Thu July 21, 2022 - Southeast Edition #15 Eric Olson - CEG CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Over its almost 70 years serving the two Carolinas, Charlotte, N.C.'s Hoopaugh Grading Co. (HGC) has developed an outstanding reputation among contractors and developers for its high level of expertise in performing pre-construction work on projects of all sizes.

HGC was founded in 1953 and has grown to become a trusted and reliable specialist in site development across North and South Carolina. Its attention to detail, coupled with unparalleled customer service, also has kept its loyal client base repeatedly coming back.

Word-of-mouth praise from happy clients also has brought more work its way, to the point that HGC is the company of choice in the region for site development.

That may have been what led the Silverman Group, a New Jersey commercial developer, to contract with HGC to ready 154 acres of a 200-acre site in the Rowan County, N.C., town of China Grove for the eventual construction of a 1.45 million sq. ft. Macy's fulfillment center.

The national retail chain, based in New York City, is expected to invest $584 million in the facility, located 35 mi. north of Charlotte off Interstate 85 at its intersection with N.C. Highway 152.

Macy's officials have said that when the facility is fully operational in 2024, 30 percent of the iconic retailer's online commerce will be shipped to and from China Grove. As many as 2,800 full-time employees are likely to be hired at the center, and Macy's expects to hire more seasonal workers around the holidays.

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the construction of the modern warehouse complex in late April, although HGC began clearing and grubbing the site in early January.

Stuart Hughes, the grading contractor's project manager at the Macy's site, said that HGC's work escalated from that point to now, despite having to work through a lot of wet dirt and a tight schedule.

In describing the task his company has taken on, Hughes said his crew had approximately 1.7 million sq. ft. of dirt that it moved to have its part of the project done by the end of May. Once that was done, the warehouse's general contractor could begin its work to stay on its own timetable.

"Overall, for us it will be a $27 million to $28 million project," he said. "We are responsible for all the clearing and grubbing, site demolition, erosion control, mass grading, fine grading, all the storm, sewer and water installation, retaining walls, concrete curbing and asphalt paving."

To execute the site prep lots of heavy equipment is needed, in addition to specialty tools to make the job easier. That includes excavators, dozers, off-road trucks, motor graders, pans and loaders. Lighter equipment on site at China Grove include GPS systems and drones, Hughes said.

"We are primarily handling the amount of dirt at the site with a combination of excavators and 14 off-road trucks right now," he said. "Five Cat 349 hydraulic excavators are moving most of the dirt; our off-roads are a mix of Volvo 45-ton and Cat 45-ton trucks."

He explained that HGC prefers to use 45-ton trucks over larger sizes because the company finds them easier to move around in the greater Charlotte area.

Likewise, Hughes said that HGC sees the Cat 349 excavator as hitting a "kind of the sweet spot for us in terms of size."

"The bigger machines have larger buckets, but they are nowhere near as quick," he added. "We feel like we get the best cycle times with the 349s. The bucket sizes on them, too, are what we prefer at 4.3 cu. yds."

HGC's dozers on the project include Cat D6Ts, three of which are used for mass placements and fills and equipped with GPS systems made by Trimble. There also is a Cat D6 XE with a Trimble GPS, plus three Cat 815 soil compactors and a Cat sheepsfoot vibratory roller.

"We have one K-Tec pan on site that we recently began using that can hold up to about 37 yards of material," he said. "It is a 45-ton Volvo truck that pulls the pan and loads itself, which eliminates the need for four machines — two 45-ton trucks, a dozer and a compactor. Compared to a truck hauling 21 yards per load, it is hauling 16 yards more, and the cycle time is about half as much. In all, it moves more than 5,000 yards per day."

He added that on HGC's best workdays, it is hauling approximately 30,000 yds. by using every piece of machinery on the Macy's site.

Drone and GPS technology also have played a part in keeping the company on schedule at the massive China Grove site, Hughes said.

"We use drones to fly the site every two weeks to get an update on where we are as far as how much dirt we have moved, what we have left to move and where our cuts and fills are," he said. "They help us balance the site, which is a benefit to our customer because it saves money in hauling dirt to and from the project. On this site, we ended up adjusting it 1.2 feet to help offset any hauling of the spoils in or out, which is a valuable choice for our client. Our rough grading is all done with a GPS handheld rover or the GPS on a dozer or motor grader."

When asked about meeting challenges to overcome at the site, such as negotiating through its rock and dirt, Hughes said rock has not been a problem.

The soil, however, has been a bit of a surprise.

"This dirt has been moisture sensitive, so after most every rainfall we have had to lime treat the soil to make it suitable to place and compact," he said. "We haven't hit any rock yet, just wet dirt. To battle that, we have mixing equipment and a spreader truck, a 45-ton Volvo that has had its dump bed removed and, in its place, put in a hopper to hold lime. A scale allows us to set the lime rate to evenly spread it where we need, then a mixer will come in and [blend] the lime into the dirt to extend the life of the soil."

To stay on schedule, HGC began constructing the fulfillment center's building pad in late February by moving 600,000 yds. of dirt just to get it on grade.

"We probably had about a million yards altogether by the time we put in our erosion control measures and ponds to get the pad on grade so the builders can do their job," said Hughes. "We stayed on schedule and were ready by the end of May, which meant that we moved all that material in about 120 days and had the pad turned over."

A total of 34 people is working on the Macy's project each day, he said, adding that much of the credit for keeping it a smooth-running operation goes to the site-development expertise of Steve Harper, the senior superintendent on site for HGC, and a pair of other supers in Taris Dial and Xan Cook.

"I cannot stress enough the great team we have here, all of whom are important to our success," Hughes said. "It is all due to having the whole team show up every day to go to work and do their part. Each one is critical to the operation. For instance, it your excavator operator fails to show up for work and you don't have anyone there to load the trucks, the whole set is shut down. If a truck driver doesn't show, that lowers your load count for the day, and without a dozer guy, we have one less person there to blade roads, push piles down and fine grade."

He also credits a well-designed project path and schedule for being able to do the job efficiently. An emphasis is placed on staff meetings at regular intervals to execute the work, always with an eye looking ahead to what is next.

"We have some of the best equipment in the business, thanks to Brian [McManus, owner and president of HGC] and the company's leadership group," Hughes said. "In the shop, there are professionals working to keep these machines going. We also have an in-house surveying department that I think is extremely important to our operation. They are the ones that handle all the drones and do all the topographic flights, do all our staking, layouts, and as-builts to make sure we are building the job correctly."

According to Hughes, HGC's rolling fleet is currently made up of more than 600 pieces of construction equipment. In addition, it has about 250 pickup trucks in operation.

A native of Albemarle, N.C., approximately 40 miles east of Charlotte, Hughes said he has always had an interest in working in the construction industry. During high school and later in college at UNC-Charlotte, where he graduated with a degree in construction management, he worked for two other contractors before joining HGC two years ago.

"By far, this is the best of the three companies I have worked for because [HGC] gives us every resource we need to succeed, whether it is the equipment, the support from upper management, or the resource groups," he said. "We have layers of expertise available to us to get the answers to anything we need to know while on a project. It doesn't matter if it is a $30 million project or one that costs a half-million dollars, we treat all projects the same. Each have HGC project teams specially designed for them to help finish that job. I think that separates us from our competition. We provide the best turnkey service for all our clients."

Hoopaugh Grading Company LLC (HGC) is a licensed general contractor specializing in turn-key site development in North and South Carolina. Established in 1953, the company now employs more than 675 office and field personnel with concentrations in erosion control, mass grading, fine grading, utilities, concrete and surveying, as well as operations and safety training.

HGC has been listed as Top Workplace by the Charlotte Observer from 2018-21, and a Best Places to Work by the Charlotte Business Journal in 2019 and 2021.

For more information, visit www.hoopaughgrading.com/. CEG

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