Large tree transplants

Sean Freeman

Well here is the first six photos of a great many taken of the transplants we did nearly three weeks back. Prep time before the excavations 6mths (should have been 12mths but developers are annoying things and if you let them get to you well....

So we go from the excavation at the planting site to opening up the front of the root ball.

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l2edneck

Upload, then right click on the link,go to properties at the bottom and copy the url.

Then go to reply menu and click "insert image" the square next to the quote button.Then add the url.



Great Job BTW !!!

Eric Frei

Yeah, where's the rest of the pics, like how you got the beams under it.

Good job.

Nice looking soil too.

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Sean Freeman

Beams were driven under using 20T excavator





My big mistake not wrapping the root ball immediately it was exposed..stupid





Beams under ready for the lift.....

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Sean Freeman

Day of the first lift...




Its important that we all know whos in charge..thats me sitting down against the fencing trying to look interested



Now thats a D shackle!





Lets put some of that crane power to work....

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a_lopa

Cool!

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Sean Freeman

Lets get her out and over!








Now thats a relief back on the ground.

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Sean Freeman

Just to show that sometimes things don't always go the way you planned....2nd tree, took an extra 150/200mm of root ball depth since felt the 1st tree was not adequate in root mass.

Oh yeah this guy cleaned out under the pipes so we could put the beams in...some guys have the best jobs!


More soil = more weight

Just enough soil to bend the I beam!!

Doesn't matter how many people look at it its bent

So we'll lift with two beams at each end then

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Eric Frei

How many ton were the lifts and how many ton was the crane.

Also the pipes that were rammed in ... how?

What sort of pipes were they?

How was the vertical circle around the tree cut?

When the pipes are inserted underneath and the tree lifted were there any roots (like a tap root) preventing the lift?

And finally, what sort of tree is it and why the move?

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Sean Freeman

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)

Eric Frei

What do you think of this idea.

Cut the roots a season prior about 300mm shorter than finish cut circumference. This gives a season in same soil profile for new roots and finer roots to grow. Then the recut is only taking the newer smaller roots with an established framework of roots behind them?

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Sean Freeman

Sorry Ekka meant to attach this we cut the roots like this 6mths before would have liked at least 12mths but you know what its like with developers
so partially cut the roots back filled with sand and compost mix into the trenches.


but yes can't see why your suggested method wouldn't work just as well.

Sean Freeman

Out takes what we should probably keep quite about!!

Crap that aint supposed to happen...maybe we should have tightly wrapped the root ball first!!


Somehow those don't look right, get away from there Tim you're only attracting attention!


Crickey they're all over the place! Hope they pull back into place when we lift.


That chain needs to be moved golly those chains look heavy eh?


just when you think everything is going so well the damn tree don't fit the f@#$%^g hole!!!


Will keep you all informed how these little babies go over the next 12mths..

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TrevMcRev

Awesome job Boa. Well Done.

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Sean Freeman

Thanks Trev.

Sean Freeman

Here's the undercutting of the root ball a drama filled activity as well!

Get one monster recovery vehicle..yeah Tim your hair's fine!


Take cable around the tree...note Tim working hard in background!


Connect to all 3 winches


Crickey that looks complex


Pull that sucker through


Just to give some idea of the forces envovled the recover vehicle is 20T the excavator 20T also note the bucket being driven into the ground!! We had the front of the truck up 1m in the air before the cable cut through...trees are awesome.

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Eric Frei

Bugger me, just imagine if that cable snapped.

Is there any other way?

They cut that sunken Russian Nuclear submarine in half using cable impregnated with ??? running it back and forth thru winches.

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Sean Freeman

Yeah, getting the cable to slice like a saw is the key, but as you can sort of see we couldn't create the space to have two machines, there are other ways simple common sense pilot bore hole under roots middle of tree pass cable through that and cut one half, less resistance then pass through again cut the other half, but we were impacted by time machine hire etc.. Lets not even think about that cable breaking ok...

Sean Freeman

Shots of the 2nd root ball being undercut note whs protection shelter being used by Steve! Yes that is on telephoto... Also no prizes but anyone hazard a quess at what the chains are for? (Hazard is a clue). Two trucks each 20T, 20T excavator with bucket down and the resistance still enough to move the whole lot into a straight line....tree roots are strong

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Eric Frei

Chains are for slowing down snapped cable whip.

OK, so what do I win?

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Sean Freeman

HA HA, you're right of course But I said there was no prize sorry but you have the satisfaction of knowing you're right The funniest thing was we closed down the area 200m up and down from the tree (public park area where the trees are) had Tim and another fella up the truck end, so when the towing guys decided to put the chains on I've called up to Tim that chances are the thimble might pull out, he's just smiled like yeah right whatever, then when he saw the chains put on But alls well we won't use that system again but rather have alternatives organised in advance.

TREE-SURFER

That was a truly awsome job Boa. What was the price range for that sort of operation. If you don't mind me asking.

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JayD

Great work, Boa,in your last picture that I beam looked like it only just handled the weight of the tree,there should be structual steel fail graphs available for referance for your lifts just like the formula to work out how heavy a trunk is..it may help up the road.
Good Stuff very interesting.
JayD

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osb_mail

What is the time that these big moves take like total man including first root pruning ?How many tree moves have you done like this ? Do you think that this method is profitably or is it only used on very valuable tree ?I think it would be hard for a person to make money moving trees like this it looks like a whole lot of money wrapped up in one tree ? what has your success rate been moving tree like this ?Also this is my first post in tree world have read a lot and really enjoying everyones post and threads . I have seen a lot of the same names as on another site and tree world seems to have a little less chainsaw talk so it might be a little more suited for me thanks .

Eric Frei

Sorry to butt in Boa but I know a little, I'm sure you'll correct me where it's different in this case.

I know of a large ficus tree that was moved on the Gold Coast.

Estimated cost of that one was around the $1/4million mark. They had to retain the tree healthy as part of the agreement to subdivide water front land. The tree was on the prime spot facing the water.

They moved the tree to a back block that was also going to be a small park, the value of the block gained was around $2million so worth it.

Also, council doesn't care for the cost much, it's part of the deal so what the developer does is absorb that cost over the entire project, everyone might pay $5k more for a block that's all etc. It's just part of doing business.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that move of two trees was perhaps in the $120k region. There's many contingencies written into the agreement, it's very hard to price these things and I dare say the developer takes on the direct costs for hardware, cranes, damages etc and the arborists take on more of a consultants and supervisors role for which they get paid plus preparation and continuing care.

In some of these cases the trees have large bonds put on them, so if they die within a certain period of time the developer gets stung for that to. It's in the developers interest not to scab out and get cheap quotes but get the right people and right result at whatever the cost.

You will see more of this, it is the future direction of planned development. The trees are generally moved close by to a more suitable location. Of course the species matters, try that with a 130' gum tree and you will be in trouble. But in this instance the arborists identified trees which could be moved, creates a lot more flexibility to the architects for planning.

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Eric Frei

Good on ya OSB.

No point being shy, we're all about trees here. Chainsaws, well they're just another tool to get the job done. Some people really love them though, polish them up, race them, heck ... might even sleep with them

As arborists and tree people our jobs blend across a few disciplines. You have builders/developers doing stuff, you got bugs and fungi doing stuff and then you got us doing stuff ... and hopefully we bring that all together here.

Your always learning, and there's lots of good people sharing their knowledge for us to benefit, I bet you know a few things you could share too.

Good to see you here, have fun.

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Sean Freeman

Ekka's spot on (from my experience) with the relationship of council and developers and trees that have been deemed valuable therefore must be preserved. Unfortunately the quess was not spot on (I wish) now you have to remember that this is the first time this method of transplant has been done outside of Brisbane metropolitan area, so everyone was a bit gun shy plus the developer Honeycombes had no experience in contracting tree transplants. I'm not going to give you the exact price mainly because I work for someone else and that's Steve's business but he and I wish we'd put $120K on it. We didn't loose money on the job.

That also answers the question as to whether this is a good money earner, no its not, unless your business is set up to undertake large transplants. the steel work, manufacturing costs, plant equipment hire costs alone crucify you. If anything goes pear shaped you can have a $400/hr machine sitting there waiting for half a day, and if you aren't mates with the company and get instant standby rates you are royally screwed. try adjusting the price halfway through the job when its taken months to negotiate the contract... good luck.
However if you can afford to buy the steel, and the other materials burlap(hessian) straps, slings and have friends that are boiler makers and good relations with large plant machinery companies then yes you could make good money from moving big trees, no doubt about it and I know people that do alright from the transplants they do......but bear in mind they can never recover the 100s of hrs of phone calls paperwork prep negotiations and running back and forwards envolved in getting the jobs done let alone the hours of worry about everything possible that can go wrong, nor the hours of post transplant care that you put in above the contracted hours because you actually care about the trees. If you put those costs in the quote...well you'd never get any jobs!!

Neither tree transplant would have been possible without reaaly great help support advice and encouragement from Adam Tom, and Daniel Oaten both in Brisbane.

Number of trees moved (including trees moved before working with Steve)...4, success rate 100%, please realise in the past I was envovled at the ground level, shovelling and getting dirty like the poor guy cleaning out under the pipes for us, over time I have gradually become more responsible for how things progress, these are the first trees that with Steve I have been responsible for what happens.
Total hours including 1st root prune crickey thats a hard one but my estimate up to today, I fed the soil (not the tree!) today 106hrs, three of us in the company estimate 300hrs roughly

JayD, I'd like to chase up those charts because the next tree will be more like 45/50T and I don't want to bend another beam!.

TREE-SURFER

Jeez, that could get a bit saw.

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Tim Craig

Very impressive operation, must have been a lot of pre-job preparation.

Well done.

Were the clients happy?

osb_mail

for the answers .The place I work has 2 large tree spade . I would have to say they have a success rate of 80% to 85% but they are moving up to 20 trees a day .The trees are not as big as this one .Think that the success rate would be better but sometimes they try moving too big of trees with these things.