Sacramento area :

I’ll fly out from Boston tomorrow, Tom. Could be some large coppers within range after a 6” scraping.

Tom will probably nab a few Reales from that field.

Hour and a half from me. Looks like it’s out by Woodland / Winters / Davis area.

“In 1893, Yolo County's second high school was established in the town of Esparto, Esparto High School, but a building for it was not built until 1918.” Definitely some age in that area.

Very cool tip Tom, thanks for posting. Suppose school will be out and maybe worth a day off *cough* *cough* though probably best after 5 and / or Sunday.

If .. I remember will check it out .. not to far

And the rules are quite simple: Send me 30% of all your finds ! haha

Just saw this. Are they scraping it down about six inches, or down to six inches (above what?)? I'm down for a road trip!

Count me in for this one!

Diggum said:

Just saw this. Are they scraping it down about six inches, or down to six inches (above what?)? .

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The bid spec's just said 6" scrape. So I would assume that means: 6" below whatever-the-surface-level it is now.

That's the amazing thing about having the subscription to the builders exchange is that : If a person cares to study deeply enough (and is skilled at reading blueprints, understanding engineering/const. lingo, etc....) , they can assess exactly what is going to occur. Even down to the wattage of light-bulbs required, the exact type of wood or asphalt spec's, blah blah blah .

It's almost silly in a way. No wonder Uncle Sam spends $500 for a coffee pot, or $1000 for a toilet seat. Because they have 100 page contracts for any such procurement, to interested bidders to wade through.

But I suppose it makes all bidders to be "on the same playing field" bidding on the "same quality product intended". Ie.: So that some other low-bidder can't "cut corners" and then call it "good enough". Therefore the silliest of details has to be spelled out, in giant const. projects.

As such, the "6 inches" part caught my eye in this one. Then it's merely a matter of studying the old topos and maps to determine if it's in an old part of a town, etc...

My inbox is flooded with projects from all over the state, each day. 99% of which are meaningless for our purposes. But occasionally something involving an old town park demo, or building teardown, or sidewalk removal project catches my eye. It's all I can do to rush down a set of key-words each day. No doubt I'm missing stuff that could be of interest. But .... only have time to scan the daily titles for something that jumps out at me.

I would advise any other old-town demolition md'rs to get a subscription. A one-time downpayment, and then an annual of something like $350 p/yr.

jl1252 said:

Count me in for this one!

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Then at this point, here's the next steps: The bid date only tells you the deadline for bidders. But an exact ground-breaking days, beyond that, is harder to pin down. Because there will usually be a 30-day time frame in which the awarding entity "announces" the winning bidder (d/t they have to have time to check your qualifications, wait for any objections , blah blah). And then after that 30 days, ANOTHER 30 days "notice to proceed". That gives the winning bidder time to assemble his crews, buy supplies, etc...

Hence the *actual* start of a project can be like 60 days following the bid date. AND EVEN THEN might only be ancillary starting stuff, like measuring lines, working on fences and removing tree-stumps, blah blah. The key point for md'rs (in a case like this bid), is : "When is the actual night in which tractors are peeling off 6" of turf"?

And the builders exchange is not in charge of nuance scheduling issues like that. That's typically left up to the contractor, to set his own pace. At most he'll have a time-line of various benchmarks of progress. But within that larger framework, the actual individual steps is within his own latitude of speed.

So if someone is hard-core to find out (and isn't close enough to merely keep an eye on it), then here's some steps I usually take at this point:

a) Google it. It could be something that the city's own website (or school, etc...) has a calendar for.

b) Or find out the winning bidder's name. Then ~60 days after the bid, reach out to them (phone or email) asking when this step is starting . Of course you don't say "md'ing". Instead, it's because your 7 yr. old nephew's birthday is coming up. He's a big fan of tractors. And you promised him that for his birthday you'd show him real tractors in action.

c) You're a concerned nearby resident, and you're wanting to take some before and after pix of the progress, for your neighborhood FB page.

d) Or show up, even before this phase has started. Chat with on-site workers, and ask when the phase is slated to start.


Many many ways to pin down a start window, without having to go nightly to look.

Oh, and a final note: For scrapes such as this: Don't be fooled by the "grubbing" stage. This is where they scrape *only* just down to the roots level (an inch or whatever). This isn't even deep enough to rid zinc, of course. They will often "grub" first, in order to separate spoils piles. Because off-haul dirt that contains vegetation might be one disposal rate cost, whereas clean dirt (no vegetation) can be dumped for free (if you have someone needing fill-dirt).

So you could find yourself getting fooled if you showed up after a mere grubbing. It would *look* ssseeooo good. But a close look at surrounding sidewalk levels, and around un-disturbed fixtures (light poles, etc...) might show that they haven't gone deep at all.

Good luck !

Great posts, Tom, and thanks for the info!