The Hitachi Dealer ask if I would mind endorsing their machines. They were the first ones of that size they had sold.

They said they would send someone out to interview me. I thought fine. I assumed an interview would be something like – ask me a question and I would answer it to the best of my ability.

A camera person showed up on the job, stuck a microphone in my face and said “tell us about your project and the EX 1200 Excavators.

I did the best I could, given that I had not even thought about what to say.

This was the largest single project in scope and dollar amount we ever did. It started just north of the I-35 bridge across the South San Gabriel River and went up stream for approximately 6 miles. The project consisted of a 42″ wastewater line than decreased to a 36” along the way. It averaged 40′ deep.

I probably consider this the crowning achievement to my career. We executed the project in the most efficient way possible. Most all projects leave you thinking “if only I could do that over, I’d do this or that to make it better“. Not this one however.

Probably the most unusual thing that happened was during the time from when we bid the project until it started, the price of diesel fuel almost doubled. We were using several thousand gallons of fuel per day, leaving us in the hole several thousand dollars per day.

All in all we performed at such a high level that we over came the additional cost of fuel and made a profit beyond my wildest dreams.

One of the EX 1200’s on another project