Contractor uses automated grade control system to construct an even, impermeable cover for a decommissioned landfill on Long Island, New York and eliminates the cost and extra time involved in staking the site, by Don Talend, brand storytelling, content management, and content strategy expert. Geospatial technology industry

1. Home // Construction Technology // Automated Grade Control Assists with Grading, Capping 28-Acre N.Y. Landfill
Adam's European Contracting used Komatsu equipment fitted with Topcon
automatic grade control systems to move approximately 300,000 cubic yards of
material while grading and capping a 28-acre New York landfill
Komatsu dozer equipped with twin antenna Topcon 3D-MC2 automated grade control system levels out a steep slope.
The Challenge:
Cap a 28-acre landfill by evenly grading the entire site and providing a cover impermeable to
the elements to prevent runoff from migrating through the refuse, getting contaminated and
reaching the groundwater
The Players:
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
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2. Islip Resource Recovery Agency
Cashin Associates, P.C.
Adam’s European Contracting
Mesh Consulting
The Process:
Capping the 28-acre Lincoln Avenue Landfill in Holbrook, N.Y., in adherence to current
environmental regulations was on the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation’s (NYSDEC) to-do list since 1986. Back then, the Town of Islip and the Islip
Resource Recovery Agency (IRRA) entered into an Order of Consent with NYSDEC to develop a
final closure plan for the landfill. As of 2012, the estimated cost was $16 million, including
about $10 million for closure and capping, and the remainder for post-closure maintenance
and monitoring for 30 years.
Scheduled for completion in November 2012, the objective of the capping project is to evenly
grade the entire site and then provide a cover that is as impermeable to the elements as
possible to prevent runoff from migrating through the refuse, getting contaminated and
reaching the groundwater. The site will also have a Greenfield appearance and resemble a
landfill as little as possible. “When you put a cap over it, it’s kind of like putting an umbrella
over it so that when it rains, the water doesn't go through it and into the ground,” said Robert
Doutney, resident engineer/construction manager for Cashin Associates, P.C. of Hauppage, N.Y.,
hired by IRRA to provide environmental engineering services.
Detailed record keeping of refuse dumping at landfills, as well as the implementation of
recycling practices, emerged long after the Lincoln Avenue Landfill was active. For decades,
many refuse items - now commonly separated from the waste stream and recycled - were
commingled and dumped at the site. Refuse such as broken concrete pavement, which today
is crushed into recycled aggregate, was dumped in various locations and had to be excavated
for fill elsewhere on the site.
For the company awarded the capping contract, Adam’s European Contracting, Brooklyn, N.Y.,
the haphazard dumping pattern made for a laborious process of moving about 300,000 cubic
yards of material in grading the landfill according to the final closure plan.
This was a new type of work for Adam’s European. “We’ve got the equipment, so we bid the job
- it is basically an earthmoving job,” said Jacek Skarzynski, director of operations.
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3. In mid-January 2012, Adam’s European began its work, starting with clearing and grubbing -
i.e., tearing out tree roots - for almost a month. By March, grading was well underway. In one
spot, an excavator dug out chunks of broken concrete and placed them into a procession of
dump trucks. Nearby, a Komatsu D61PX-15 equipped with a Topcon Positioning Systems' 3D-
MC automatic grade control system pushed dirt uphill and stakelessly graded a large area.
Don Horsfield operated the D61PX-15. On the other side of the site, Gary Spotswood used a
Komatsu D65PX-17, also equipped with a 3D-MC system, to grade a 3:1 slope.
Twin antennas mounted on a pole in the middle of the blade of Horsfield’s dozer provided
Adam’s European with a key technological - and ultimately financial - boost on this project.
Use of the twin antenna maintains the efficiency of the 3D-MC system on cross-slopes,
according to Jim Cleary of Adam’s European’s Topcon dealer, Cleary Machinery. Use of the
twin-antenna 3D-MC system provides control of a dozer blade in an additional dimension
versus a single antenna.
In addition to controlling the raising and lowering of the blade, the system measures blade
angling, which provides more accurate grades when the blade is angled.
Once the site was graded to specifications, Adam’s European put down a geocomposite gas
venting layer, which allows the methane gas trapped beneath the surface to transmit to the
gas vents. Next, the contractor installed a polyethylene geomembrane liner that would
waterproof the gas venting layer and allow drainage without erosion. Another layer consisting
of drainage geocomposite that acts like a flat pipe to collect water from the top of the
polyethylene geomembrane liner and direct it to the new drainage system was also be
installed. A 1.5-foot layer of silty soil, was to be placed on top of the drainage geocomposite
followed by a 6-inch layer of topsoil to be used on top of the cap. This top layer will be
hydroseeded to prevent erosion.
In addition, Adam’s European was contracted to cut some areas of the landfill and use the
material as fill elsewhere in the process of reshaping the site to the specified grades. However,
it was not a typical excavation project in which dozer operators make long passes and keep
their machines moving almost constantly. The process was more painstaking for two reasons.
Trash compacts more but is less homogeneous than most types of dirt.1.
The landfill contains many tons of broken concrete. That material cannot be pushed with a dozer
but must be picked out piece by piece with excavators and moved to fill areas with dump trucks.
2.
There was nothing that Adam’s European could do about the relatively slow process of moving
material around the site, but its use of the 3D-MC system allowed the company to recoup
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4. significant efficiency in terms of staking - or the lack thereof.
Mesh Consulting, Limerick, Penn., had built a two-dimensional CAD file from the official survey
and a second file indicating the trash in the landfill. For both files, Mesh converted the lines in
the digital file into three-dimensional lines and then added contour lines. Mesh then converted
the files from CAD to Topcon-3D Office, saving linework as an LN.3 file and the 3-D surface as a
TN.3 file. The files were then loaded into the 3D-MC systems in Adam’s European’s two dozers.
By using two separate files for finished grade and trash, the contractor eliminated the need to
drive stakes in the ground.
Don Talend, Write Results Inc., West Dundee, Ill., is a print and e-communications content
developer specializing in covering construction, technology and innovation.
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