Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam New Land Owner - Pond Considerations

FWIW around here, for the Big jobs (government or private) a contractor must have operators that are in the union and pay union scale in order to bid the job. The way one big contractor explained it to me was that it is not that he is unwilling to do smaller jobs, it is he just can't compete price wise with the small non-union contractors.

Also, there are very hefty fees charged here for permits to just move equipment down the road to and from the job. Those permits alone can easily run into the thousands of dollars and can add significant nonproductive cost to the overall cost of the pond.

Edit: To be fair, we reached a point on my home building project where we needed fill before we could move forward. My small dirt contractor was giving us the run around as to when he could get back to get more dirt from the pond. I called the Big contractor up and told him my problem. He brought equipment out on a Saturday, just big enough that it did not require permits, and some of his union guys said what the heck and worked Saturday and Sunday for cash money to "dig" me out of my problem. To be honest, those union guys worked harder and moved way more dirt than my small contractor ever had.