Our Completed Projects
BNSF Diesel Shop
When digging is not an option. The sewer line under the service platform of BNSF’s Havre Diesel Shop had reached the end of the line. But this is a line that could not be dealt with in the conventional manner. Being 3 feet deep in solid concrete and under the stall of the service platform, excavation was out of the question. It was determined that pipe bursting was not a good fit for this project because of a connection at the midpoint, two 45 degree bend fittings in the line and the possibility that the line ran through the footings of the building. Lakeside came in and cleaned and inspected the line. We then subcontracted to Insituform to have them come in and apply the CIPP liner in the 6 inch line and reinstate the connection in the midpoint of the line. The challenges of this project was working with all parties involved to get a work window that would give enough room to get the liner in and cured. The liner was inspected after it was cured and found to be in specification. The line as been performing well since its rehab.
North Central Montana Regional Water System Service to North Havre
The North Central Montana Regional Water System is a water system that will transport potable water from Lake Elwell (Tiber Reservoir). The system will operate in 8 arid North Central Montana counties including Hill, Chouteau, Liberty, Cascade, Tool, Pondera and Glacier. Lakeside Excavation completed the Segment E6-A, which was the first competitive bid non-core line to be completed in the project. It was the first because North Havre Water District was under a boil order from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality due to water quality issues. The project was 120,000 liner feet of pipe installation including numerous river and road bores and was a challenge. Our biggest challenge was the existing tie in at the City of Havre Water Treatment Plant. Poor soils, high ground water and existing utilities were a few of the obstacles. Once out of the Milk River valley, high production rates were achieved. This project was started in the fall and work went through mid-January and was finished up in the spring. Because of this project the North Havre users have enough water for drinking and some even use the water for farm spraying operations.
Havre South Slope Flatting
The Corner on State Route 234, 4 miles south of Havre, Montana has a dubious distinction. It is one of the deadliest corners in all of Hill County. For years, many people lost their lives in the .9 mile long section. The Montana Department of Transportation identified it as a safety improvement project and in 2016 put it out to bid. This was Lakeside Excavation’s first time being a prime bidder on an MDT project. The project was straight forward, adding soil to make the slopes on the East and West sides not so steep. It required culverts being added as well as a new guard rail section and all other incidentals that come with highway work. The challenge with this project was the weather. By far one of the wettest springs and that made slope work very difficult to do. With the clay soil on site this made working through the weather almost impossible. This would be our first job with GPS in house and an automated dozing setup. It was very easy to see this setup is the most efficient and would be how we would perform dirt work from there on out.
Heritage Lift
Heritage Lift Malta, Montana, this is a small municipal lift station that was completely out of service. The City employees were pumping it with portable trash pumps multiple times a day. With winter fast approaching the City knew that this type of pumping would not work long term so the City reached out to us for a solution. We quickly mobilized with our electric submersible sewer bypass equipment and found that the power company was only supplying one phase of power. We expedited the new submersible pumps, slide rail bases, check valves and plug valves. Once all the equipment was received, we moved the bypass equipment out of the wet well so that we could set the new pumps in. We found that the base in the wet well was a steel plate. This changed how we drilled the bases, but things like this should be expected when working on infrastructure that is 60 years old. Once the bases were mounted and the new discharge piping was installed the system was started. The challenge of this project was the time constraints required for the equipment and making sure that what we got was correct and adequate for the project.
Correction Corporation of America
Crossroads Correctional Center Drain Improvement project. The pipe chases at the private prison in Shelby, Montana were regularly filling with water and creating problems for the facility. Lakeside Excavation was brought in during the design phase of the project to give recommendations on what we felt would be the best solution to not only the ground water in the pipe chases but also some sheet draining areas where the water was running into the building. The project was short listed to a few local contractors where Lakeside Excavation deemed the best value. Then a work plan was drawn up. This was not our typical job where we would have control of the job site. Our daily check in and out would take hours so work plans had to be right. We completed the install of two lift stations and 2300 linear feet of french drain 14 days ahead of schedule. Once the pumps were operational in the lift stations the ground water in the pipe chases begin to drop almost immediately. The drainage system on the South end produced up to three times the water that was anticipated. The challenge of this project was daily tool counts and getting materials, machines and workers in and out of the facility.
Antelope Court
Antelope Court is the second phase of a Human Resources Development Council District 4 low income housing on the South end of 5th Ave in Havre, Montana. This was a much-needed project in Havre, to build 24 units that fully meet the ADA Requirements. This was our 2nd project with HRDC in 4 years and the first with Fisher Construction out of Billings. This job went through many changes in an effort to get it built on budget. The biggest challenge was how much building was going on in a small space. There was no room for building materials let alone spoil piles, bedding materials and other items required to build out the project. Things were always being moved, added or deleted and circumstances changed on a daily basis. We handled all of the mass excavation which included over 12,000 CY of embankment on site. The water was looped threw an adjacent site. The water line was bored under the road to Buffalo Court, where the road could not be blocked due to the line’s depth and open cut was not an option for this install. The Civil Engineer did not have a lot of experience with boring 8” HDPE and it was good to share our knowledge to make this successfull. Lakeside installed the sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water systems, as well as the general excavation for all the buildings on site. Lakeside again proving to excel on a small site with a tight timeline.
North Fork Road Bridge
The Steel bridge on North Fork Road 4 miles West of Zurich Montana had out lasted its design life by 50 years. The bridge built in 1910 by O.E. Peppard with a span of 200 feet was at the end of its design life. It was only one lane wide and have had an capacity that limited most pickup trucks from crossing it. With the Heavy snow of the Winter 17/18 this project would not get started right away because of the flooding. The most challenging part of this project was working in a tight space and the ever changing schedule because of issues with driving sheet pile and piers. This was our first large Rip Rap job that came with its own unique set of challenges to get the material to the site and placed on the banks of the Milk River. It also would be our first time making a high PI Gravel. Using a screen clay from our Houtzel pit, we were able to make the product to MDT Specifications. Again, this was a job where our GPS abilities came to shine, machine control allowed us to pass the departments grade checks every time the first time.
Hill County RSID 21
Hill County RSID 21, was a package lift station that was installed in the 60’s on the eastside of Havre. In recent years it was having a great deal of pump failures due to power, control or clogged pumps that would in turn cause back ups into peoples’ homes. An engineer was hired and it was determined that the pumps would need to be replaced and the dry well design was no longer required because advancements in submersible pumps. The most important upgrades would be telemetry that would keep tabs on the pumps and what the level was in the wet well. The existing wet well was lined and retro fitted with two 5 horse power pumps. Then the control cabinet was set on top of the existing wet well. The biggest challenge of this job was the delivery of the cabinet. It was over 100 days late. This was overcome and all involved parties are happy with the outcome. There has not been one single back up since this system has been installed.
MSU-Northern Diesel Tech
Montana State University Northern is second in the nation for its Bachelor of Science – Diesel Technology program. This is amazing considering the classrooms that previously housed the program were undersized, out of date and terribly inefficient for the Northern Montana winters. The classroom complex dated back to the 1950s, and was a hodge podge of additions over the years that didn’t meet building codes. It was identified in the early 2000s that to take the program to the next level, a new complex would need to be constructed. This project finally began in the fall of 2016. It included raising 75% of the existing space which required asbestos abatement and complete removal of its foundation. Early in the design process, recycling was made a priority. The existing foundations and site concrete and asphalt were hauled off site and crushed to make the base for all of the parking areas and site concrete. This alone kept some 5000 ton of material out of landfills and went a long way in the recycling credit required in the Green Globes program, in which this project received a Two Globes Designation. To maintain its aggressive schedule, foundation concrete needed to be placed during an unusually windy winter. Keeping soils unfrozen and curing placed concrete was a challenge during the winter. To overcome the poor soils on site, the foundation included widespread footings and at minimum 2 feet of compacted structural base under the footings. The site of the DTC also had many challenges. For example, 30” reinforced concrete pipe needed to be rerouted around the new building and was over 17 feet in depth. During the site construction, it was found that some of the existing water mains were only 3 feet in depth and needed to be replaced due to age and grade changes related to the new building and site layout. The Diesel Technology Center at Montana State University-Northern is the largest single project on the campus. It will impact Auto Diesel Technology students for decades to come.
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