Mountains, rolling hills and snow-covered forests. These are just a few features of Tupper Lake, New York: a picturesque town located approximately 150 miles north of Albany and nestled in the Adirondack foothills.

Although it’s a relatively small community, there’s plenty of contracting work to do for Josh Trudeau, Owner of Trudeau Construction Company. Trudeau previously worked a municipal job in Tupper Lake, but about five years ago he decided to go out on his own and created Trudeau Construction. Today, the company has 11 employees.

“We do development, right-of-way clearing and excavation – residential mostly,” Trudeau says. “But we also do a lot of land management, tree removal, logging and trucking. Each day tends to be different. We mow ditches one day and build paths the next. I enjoy coming home every night thinking that my crew and I turned something that wasn’t very good into something we are proud of.”

Since Trudeau’s company does a little of everything, he needs a fleet of construction equipment that can stand up to a variety of jobsites. Trudeau has grown his equipment fleet considerably since he first started his business. He currently owns the following Doosan machines:

• DX35-5 and DX85R-3 mini excavators
• DX140LCR-5 crawler excavator
• DX300LL-5 road builder
• DL250-5, DL280-7 and DL320-7 wheel loaders
• DA30 articulated dump truck (ADT)

“We really enjoy how the equipment works on the jobsite,” Trudeau says. “The comfort, visibility out of the cab, easy maintenance and the availability of our dealership – Equipment Rentals Inc. – for parts and service all contribute to our success.”

Trudeau and his crew recently found success on a project to prepare a new residential community for development near Tupper Lake. They used a variety of machines for this project, some paired with quick couplers for more versatility.

“We’re jumping from road building to ditching and using several other attachments like mowers,” he says. “We had to be able to use one machine on several different jobsites.”

A DX85R-3 mini excavator with a flail mower was used to clear roadside growth.

“Mowing typically helps reduce beach brush growing on the side of the road; that way the brush doesn’t make its way onto the road and into vehicles,” Trudeau says.

Another phase included lifting and moving logs with a DX35-5 mini excavator paired with a bucket and thumb.

“We used the DX35-5 for feeding our small chipper on this project. We also have a lot of residential work close to houses and buildings,” Trudeau says. “We can’t be scarring trees so we use this machine where we can’t fit our bigger machines.”

Trudeau Construction also used a DX380LL-5 road builder to lift landscaping boulders with a bucket and thumb combination.

“We do road right-of-way and build new roads. Being in swampy muddy areas, the road builder helps us keep our traction,” Trudeau says. “The machine gives us a lot more weight, and we can pull stumps without getting light in the tail end.”

Set up along the road, the DX140LCR-5 excavator was used with an angle tilt bucket to excavate and load the dirt into a DA30-5 ADT. The excavator is designed with reduced tail swing, making it the ideal machine for working in tight areas without sacrificing hydraulic breakout power. The ADT transported the dirt to another area where it was unloaded and kept for future use.

Finally, a DL280-7 wheel loader was tasked with lifting, carrying and loading materials that will eventually be used in the development of the new community.

“When we’re done with our fall projects, wheel loaders are used to feed our screening plants to get road sand ready for the busy snow removal season,” Trudeau says.

The area regularly receives more than 100 inches of snow, so Trudeau and his crew have to make sure they are ready come winter.

“We use our wheel loaders for snow removal,” Trudeau says. “We have a large plow we put on the front. We chain them up all the way around, and we can clear all of our landing areas, staging areas and road right-of-way, and they work really well.”

Another important consideration on this project was safety, which Trudeau emphasizes on every job. In fact, when he recruits new operators, he pairs them up with an experienced operator first and then works them up to running smaller machines.

He says he and his operators have a morning toolbox talk before they head out to the jobsite and have weekly safety meetings to ensure that everyone is keeping safety top of mind.

With the right equipment and an eye on safety, Trudeau Construction continues to find success.

Safety is critical in the construction industry. All operators need proper education and a general understanding of a machine’s basic operating procedures before getting started. Follow these resources for safe operation:

• Review the manufacturer’s Operation and Maintenance Manual, which serves as the primary guide for proper operation and maintenance.
• Look at all safety and instructional decals on the machine to help you understand potential hazards and the consequences of injury.
• Check out safety manuals from The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), which serve as complementary references on proper operating practices.
• Visit with your local dealership about hands-on equipment training. They have the product knowledge and experience to help you troubleshoot and maintain a machine.