Over the years we have probably worked on a dozen or more cemetery projects. The current project is out of the ordinary by far.
The original cemetery was supposed to be something like "2-1/2 acres in the northwest corner of......." To the north of that was a church which was built on "a square acre in the southwest corner of......."
Several problems occurred over time. When first called in to locate the old cemetery boundaries we discovered that more than 2-1/2 acres was being used in the "northwest corner of......." and a significant number of burials were on the church tract and several graves were on a tract behind the church tract and even more graves were on a strip of quasi-no-man's-land between the church tract and the tract intended to be directly behind the church tract. That first survey we made was about 25 years ago.
Eventually, I assisted the cemetery board in cleaning up the issues about having graves on other properties because the official cemetery plat from about 1875 had been followed and it included the entire area being used. This lead to them also acquiring an additional two acres from the adjoiners for expansion as they had practically no lots left to sell. We did that boundary survey five or more years ago.
We now are finally setting 1/2" rebar by 24" length at about 130 points throughout the new area to facilitate locating specific lots per the lot layout they have agreed upon.
The problem is that the new area is generally not well suited as a cemetery. The south acre is acceptable, but not particularly convenient for burials. The north acre has a nice appearance and is quite handy but has depth issues. About 60 bars needed to be set there. Approximately half of those are the standard bar mentioned above, although several took significant abuse to achieve the final few inches of depth due to rocks. The other approximately half were one-foot pieces that we had cut special at a lumberyard when we went into town for lunch. Several of those took significant abuse to achieve the final inch or two. In three spots we used a combination of rock bars, chisels, battery-operated drill with rock bit and fifty gallons of human cooling fluid (sweat) to achieve setting them to the full 12" depth. I don't want to be anywhere to be found when the first lot needs to be excavated for its intended use. Someone will need to run the casket through one of those giant crushers at a salvage yard that is used to turn automobiles into thin slabs of recyclable material so as to fit between bedrock and sod level.
I'm hoping someone has had a similar cemetery project at some time. Would hate to be the only one in history to get paid to lay out a cemetery in such a forbidding location.
Never worked in a cemetery that needed grading. Everything I've worked on has been nice and gradual turf.
I initially turned down my last run-in with the cemetery folks because of the hassle of setting so many pins. They called me back, we talked, and came up with a compromise. I set 60d flagged nails with washers and was told the groundskeepers would handle the rest. Cool.
I went back a few months later to see what they had come up with. Every third "corner" was a 4x8x16 inch concrete cap block set vertical into the ground. There was only a few inches of block sticking up, for mower clearance, I'm guessing. They actually did a fairly good job and it looked tidy...and I still had my 'hammer' wrist intact.
Had a job expanding a cemetery for a fairly large cemetery for this area. The grounds crew had made a very handy device consisting of a pipe with a sliding weight with handles. You would set the bar a couple of inches and leave it. They came along with their device that worked by sliding the pipe over the vertical bar, then pounded the sliding weight up and down inside the pipe via the handles until the top of the bar was set about one inch below grass level. No bending over required with that tool.
Holy Cow, post: 329998, member: 50 wrote: Had a job expanding a cemetery for a fairly large cemetery for this area. The grounds crew had made a very handy device consisting of a pipe with a sliding weight with handles. You would set the bar a couple of inches and leave it. They came along with their device that worked by sliding the pipe over the vertical bar, then pounded the sliding weight up and down inside the pipe via the handles until the top of the bar was set about one inch below grass level. No bending over required with that tool.
We need to patent that puppy and retire!
My friend the Mining Engineer could lay out a blasting pattern that would make a perfect casket sized hole.
paden cash, post: 330002, member: 20 wrote: We need to patent that puppy and retire!
We use a big version of that here to pound the vineyard poles into the ground , it takes 4 men to run it and can pound a 100mm diameter wooden pole deep into the ground
.
Reminds me of an interesting cemetery job earlier in year.
An old town with a few locals buried in a site of 10 acres.
Pure stands of eucalyptus (gum trees) and understorey (scrub).
About 15-20 plots with 6 iron or concrete surrounds in a very small clearing.
They wanted to reopen it for future use.
Environmental and topographical issues had to be addressed.
The locals had cleared a looping track with a design for plots radially set at regular intervals.
It wasn't flat and had an intermittent stream crossing the site.
My task was to reestablish the old boundaries and prepare a plan showing the current plots and new proposal.
The whole idea was quite touching, as it provided for places of reflection and solitude in a natural (Aussie) bush setting.
Quite different from your local town cemetery.
One of my most memorable jobs.