SAFR: TIFFIN

No sooner had TRL completed the Puuloa project on Oahu, the company packed up the heavily modified TW10HM for another challenge. An 8,000-10,000CY shotgun range closeout in Tiffen, Iowa. Awaiting TRL was a 500 year flood event, and insufferable delays in the job due to weather, parts, and contract--these flat landers really need to see a fall rainstorm in the high country in Alaska.

What TRL did not know, was that Iowa had been in a recession since 2006 which affected parts availability and other services. In the middle of farm country the last thing one would believe would be in short supply was pillow-block bearings.

Rain turned sand to muck. Then would come the heat. TRL worked in weather ranging from 110°F to 5°F. The TW10HM grew to include an 18ft variable speed feed conveyor and one 45Ft and one 50FT tails conveyors.

Tiffin was a closeout monitored by the State of Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources. Clean up goals were <=400ppm.

The recovered shot was #6-#9. The mineral jigs performed very well.

The soil was largely a sandly loam, but approximately 75% of the first 5,000CY processed was heavy clay bound by a heavy root system consisting of roots up to 6in in diameter impossible to separate. The contract had called for all clays to be separately stacked and the excavation not to start until TRL's personnel arrived on-site. TRL arrived in Iowa in early May and found the first stage stacked, clays and sand inseparable. The nightmare had begun.

This job was important to TRL because the USAF had several large shotgun range remediation projects in the offing for the next several years. The Tiffin job was of sufficient magnitude to quality TRL for those jobs.

The most diffult problem was in screening, given the nature of the clay and the root system. However, we did what we came to do, no matter the weather. Can't never did anything, and you don't know until you try.