Working on a Lot

A large truck maintenance and parking lot is coming along nicely for a customer in Crosby, North Dakota.

Along with the scope of the site work involved in preparing the gravel parking lot, Bluestone is currently working on preparing a shop floor for a concrete pour, putting a basement in for an office, installing a septic system and bringing water to the site.

Bluestone Goes Green

Impressive set of solar panels near the Noonan, ND:

This photograph taken by Leif Anderson shows the newly installed solar panels at the Noonan port of entry. Bluestone Construction's role in this particular portion of the project involved drilling holes and grading around the panels, as well as trenching in the transmission lines.

The panels act as a supplemental power for the port. The grid is large enough to power an average-sized residential house, providing ample sunlight.

We Dig Geothermal Systems

Yes, literally and figurativly speaking; we "dig" geothermal heating and cooling systems.


Photo is of employee Dustin digging in a geothermal system for an ongoing port of entry project near Antler, North Dakota.

The "Main" Issue

The "main" issue in Crosby, ND a few weeks ago was a sewer main break.

Bluestone Construction was called to the scene when the local contractor's backhoe failed to reach the line. It turns out the break was 18 feet under the earth!

Site Work

Bluestone loader and excavator at work near Crosby, North Dakota. July 15th, 2011.

Flood Fight 2011

The end of June 2011 has been a very difficult time for our local community of Minot, North Dakota. We were able to use our equipment in the participation for helping our town prepare for a flood, although nothing could really prepare Minot for the scale of the devestation that was ahead.


The National Guard waved trucks through traffic lights. Any equipment helping in the flood fight was given absolute priority as everyone was working around the clock to get dikes built.


Bluestone crew building dike around a school. The flood resulted in the loss of three important schools, resulting in the displacement of around 1,000 school children.


Working throughout the night and into the morning. Photograph taken by Jon Roise who was driving truck in long shifts.


Our truck ran day and night, nonstop, for 3 days.

Loading clay.

The trucks were all filthy from long hours of hauling.

River levels climbing; here is water seeping onto the streets around 3 am.

After the river crested. June 26th 2011. Arial photographs taken by Leif Anderson. Pilot Dave Roise, who himself had a home destroyed in the flooded area below.

Little was spared; much was lost.

We are very fortunate to live and have a shop on high ground. Many of our friends are not so lucky. Minot has a very long and difficult path to recovery. We look forward to playing a part in rebuilding our community.

Catch-Up

You might say we've been too busy to blog this summer. Leif, Dustin, and Dave have spent their summer and fall out in the field, so to speak.

Here is a picture of our equipment line-up at the Noonan, ND port jobsite:

And in the Bluestone office, 4 people are busy at work making phone calls, filing paperwork, paying bills, and completing those darn mandatory government payroll reports. Did I mention only one of them is over the age of 3? Hence the lack of blogposts.


Though to be fair, the younger ones do sport some cool Bluestone paraphernalia:

So, what is going on here in Bluestone-land?

We are finishing up the port jobs that have taken us the majority of the summer and fall to complete. We had the demo, dirt-work, and excavating portions of the jobs.

Here is the Bluestone excavator installing some pipe on one of the port jobsites.

And of course, since this picture was taken around July... there has been much that has not been mentioned in this blog post. More to follow!