Pipeline Construction

H. L. CHAPMAN
PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION

This contractor is truly unique. According to most accounts, this is the largest trenching contractor in the world. There might be might be one other company in the world that claims to be in the same category. But that's about it. After all, who else has 26 chain trenchers? And who else is willing to take those trenchers anywhere in the country to tackle jobs that nobody else wants to tackle?

H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction, Inc. is a subcontractor that specializes in excavating rock for virtually any kind of utility or communication lines. The company currently has about 100 employees. And this past summer, it operated those 26 chain trenchers at job sites ranging from Tennessee to Texas to Colorado to Nevada. This is obviously a growing, successful company that has made its mark on the industry by doing what no one else can do.

Of course, it wasn't always that way. There was a time when the company was a struggling, one-man operation. The president and founder of the company, H. L. "Fritz" Chapman, Sr., will stress that fact right away when you talk with him about his background.

"We started this company on a shoestring," said Chapman during a recent interview. "It was just me, at first. That was back in 1973. There wasn't much money, either." Today, the firm's management includes his son, H. L. Chapman, Jr., as vice president, and his daughter, Donna Wimberley, as secretary/treasurer. "My son works in the field with me, and my daughter pretty well takes care of the office. We started out as a family company, and we've kept it that way."

Chapman said that he started off as a general contractor in the pipeline construction business. But in 1984, they decided to specialize in trenching operations for other general contractors. Like other successful entrepreneurs, Chapman had spotted an empty market niche and decided to fill it.

"We do all kinds of trenching," Chapman said. "We will work any kind of utilities, from water to sewer to gas to electrical. And we work any kind of communications lines, too such as telephone and fiberoptics. We specialize in rock trenching, but we're equipped to dig trenches in dirt, too."

The crews for H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction are abl e to use different digging attachments on the company's Trencor 1660HDs: either the wheel attachment (shown here) or the chain attachment (shown at left).

One reason that H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction has been able to grow over the years is Chapman's insistence that the company should be self-sufficient. "We have our own shop, for example," Chapman explained. "And we do almost everything ourselves. We do farm some stuff out. But we like to handle what we can inside."

The company has its own well-equipped and well-maintained machine shop, as well as its own welding shop. There is an extensive spare-parts inventory and a staff of trained service and maintenance specialists. The company also has several lube trucks and service trucks that are always available for servicing and maintaining the equipment on the job site. And then there are three large haul trucks and trailers especially designed and built for transporting the trenchers from one place to another.

The machine shop and welding facilities look like they could be used to build almost any kind of heavy-duty construction equipment and as a matter of fact, H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction has actually fabricated several of its own trenchers in years past.

"We built four of our own chain trenchers that grossed out at 250,000 lb. (113,000 kg) each," said Chapman. "Good stuff. We don't do them for resale just for our own use. Most of our trenching equipment has come from Trencor, over in Grapevine, Texas. We've bought a lot of equipment from them, mainly because I like the quality of their work and what they can do."

The company was working several fairly lengthy projects last July when Chapman was interviewed for this story. A quick look at those projects provides a good idea of the versatility of H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction, since the various jobs ranged from trenching for a couple of gas pipeline jobs in Colorado and Texas to a fiberoptic installation job in Alabama and Tennessee.

"We're just finishing up 116 miles (186 km) of 16-in. (40-cm) gas pipe in Colorado," said Chapman. "That's a job for Okemah Construction Company. There, the pipeline trenches averaged about 5 to 6 ft. (1.5 to 1.8 m) deep."

The Colorado pipeline involved about 75 miles (120 km) of dirt work, Chapman said. But the rest of it was rock. The equipment list on that particular project included three Trencor dirt trenchers, two rock trenchers, and two backhoes.

"It's pretty rough in that part of the country, especially the part with all the rock trenching. But we finished the job all 116 miles (186 km) of it in just about two months. We thought that was pretty good."

One of the other projects the company was working on back in July was a project that involved laying a fiberoptic cable from Nashville, Tennessee to Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was an unusual job for H. L. Chapman Pipeline Construction because the trencher crews just followed another contractor's crew that ripped and plowed the trench from a railroad car. "And what they can’t get that way, we get with our rock trencher. So we're moving around quite a bit on that job."

The company was also working on 235 miles (378 km) of 16-in. (40 cm) gas pipeline that started in Crane, Texas and ended in El Paso, Texas.

"On that job, we have two dirt trenchers and two rock trenchers working. It’s a joint venture between Okemah and Driver Pipeline. There's about 50 miles (80 km) of rock on that one, and we're trenching 5 to 6 ft. (1.5 to 1.8 m) deep. Total time? About 10 to 12 weeks."

Chapman said that sometimes they were getting as much as four miles per day on the Texas pipeline project, although there were other times when they could get only about two miles per day. He said they averaged between 12,000 to 15,000 ft. (3.6 to 4.6 km) per day.

"I'll tell you one thing," said Chapman. "There is no way that anybody could do that much trenching in that kind of soil with backhoes. It just has to be done with trenchers!"

Chapman and his crews have almost developed trenching into a science in the 25 years they have made it their specialty. They approach it like a product manager would approach component fabrication in a manufacturing facility: They emphasize simplicity, efficiency, and productivity.

"Basically, what we try to do is to start digging and then to keep digging until we get to the other end. We try to do it non-stop, if possible. We don't have to stop to do any blasting with dynamite or ripping with backhoes.

"We have all different sizes of machines," Chapman said. "The smallest one we have is a Trencor 1260HD trencher that goes about 100,000 lb. (4,500 kg). And the biggest ones we have go about 250,000 lb. (113,000 kg) and those include four Trencor 1660HD trenchers and several AT-7750s that we built ourselves. With that equipment, we're able to dig from 14 in. (0.36 m) wide to 60 in. (1.5 m) wide in a single pass. And we can dig down as deep as 30 ft. (9.1 m) if the job specifications say it’s necessary to do so."

Chapman said that one of the things the general contractor likes about his trenchers is the fact that as they are digging the trench, they are also helping the general contractor get ready for the backfill by producing good spoil.

"The trenchers make a spoil that is perfect for putting back into the trench after the pipe or cable has been placed," said Chapman. "If you were shooting the rock or ripping it up with a backhoe, you'd have these big chunks that have to be hauled off. But with our trenchers, spoil averages about 3 in. (7.6 cm) minus. Occasionally, you might get something a little bigger than that, but most of it is perfect for backfill purposes."

Chapman said that his total of 26 trenchers include four machines that he built himself. The rest were made by Trencor, including four 1660HDs, five 1460HDs, and five 1260HDs. He said that his company also has three of the special Roadminer attachments for the big Trencor 1660HDs, and that his company does a lot of high-volume excavating work with them, as well.

"I guess it seems like we’re a little bit partial to Trencor trenchers," said Chapman. "I use a lot of them because I think they are probably the best trenching machines on the market other than the ones we built ourselves, of course!"

Chapman said his company just bought four new Trencor trenchers earlier this year, some of which are currently working on a large project in Nevada.

 We're doing another interesting trenching job at one of the Sun City retirement communities that are being developed by the Del Webb Corporation in Las Vegas," said Chapman. "This new community is called Sun City Anthem and they plan to build about 9,000 homes on the 3,300 acres (1,335 hectares) they've platted. This is the third project like this that we’ve done for Del Webb Corporation."

According to Chapman, the area is extremely rocky. His company is cutting all of the utility trenches through the rock before any of the streets, houses, or other infrastructure go in. Immediately after cutting the trenches, Chapman's crew backfills the trenches with the spoil material that was just generated by the trenching.

"They don't lay any of the utilities while we're on the site trenching it," Chapman explained. "But after we leave, they can start working. First, they go in and lay the deepest utility, and then the next deepest, and so forth. That way, they don't hit any rock, and they are not forced to tunnel any utilities. Essentially, we've been able to turn a rock job into a dirt job for them and save them a lot of time and money."

Almost everyone will agree that turning a rock job into a dirt job takes innovative thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit along with hard-working trenching equipment. And H. L. Chapman is obviously very well-equipped in every one of these areas.