  Operator Tim Brandt uses Valley
Construction’s Komatsu PC400LC-6
excavator to install 4,500 feet of
sanitary sewer lines at the Rapids
City housing development. |
Key personnel
Key to getting jobs like these done successfully is having the right people to manage the work, Hass noted. One of the people he counts on is Don Kopf, underground division manager and longtime Valley Construction employee.
“Because of our underground crews, we’re pretty much the premier underground contractor in the area,” said Hass. “We do about 60 percent of the underground water and sewer work in the area. We also do emergency repair work for different cities and for the Rock Island Arsenal. We’re basically on call 24 hours a day, year around.”
The right equipment
Having the right equipment to do the work is also vital, said Hass, and they have looked to Road Machinery & Supplies in Milan, Ill., and sales representative Gary Kosman for much of their heavy equipment in recent years. They buy both new and used machines, but for high-production pieces, they generally buy new, Hass said.
 Valley Construction
also put its Komatsu
PC200LC-7 excavator
to work at the
Rapids City sewer
line project.
|
 A Valley Construction
operator uses a
Komatsu PC200LC-6
excavator on a
residential utilities job.
|
“When we’re buying a new piece of heavy equipment, we try to get a consensus from the people in the field and from supervisors,” he noted. “We demo the machines and add in the price factor.”
An accomplished operator himself, Hass jumps at the opportunity to demo machines. A few years ago he even won a machine “rodeo” at Komatsu Field Days in Chattanooga. The timed competition involved performing specific tasks with a loader backhoe, excavator and a wheel loader.
“But beyond machine performance, one of the main points we look at when purchasing is aftersales support — someone who will stand by the machine who can actually fix it or work on it after you buy it. RMS has been great in that respect.”
Continued . . .