Clearing the Way for a Monumental Toyota Plant
When W.T. Byler Construction L.P. was hired to clear and process 750 acres of timber at the site of a new Toyota plant in Texas in just two months, Project Manager Jimmy Price knew the job called for the best and most efficient debris-grinding equipment he could find.
“Our biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to get all of this wood chipped in time,” Price says. “The grinder on site wasn’t getting the job done, and we had to make a decision.”
Teams of salespeople came, one after another, to give Price their pitch and demo their grinders. Most said it couldn’t be done in two months, that it would take five or six 1000 hp grinders four months to get the job done. “I listened to about every sales pitch there was,” he says.
Toyota Builds Tundra Truck Plant
Toyota is building a new $800 million plant on a 2000-acre site in South San Antonio to manufacture about 150,000 full-size Tundra trucks annually, starting in 2006. The new Tundra plant will give Toyota the capacity to build 1.66 million cars and trucks annually in North America.
Texas offered Toyota a $133-million incentive package, including $15 million to build a rail spur and $27.2 million in job training and recruiting. San Antonio offered $24 million for site purchase and preparation. But Toyota chose San Antonio for the most practical of reasons: about 15 percent of pickup trucks sold in the Unites States annually are sold in Texas.
At peak construction, there will be 2100 workers on site. The new plant is expected to bring about 2,000 jobs to Texas, a number that’s expected to rise to 7000 within a decade, and indirectly create jobs for many more — in addition to otherwise positively impacting the San Antonio and Texas economies.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. (TMMNA) awarded the massive site-clearing contract to W.T. Byler Construction L.P. of Houston in December 2003.
“W.T. Byler has been an industry leader for 30 years, and we’re very pleased to work with them on this project,” says Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of TMMNA.
Organized in 1973, W.T. Byler employs nearly 500 people and exceeds $75 million in annual revenues. It has completed significant projects for companies including Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Texas Department of Transportation, and Wal-Mart Distribution Centers.
Toyota challenged W.T. Byler’s San Antonio office, which opened in 1996, to clear and process all debris from the plant site in just two months. The crew started work on January 5 and was required to have all of the trees down by March 1, with all of the lumber processed by March 15. Mulch from the trees will be recycled or reused.
Environmental Concerns
It’s no secret that Toyota, the first automobile manufacturer to create and sell a hybrid car, adheres to high environmental standards. The company’s construction-related standards are no different. “They’re really strict about all of the environmental aspects of the job,” Price says.
Part of Toyota’s contract required W.T. Byler to implement several erosion-control measures into the land clearing and mulching processes. As a result, Price says they built a complex structure around the site to filter out all wood chips, rocks and silt, to keep them from entering a nearby river and creek.
Another daunting challenge Price and his team faced was the possibility that a flock of migrating birds could visit the area at any moment and stop production altogether. “We were racing against the birds as much as we were racing against the clock,” he says.
Selecting Processing Equipment for the Job
W.T. Byler specializes in grading, excavation, soil stabilization, paving and railroad construction. The company typically subcontracts land-clearing work, Price says, “but this time the job was so big, we decided to take it on ourselves.”
Handling Toyota’s land-clearing job firsthand meant the W.T Byler crew needed to rent equipment for the job that the company doesn’t typically use — including timber processing equipment.
Price says finally, after visiting with countless sales representatives, a Vermeer factory representative visited the site and brought along a Vermeer® HG525, a 525 hp horizontal grinder, to demo.
“I was familiar with other Vermeer products but didn’t know much about their grinders,” Price says. “This guy seemed really honest, and when we put the 525 hp Vermeer HG525 model up against a competitor’s 1000 hp machine, I couldn’t tell that the competitive 1000 hp machine was doing any better or processing material any faster. So, we gave the Vermeer grinders a try, and we’re glad we did.”
Price rented two Vermeer HG525 horizontal grinders — one with tracks and one on wheels — from the local San Antonio Vermeer dealership. “We wanted one on tracks in case it was wet or raining,” he says.
Vermeer HG525 horizontal grinders have a high-capacity infeed system with an open-ended chain and slat feed table. They also feature the patent-pending SmartFeed system, as well as the industry’s first standard thrown object deflector for horizontal grinders.
The 28-person W.T. Byler crew used both grinders constantly, 10 hours a day, Price says. He estimates they processed about 80,000 yards of trees in two months.
“I don’t think we could have gotten the job done without those Vermeer grinders,” he says. “It astonished me that they could process material that fast. I just can’t say enough about them. We got the job done in two months, and with just the two grinders."
“Our biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to get all of this wood chipped in time,” Price says. “The grinder on site wasn’t getting the job done, and we had to make a decision.”
Teams of salespeople came, one after another, to give Price their pitch and demo their grinders. Most said it couldn’t be done in two months, that it would take five or six 1000 hp grinders four months to get the job done. “I listened to about every sales pitch there was,” he says.
Toyota Builds Tundra Truck Plant
Toyota is building a new $800 million plant on a 2000-acre site in South San Antonio to manufacture about 150,000 full-size Tundra trucks annually, starting in 2006. The new Tundra plant will give Toyota the capacity to build 1.66 million cars and trucks annually in North America.
Texas offered Toyota a $133-million incentive package, including $15 million to build a rail spur and $27.2 million in job training and recruiting. San Antonio offered $24 million for site purchase and preparation. But Toyota chose San Antonio for the most practical of reasons: about 15 percent of pickup trucks sold in the Unites States annually are sold in Texas.
At peak construction, there will be 2100 workers on site. The new plant is expected to bring about 2,000 jobs to Texas, a number that’s expected to rise to 7000 within a decade, and indirectly create jobs for many more — in addition to otherwise positively impacting the San Antonio and Texas economies.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. (TMMNA) awarded the massive site-clearing contract to W.T. Byler Construction L.P. of Houston in December 2003.
“W.T. Byler has been an industry leader for 30 years, and we’re very pleased to work with them on this project,” says Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of TMMNA.
Organized in 1973, W.T. Byler employs nearly 500 people and exceeds $75 million in annual revenues. It has completed significant projects for companies including Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Texas Department of Transportation, and Wal-Mart Distribution Centers.
Toyota challenged W.T. Byler’s San Antonio office, which opened in 1996, to clear and process all debris from the plant site in just two months. The crew started work on January 5 and was required to have all of the trees down by March 1, with all of the lumber processed by March 15. Mulch from the trees will be recycled or reused.
Environmental Concerns
It’s no secret that Toyota, the first automobile manufacturer to create and sell a hybrid car, adheres to high environmental standards. The company’s construction-related standards are no different. “They’re really strict about all of the environmental aspects of the job,” Price says.
Part of Toyota’s contract required W.T. Byler to implement several erosion-control measures into the land clearing and mulching processes. As a result, Price says they built a complex structure around the site to filter out all wood chips, rocks and silt, to keep them from entering a nearby river and creek.
Another daunting challenge Price and his team faced was the possibility that a flock of migrating birds could visit the area at any moment and stop production altogether. “We were racing against the birds as much as we were racing against the clock,” he says.
Selecting Processing Equipment for the Job
W.T. Byler specializes in grading, excavation, soil stabilization, paving and railroad construction. The company typically subcontracts land-clearing work, Price says, “but this time the job was so big, we decided to take it on ourselves.”
Handling Toyota’s land-clearing job firsthand meant the W.T Byler crew needed to rent equipment for the job that the company doesn’t typically use — including timber processing equipment.
Price says finally, after visiting with countless sales representatives, a Vermeer factory representative visited the site and brought along a Vermeer® HG525, a 525 hp horizontal grinder, to demo.
“I was familiar with other Vermeer products but didn’t know much about their grinders,” Price says. “This guy seemed really honest, and when we put the 525 hp Vermeer HG525 model up against a competitor’s 1000 hp machine, I couldn’t tell that the competitive 1000 hp machine was doing any better or processing material any faster. So, we gave the Vermeer grinders a try, and we’re glad we did.”
Price rented two Vermeer HG525 horizontal grinders — one with tracks and one on wheels — from the local San Antonio Vermeer dealership. “We wanted one on tracks in case it was wet or raining,” he says.
Vermeer HG525 horizontal grinders have a high-capacity infeed system with an open-ended chain and slat feed table. They also feature the patent-pending SmartFeed system, as well as the industry’s first standard thrown object deflector for horizontal grinders.
The 28-person W.T. Byler crew used both grinders constantly, 10 hours a day, Price says. He estimates they processed about 80,000 yards of trees in two months.
“I don’t think we could have gotten the job done without those Vermeer grinders,” he says. “It astonished me that they could process material that fast. I just can’t say enough about them. We got the job done in two months, and with just the two grinders."
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