Ha ha, just a few questions? Look anyone viewing these photos if you have any questions in addition to Ekkas, that I'll answer in a sec, just post them.
Ok Ekka: 1st tree 24tonnes, second tree 35tonnes, why'd the beam fail? probably because we used it's life in the 1st lift inaddition to adding to the load in the 2nd by taking more soil.
Pipes were rammed in using the excavator and the "drive line" we had dug out..ie enough room for the pipe 6m + the excavator 18m. Some went in about 3m easy then needed to be hammered in using a rock breaker.
We used what we could get in Townsville (trust me we spent about 20hrs chasing what we wanted) settled on 100mm nominal bore 4.5mmwall 6.5m length galvanised finish...we needed around 30 pipes.
The root ball had been partially cut 6mths before , then final cut day before the lift..water blaster and vacuum truck, I manually cut the roots exposed with a saw.
No "tap root" but your question is very relevant...the reason for the change in depthof the 2nd tree relates to the physical nature of the soil and a stuff up on my part. Until you do the actual excavation you don't really know what you're going to find in the soil horizons...ie how deep the roots are in the soil profile...I made a mistake with the 1st tree we're near a river here and the soil is sandy alluvials, the roots are deper than I amticipated. the 1st tree when we undercut the root ball did have more vertical sinkers than I had thought..NO tap root, doesn't exist (I know you know this Ekka just being melodramatic!) Therefore the 2nd tree i went extra 150/200mm and we bent the beam.
Why the move (another good question) I provided the Arb impact Statement for the DA plans for the residential development going on in this area, and as part of that was required to assess trees inside the proposed construction envelope for their suitability for transplant..I assessed these two as being candidates for transplant, became part of the approval specs therefore we didi the transplant.
The trees are Albizia saman as tough if not tougher than Ficus you could literally cut all tha main scaffolds off these trees and cut the roots to within 2m of the stem they would still live (wouldn't be any good long term but they'd live)
__________________ Sean  Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran
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