TerraTec's
January 2010  EquipmentWorld.com 18 ONE-PASS GRAVEL How one contractor converted a simple idea into an attachment that creates stakeless road beds M yron Mullett's gut told him there had to be an easier way. As owner of Mullett Excavating, Westcliffe, Colorado, he had received a multiyear military contract to lay gravel on 90 miles of road in nearby Fort Carson. The wide, 32-foot road, designed in part to handle tanks, required 4 inches of gravel on each side and a 2-percent crown. Mullett fi gured the tight-tolerance job would call for driving three rows of grade stakes  one on each side and one in the center. He wasn't in the mood to drive all those stakes. So he began to wonder: Would a box blade attached to the front of a dozer blade eliminate the need for stakes? Well, no, everyone told him when he started asking around. He'd never be able to keep the gravel from going under the sides and throwing off the grade. But Mullett still thought the idea had merit, so he tinkered with a snow plow blade, putting adjustable skids on each end, and then attach-ing it to an old dozer. He also put a plow device on each side of the blade that directed the gravel un-derneath the blade and away from the skids. Using the down force of the dozer, the skids rode on the subgrade, keeping the attachment at grade, allowing the blade edge to screed the gravel to grade as it passed underneath. The make-shift set up worked, laying gravel at the required toler-ances and maintaining grade, all INNOVATIONS 2010 by Marcia Gruver In the full 24-foot position, the AggreScreed can look a bit oversized. One contrac-tor told me it looks like a little kid trying on his fa-ther's shoes, says Mullett. 2010 Innovations.indd 18 12/18/09 3:09 PM