm gonna actually go ahead and put a siphon in and uh just let it do what it's gonna do [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] my [Applause] [Music] well that's as good as that's going to get i was just trying to knock every all the tall stuff down just so we could see the job a little bit better and get our erosion control in we gotta do silt fence all the way down and around and they heck they wanted out in the pond but the valve is open but the beavers have got the pipe clogged up um i was gonna mow a little bit more but i got a blade coming loose and i have tried tightening it up and then just i can't get the dog on the pipe wrench to stay on it and reach around here at the same time and try to tighten it there's a little access hole right here that you can put the socket through but uh i just can't keep it put and it's it's not too long from flying off so i don't want that flying off and possibly hitting me or going out and crossing through the road or whatever so just gonna call that good go ahead and put the siphon in and uh this job will be good to go for today all right so i got the siphon put in the heat index today is like 106. and it is hot do you have a breeze up here on top of the pond dam though i got soaking wet trying to put that thing together on that slope it's hard to walk up and down that so uh it'll probably be about a month before we get back here got to finish up another project uh with the 250 and the hall truck that pond that we started last year and uh gotta get it get silt fence all the way from the uh light pole all the way up that side and all the ray all the way down and around and everything so this four inch will keep up with uh what if it don't we don't get big rains like we did last night uh we'll keep up with the flow that comes in here and slowly start pulling it back down as you can tell by the trees the pond is higher than it normally is we did get a bunch of rain we'll get it down come back over here with a mini and try to dig around and find that drain valve pipe down there and uh get that unclogged so that that'll that's an eight inch pipe that'll just stay open and keep everything drained down and once all the erosion control is and put in place the breach will go about probably about right here i'm standing in about the center of it right here it'll be a 60 foot wide ditch at the top 20 foot at the bottom and it'll go right straight into the woods and uh we'll put rock in there and that'll be a pretty much the new creek channel into the old creek channel down there

Channel: letsdig18

Views: 313,873

Keywords: skid, steer, compact, track, loader, mini, excavator, hoe, digger, bagger, takeuchi, yanmar, mowing, brush, cutter, bush, hog, pond, dam, fail, overflow, failure, design, flaw, busting, breaching, heavy, construction, equipment, siphon, valve

Id: YCILkuFJNJM

Length: 35min 7sec (2107 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021