TONS of old rebar!!

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

This morning I was out walking my dog. We like to hike the middle of the Arkansas River bed. It is approx. a half mile wide and mostly sand bars. When I do wade thru water, it is no more than shin deep. It has been a goal of mine to hike all the way to a particular bridge and back. That is 2.5 miles of sandy beach with short wades between sand bars. It is a terrific workout for my bad leg.

Today, the water was down and I made it all the way to the bridge. There I found TONS OF REBAR STEEL AND STEEL CABLE!! Some time in the past, the highway department tore down an old bridge and built a new one. They dumped huge amounts of concrete, steel rebar, large angle iron, and steel cable into the river!

Time and the river have eroded much of the concrete away, exposing the twisted rebar. I have no idea how much there is. At least FIFTEEN - TWENTY TONS if there is an ounce. I am talking the steel rebar for a four lane bridge one half mile long.

Okay, now how do I get it out?

I have a dump truck that could haul it to the scrap yard. Now how do I get it out of the river bed? A four wheel drive ATV? A new one would cost me thousands and kill the profit. Maybe a used one? It could haul an ATV trailer.

I bet I would have to get permits to work in the river, get permission from the state highway dept. to remove their property, a government agency would have to do an environmental impact study, & blah, blah, blah.

Who is game to throw some ideals my way??

[Thogey]

Find a group of dope smoking/ long hair/hairy armpit granola coeds/ tree hugger college kids and see if they want to volunteer to restore the riverbed to it's:"natural state".

Or maybe a winch with a really long cable?

[Lemon Thrower]

i would label it a clean up project and recruit a bunch of volunteers. you could "volunteer" to dispose of the scrap metal. seriously, there are probably some colleges with community service organizations, fraternities, etc.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Hmmm, good ideas guys. "Long haired, hippy-type, pinko fags" should do the trick for free labor. (Just kidding! ) I was a tree-hugger before they called us tree-huggers. Today, the environmental movement has moved way left of me. Not to get political, or anything. The community service route is a good way to go.

I just found a metric butt load of steel, and it's beggin' me to convert it into fast cash. The rebar and cable are still in decent shape. The angle iron is very rusty.

[cesariojpn]

Grab some reflective vests and hard hats, rent a excavator bucket, hire a few friends for some cases of beer, and "pretend" to be a work crew for a weekend.

[Hades12]

one piece at a time.

[silversaddle1]

That would be a lot of work for little money. Let's face it, by the time you get approval, get the crew together, get the equipment you need, the help, the fuel, the insurance, and your time invested, very little profit left over. Let's say there is 20 tons there. OK, 20 tons of rebar cut up into 3 foot pieces will sell for about $6200.00, based on $310.00 per ton, prepared, not a lot of money there. Now if the stuff was sitting on the shore and you could drive right up to it, well......

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but I have been doing this type of work for over 20 years now. There ain't much I have not seen!

[cesariojpn]

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but I have been doing this type of work for over 20 years now. There ain't much I have not seen!

Just because it's not worth it doesn't mean we can't have fun with discussing it.

[bman]

what you need is one of those cranes with the big magnet like they use at the scrap yards.

[Thogey]

Or an HH-53 with a hanging magnet.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

That would be a lot of work for little money. Let's face it, by the time you get approval, get the crew together, get the equipment you need, the help, the fuel, the insurance, and your time invested, very little profit left over. Let's say there is 20 tons there. OK, 20 tons of rebar cut up into 3 foot pieces will sell for about $6200.00, based on $310.00 per ton, prepared, not a lot of money there. Now if the stuff was sitting on the shore and you could drive right up to it, well......

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but I have been doing this type of work for over 20 years now. There ain't much I have not seen!

Yeah, I came to that conclusion, too. I am better off without it.

[The real reason I wanted to reach this bridge is because for years a college prof took his geology classes to this spot to pan for gold. He wanted them to see what a little "color" looked like.]

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but I have been doing this type of work for over 20 years now. There ain't much I have not seen!

Just because it's not worth it doesn't mean we can't have fun with discussing it.

That made me laugh!

The way I see it, the only way to clear a profit is to do this without any stinkin' permits! No environmental impact statements, no nothin'! Just go down there under the light of the moon with an acetylene torch strapped to an old Willis Jeep and cut it all up. That's the ultimate "moonlighting". Then haul it away by dawn's early light. Bwahahahahaha!

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

what you need is one of those cranes with the big magnet like they use at the scrap yards.

We roofers use some powerful magnets to pick up all the loose nails that fall off the roofs. Maybe I could get a really large fishing pole, get up on the bridge, and ...... nawh.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Or an HH-53 with a hanging magnet.

Where am I going to get one of those??

[fhbob]

i would label it a clean up project and recruit a bunch of volunteers. you could "volunteer" to dispose of the scrap metal. seriously, there are probably some colleges with community service organizations, fraternities, etc.

Lol at the white trash in here suggesting that you fraud a bunch of kids into working for you as a "volunteer cleanup" while you profit, such as the above post.

[Hades12]

i would label it a clean up project and recruit a bunch of volunteers. you could "volunteer" to dispose of the scrap metal. seriously, there are probably some colleges with community service organizations, fraternities, etc.

Lol at the white trash in here suggesting that you fraud a bunch of kids into working for you as a "volunteer cleanup" while you profit, such as the above post.

It is for the good of the community. cleaning up the water hazzard so folks can swim again.

[Thogey]

There is an annual volunteer creek clean up here in Prescott where all the "white trash" volunteers go out and pick everything up. I'm talking a thousand or more people, all white, comb through the creek beds an pick EVERYTHING out.

Guess what the evil profit driven organizers do under the disguise of "keeping the waste out of the landfill". They sell tons of metal, plastic and cardboard. Than these evil bastards brag about how the've kept this stuff out of the "waste stream".

Actually it's kinda fun and everyone gets a free t-shirt.

Bully for "White Trash"!

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

i would label it a clean up project and recruit a bunch of volunteers. you could "volunteer" to dispose of the scrap metal. seriously, there are probably some colleges with community service organizations, fraternities, etc.

Lol at the white trash in here suggesting that you fraud a bunch of kids into working for you as a "volunteer cleanup" while you profit, such as the above post.

Well, ahem! Welcome to Realcent, newby. I don't think you will make very many friends here by calling them "white trash". This is such an improbable ideal, I am happy anyone answered at all.

[silversaddle1]

i would label it a clean up project and recruit a bunch of volunteers. you could "volunteer" to dispose of the scrap metal. seriously, there are probably some colleges with community service organizations, fraternities, etc.

Lol at the white trash in here suggesting that you fraud a bunch of kids into working for you as a "volunteer cleanup" while you profit, such as the above post.

Fraud them kids into it? I think not. Those kids will do it because they want a clean river. They want to fix a mistake from long ago. They want to be part of a thing bigger them themselves. They are volunteers. You Sir, should try it yourself.

[flbandit]

Did someone mention White Trash? Dang, someone saw my truck on the way to the yard again! I would probably grab a few pieces here and there on my walks and just hold it till I got enough to make a run. I've had to scale back my scrapping quite a bit due to some health issues, but I still grab what I can!

[sheepdog_tx]

Theres a reason no ones pulled it from the river, its very dangerous. You got out there tugging around, next thing you know you've fallen with a piece of rebar in your gut. I would get the low hanging fruit you can get safely and move on. The idiots that dumped this in the water should be shot for making it too unsafe now to boat, swim, or fish in.