No two canals are alike. Canals can range in size from small concrete lined irrigation ditch to massive main canals where the top width is as wide as a football field! Consequently, canal equipment is custom designed to fit your present and anticipated future needs.
Where there are long lengths of canals to be built or where there will be ongoing program of canal construction in your market area, high production, mechanized canal equipment make economic sense for the following reasons:
- To minimize costly concrete losses.
- To insure the quality of the concrete lining.
- To insure the integrity of the supporting subgrade under the lining.
- To reduce the number of people required to build the canal.
- To dramatically reduce the time required to trim and concrete line the canal as compared to any other methods.
Once it is determined that mechanized canal construction machinery makes sense for your project, the project constraints will dictate what type of specialized canal equipment should be selected and the best method of concrete feed and trimmer spoils disposal. Consideration must be given to the following:
- The maximum concrete production rate and concrete delivery trucks available.
- The type of soil to be encountered along the canal alignment and whether it is suitable for trimming or if it must be over-excavated and backfilled prior to trimming and lining.
- The available room next to the canal available for the canal equipment as well as trimmer spoils and concrete.
Generally, small canals cover everything from concrete lined irrigation ditches with bottom widths (BW) as narrow as 30cm (12 in.) up to branch / distributary or even small main canals up to a maximum size of approximately 2.43m (8 ft.) deep and 2.0m (7 ft.) bottom width. Typically canals of this size range are built on a prepared and compacted fill (berm) built with conventional earth moving equipment. Canals of this size are built full section / span in a single pass and typically have side slopes of 1:1, 1 ¼:1 and 1 ½:1.
Small canal cross sections are excavated / trimmed in one of three ways:
- Using a conventional excavator / backhoe with a trapezoidal bucket matching the canal cross section and carefully digging the canal cross section with laser guidance. The fine grading is done by a digging chain attachment to the front of the concrete lining machine. This is a low production solution.
- The most efficient / high production means to excavate and trim a canal cross section is by using a special trapezoidal trencher where the canal cross section can be excavated and trimmed in a single pass.
- On the upper end of the small canal sizes it may be possible to use a bucketline trimmer configured into a small cross section.
Small canals up to 1.2m (4 ft. deep) are machine lined using one of two means:
- A subgrade guided, “towed boat” concrete liner: Generally the smaller “towed boats” are towed by a grader or front end loader required on the site anyway. They are light enough that they can be easily moved and quickly lifted out of the canal using towing equipment such as a front end loader. No automatic line or grade control is required as the towed boat is subgrade guided.
- A small self-propelled canal liner equipped with a canal mold: Depending on the canal size the liner will either be mounted on three or four crawler tracks. The separate canal mold is typically removed for moving and transport. It is also equipped with an automatic line and grade control system in reference to a single grade wire. A single charge conveyor is used to feed concrete to the concrete mold.
Small canals ranging 1.2m to 2.4m (4 ft. to 8 ft.) deep are machine lined using one of two means:
- A subgrade guided, “towed boat” concrete liner: Generally the larger “towed boats” have their own power unit and winch rather than being towed by a grader or front end loader. Larger towed boats are heavy enough where a crane is needed to lift it out of the canal and around structures. A larger towed boat liner is typically supplied with a concrete distribution system including a charging conveyor to evenly distribute concrete across the front of the machine.
- A larger self-propelled canal liner: This full span canal liner is mounted on either two crawler tracks or four. It is also equipped with an automatic line and grade control system in reference to a single grade wire. A larger canal liner is typically supplied with a concrete distribution system including a charging conveyor to evenly distribute concrete across the front of the liner.
Generally large canals cover everything from large power channels and main canals to small distributary and secondary canals that run as small as approx. 2.5m (8 ft.) deep and 2.5m (8 ft.) bottom width. Depending on the size of the canal, the canal can be trimmed and lined in a single pass (Full Span) or in one or more passes (Half Span or a combination of Half Span and Flat Configuration). Whether a canal should be paved Full Span or Half Span depends on many factors such as canal bottom width, ground conditions, schedule, embankment width available at the top of the canal, etc. G&Z can help guide you on the best way to build the canal depending on your jobsite situation.
Depending on your maximum present and future maximum anticipated canal sizes, the canal equipment power requirements, frame size and undercarriage components are specified and selected. Versatility is incorporated in all G&Z canal equipment designs to allow the equipment to be reconfigured to fit a wide variety of canal sections you may encounter in the future.
There are several major reasons why G&Z Canal Construction Equipment is so highly versatile, reliable and capable of producing high quality trimmed surfaces and concrete linings at the lowest cost per square yard (meter) even after many years of use:
- G&Z’s proven canal trimming and lining technology such has the bucket line and concrete conveying system designs have been time tested under a wide variety of configurations and adverse field conditions over many decades.
- G&Z’s canal equipment uses the same state of the art elevation and alignment control systems used on G&Z’s world famous highway and airfield paving equipment which requires very exacting tolerances.
- G&Z canal equipment utilizes proven components from G&Z’s broad range of popular highway, airfield paving, and trenching equipment such as power units, hydraulic circuits, jacking columns, crawler tracks and operator controls.