The complicated project found Langman operators working in large tunnels "where we had to put little backhoes in the pipe and dig," said Langman. "We took out the rail line, graded out the new railroad beds, put in the ballast, graded for the new roadway that went in where the old rails were, and finally poured the concrete."
As subcontractors, the railroads installed their own rail. "We had to make sure that the rail access was available throughout the project," noted Langman. "We had to coordinate construction so that the tie-ins would be made at appropriate times that would not hurt the businesses using the rail services.
"That was probably the main challenge - scheduling," Langman continued. "And the timing was very critical. There was a large incentive bonus that we divided among all the players."
Langman Construction crews completed a yearand- a-half-long, $5 million sewer improvement job for the city of Marshalltown, Iowa, last summer. "There was a lot of directional boring," said Langman. "We had a lot of dewatering and some deeper cuts."
The company recently completed the dirt work and installed the sewer and water utilities for a new housing development in Iowa City.
Working from both banks
Another challenging $1 million project involved building coffer dams and levies near Toolesboro, Iowa, for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Intake and outtake structures along the Mississippi River had been destroyed by flooding, so Langman Construction was hired to excavate new coffer dams and levies.
RMS Territory Manager Gary Kosman (left) with Charles Langman.
"That was interesting, because we were out in the middle of the Mississippi River building two different structures with two different depths of water for fish and fowl," commented Langman. "Roads led into the area, so crews started at two different parts of the bank and just dumped dirt until we joined. We had water on both sides of the coffer dam. We put wells every 50 feet and pumped out on the land side over into the river, ran our wells and kept our work area dry.
"We built the structure, and when it was built, we put a levy across to control the amount of water that came," continued Langman. "You let it come in at the upstream end, and then when the river drops, you shut it off, so you can control the flow into the wildlife area."
A current project reclaiming a limestone mine near Knoxville for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is the "fourth or fifth mine reclamation we've done in the last couple of years," said Langman.
Heavy-duty equipment required
When Langman Construction began doing mine reclamation, Chuck Langman turned to heavy-duty Komatsu dozers from Road Machinery and Supplies Company to handle the heavy lifting and hauling. RMS Territory Manager Gary Kosman, who works out of the company's Milan, Illinois branch, services the Langman account.
Because he was unsure of the market, Langman decided to rent two Komatsu crawler dozers, a D65 and a D155, from RMS for the first mine job. "We had some Komatsu excavators that we used in our sewer work," noted Langman. "We've had Komatsu excavators virtually from the beginning of our company, so Komatsu is not new to us."
The two dozers Langman rented "were very well received," he stated. "So when it came time to purchase, we bought Komatsu. We're very comfortable with the equipment. The pricing was competitive. We bought three tractors mainly to help us start into the dirt work, which we've been doing more and more of lately." Langman Construction's fleet includes three Komatsu excavators - two PC400s and a PC250 - and four Komatsu crawler dozers - a D155, a D65, a D41 and a D61.
The Komatsu D155 crawler dozer is Langman's largest tractor. "It's the one that the fellows feel