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To: Board of Selectmen
From: John Simko, Town Manager
CC: Mike Thornton, Public Works Foreman
Mike Drinkwater, Public Works
Carl Henderson, Public Works
Date: 11/7/2000
Re: Ditch work in 2000 Season
As you know, the Town of Greenville Public Works Department made use of a rented John Deere 80 excavator from METCO for the months of July and August, 2000. This rental was funded by the FEMA project monies received by the Town. Numerous projects have been completed with this piece of equipment, far surpassing the work done in a single season in years previous. This has proven a very successful project: the following represents a list of the roads worked on this summer with this machine, the number of culverts installed, and the total footage of ditch established with the excavator.
| Road Name |
Culverts |
Distance Ditched |
| Rum Ridge Road |
1 cross culvert |
3,036' |
| Walden Farm Road |
2 cross culverts
1 culvert re-set |
1,070' |
| CC Road |
1 driveway culvert
1 cross culvert |
1,280' |
| Higgins Road |
3 cross culverts |
2,138' |
| Brook Street |
1 cross culvert
1 catch basin |
222' |
| Dump Road |
1 culvert re-set |
5,544' |
| Cemetery |
1 cross culvert
| Belmont Road |
3 cross culverts |
1,136' |
| Shoals Road |
no new culverts
installed rip-rap |
265' | |
| Road Name |
Culverts |
Distance Ditched |
| Sunset Drive |
pulled rock from middle of road | |
| Wiggins Street |
1 driveway culvert |
744' |
| Dorr Street |
1 driveway culvert |
151' |
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TOTALS |
3 driveway culverts
11 cross culverts
11 cross culverts
1 catch basins
2 re-set culverts
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15,586' ditched
(2.95 miles) |
In addition to this information, please know that the machine was operated 265.1 hours (there was five hours on it when it arrived; 270.1 hours when it left). At an average rate of $55/hour for a rented excavator, this same amount of work would have cost the Town of Greenville $14,580.50 to complete with hired equipment. This equals an estimated savings of $9,980.50 over the cost of hiring contractors. Even factoring in for the efficiency of a hired operator with the machine, this savings is staggering.
We had the machine for 40 working days, of which I estimate 3 were lost to vacations and other duties. At 37 working days, the average number of feet covered per day equals 421'.
Next year, we will complete FEMA ditch work on Woodland Drive, Washington Street, Village Street, and Shoals Road. The majority of the work we needed to complete has been done. We have gotten a lot of work done with the excavator which was not planned by FEMA. This has given us a significant savings in our Summer Roads Account. I recommend we rent this machine again next summer to complete more work. Even after the FEMA funds are gone, I believe it would be cost-effective to rent one each summer season.
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