Bozeman Build #9

An elephant, Komatsu D355, or steam locomotive, whose bigger?

Author

Daniel Zavadil
April 22, 2024

Howdy builders, movers, and shakers of Bozeman, Big Sky, and Montana!

Happy to have you back where we strive to get into the meat of Montana’s blue collar industry. Today we are talking Bozeman building trade jobs, wood hot tubs, lawn mower racing, killdozers purchased from Montana, along with some other trade trends spotted across the great States. Please sit back and enjoy the 9th edition of the Bozeman Build.

D6 Cat in South BZN with Stadium View Apartments and Mount Ellis in the background

Keep the saw sharp,

PS. Critical feedback is my love language - feel free to respond with ideas, photos, jobsite stories, or tell me about the cool projects your working on!

PSS When, what, and who is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered every Monday morning focused on mountain West trades with an emphasis on Montana. The author is Daniel who has a passion for the local building scene, works as a part time contractor, and owns a small construction information business called Block Biome. We appreciate your time!

Block Biome + Bozeman Build research

Bozeman area building trade job listings

Hourly pay was averaged between a sample of foreman level postings

More ready mix quotes Southwest edition

Don’t buy a wood hot tub kit

Maybe this works if you live off grid. A friend was gifted a wood/wood burning hot tub kit from his mother-in-law. The instructions said 1 hour to assemble and 2 hours to heat, lets just say these numbers were far below the actual assembly/heat time.

Commodities

Montana commodities

As of Friday April 19th 2024. YoY = Year over Year

Hard

  • Copper - $4.39 | +5.50% Weekly | +11.70% YoY

  • Crude Oil - $83.17 | -2.90% Weekly | +7.50% YoY

  • Natural Gas - $1.76 | -.61% Weekly | -21.78% YoY

  • Palladium - $1,034.50 | -2.13% Weekly | -34.80% YoY

  • Platinum - $943.50 | -4.67% Weekly | -13.69% YoY

Soft

  • Wheat - $550.75 | -0.94% Weekly | -17.52% YoY

  • Feeder Cattle - $241.18 | +1.50% Weekly | +17.64% YoY

  • Lumber - $508.02 | -5.85% Weekly | +1.50% YoY

Snow (water is a commodity right?)

The following includes 04/19 SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) site data samples. Big Sky for instance, fell short holding only 77% of its median 4/19 snowpack.

  • Big Sky, MT - 77% of NRCS 1991-2020 Median

  • Sun Valley, ID - 83% of NRCS 1991-2020 Median

  • Jackson, WY- 90% of NRCS 1991-2020 Median

  • Snowbird, UT - 123% of NRCS 1991-2020 Median

Big swinging commodities

  • Coal - $141 | +6.82% Weekly | -26.75% YoY

  • Coffee - $240.30 | +8.07% Weekly | +22.66% YoY

  • Rice - $18.95 | +10.05% Weekly | +12.93% YoY

Cocoa continues to climb to $12,238/ton up 12.94% Weekly alone +296.44% YoY

Local, State, US Wide Trade Pulse

Bozeman trade pulse

Lawn mower circuit - back to the races!

First race for Season 3 was Sunday April 21st across from Anderson School starting at 11am - No admission, donations accepted. Find out more information on the Mower Racing Facebook Page

BSRAD purchases property at 191/64 intersection for $10.45M

During Wednesday’s Big Sky Resort Area District board meeting, members voted unanimously to sign a buy-sell agreement for a parcel of land that will allow the Montana Department of Transportation to construct improvements at the intersection of U.S. Highway 191 and Montana Highway 64 (Lone Mountain Trail).

Shedhorn shutdown

Wednesday April 17th - Shedhorn lift at Big Sky was shutdown for a bit. According to RoyalReptoid from reddit - a chair went through terminal where the grip didn’t close all the way, lift was reset and ran. That chair went up and slid back down into the chair behind it. Both had people on it and nobody was hurt. The BB also spoke with lift export Peter Landsman from liftblog.com mentioning that reset and go is a problem industry wide. The lift does what its supposed to (stop if something goes wrong) but then humans can overide it.

The Bozeman Build happened to be there - captured on the iphone

Remodel of the Week

Reminds me of the house from the movie Up. Nice work to Peter Q Brown Design.

Montana trade pulse

  • Cover the Berkeley Pit with a net?

  • Elephant on the lose in Helena…

April 25th MT DOT invitation for bids

  • 201 - Lolo - Asphalt Overlay

  • 202 - Lake Koocanusa Bridge - Road pulverization, pave, signage

  • 203 - Kings Hill - deck seal for bridge and speed reduction markings

  • 204 - Butte Montana ST & Front St - Upgraded traffic signals

  • 205 - Missoula County - Curb and gutter projects

  • 206 - Anaconda Pennsylvania Walks - Widened sidewalks, 8’ wide walking path, trail system enhancements

  • 207 - Flathead Ravalli County - sign, sensor, and safety improvements

I know this is old news (acquisition originally announced near the 2024 New Year) however we still deemed it a worthy post. Since 1987, BNSF and Montana Rail Link (MRL) have been operating in collaboration across the Big Sky state and portions of Idaho and Washington. During the time that MRL leased and operated mainline tracks between Huntley, Montana, and Sandpoint, Idaho, our teams worked shoulder to shoulder to ensure strong outcomes for customers, employees and communities alike. Jan. 1, 2024, the BNSF resumed operations across what will become the MRL Subdivision of our Montana Division.

Seeley Lake bulldozer

While calling concrete dispatch across the State of Montana (currently doing a ready mix price study) - Seeley Lake Ready mix happened to be on the list. The owner named John picked up mentioning that they don’t sell ready mix anymore (everyone around Seeley Lake buys their ready mix from Missoula - 53 miles away). Later on in the conversation, I recalled how the famous Youtuber Whistling Diesel purchased a Komatsu D355 bulldozer from this area and asked the owner - you happen to know who sold that bull dozer? John replied, "that was me”.

USA wide highlights

Bozeman Builds top 11 Construction Dive picks from last week

Upcoming events

  • Denver, CO - May 1-3 - Advancing Preconstruction

  • Washington, DC - May 22-24 - National Institute of Building Sciences, Building Innovation Conference

Top 11 from last week

Ag, Mining, and Transport

Ag

  • More “Mississippi River” Shipping Problems Ahead? According to the latest outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, flooding is not expected to be an issue for the Mississippi River this spring thanks to an unusually hot, dry winter. Unfortunately, the lack of precipitation means shipping along the river could be disrupted again by low water levels for a third year in a row with drought in the Great Plains expected to persist or even expand.

  • Illinois Project Creates First Insulin-Producing Cow Researchers for the first time ever have genetically altered a cow to produce insulin in its milk.

Mining

  • US restricts drilling and mining in Alaska wilderness, angering state leaders The Interior Department finalized a regulation to block oil and gas development on 40% of Alaska’s National Petroleum Preserve to protect habitats for polar bears, caribou and other wildlife and the way of life of indigenous communities.

  • Thirty five projects got a total of $1.93 billion in tax credits Thirty five projects, focused on electrical grid enhancements, critical minerals, and electric vehicle components, among others, got a total of $1.93 billion in tax credits.

  • Tesla co-founder JB Straubel has built an EV battery colossus Western Nevada, Teslas co-Founder JB Straubel started Redwood Materials, producing a fine black powder essential to electric vehicle batteries. Known as cathode active material, it’s responsible for a third of the cost of a battery. Redwood plans to manufacture enough of the stuff to build more than 1.3 million EVs a year by 2028, in addition to other battery components that have never been made in the US before.

Transport

Port of Los Angeles: Cargo Up 30% in 1Q24 For first-quarter 2024, ending March 31, local dockworkers moved 2,380,503 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) across Los Angeles marine terminals—nearly 30% more than 2023, the Port of Los Angeles reported April 17. It was among the Port’s best first quarter starts, behind only the pandemic import surge in 2021 and 2022.

Union Pacific has announced the general schedule for a summer tour of Big Boy 4014 4014’s Westward Bound Tour will start June 30 in Cheyenne, Wyo., enroute to Roseville, Calif., before returning to Wyoming by the end of July.

Blue collar history - transporting a grain elevator

Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.

Quote and Song of the week

A Country Boy Can Survive - Hank Williams, Jr.

Railroad iron is a magician's rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for reading,

Daniel - NaFBA - Not a Financial or Building Advisor

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