Excavators Articles : Aggregate Equipment Guide

Huge U.S. 321 Widening Project Heads Into Home Stretch →

From Construction Equipment Guide... A $65 million road-widening project in Caldwell County, N.C., will enter its fifth year of work in 2009 and all indications are that the construction will be completed next fall. A 6.57-mi. (10.6 km) stretch of U.S. Highway 321 between Lenoir and Blowing Rock has seen almost continuous drilling, blasting, earth moving and paving, while still remaining open to most car traffic since February 2005. Approximately 3.1 million cu. Click for more...

Operators Hit the Ground Running With TC37 Crawler Excavator →

Designed to turn 360 degrees within the width of its tracks, the Terex TC37 zero tail swing excavator is at home in confined and restricted areas. Ideal for utility contractors, this mini allows operators to get up close and personal in places where conventional excavators can’t fit. “If you’re working in an alley, next to a building, or on a street, where traffic is an issue, you can be certain that the rear of the TC37 isn’t going to swing out into traffic or into a wall,” explained Lowell Stout, Terex Compact Equipment product manager. Click for more...

John Deere Introduces 120D, 135D Hydraulic Excavators →

From Construction Equipment Guide... John Deere is offering two new hydraulic excavators in the 13- to 14.9-ton (12 to 13.5 t) range, the 120D and 135D — mid-sized machines with big performance. The 120D is a “dig-and-run” unit for jobs such as excavating basements or placing pipe and transports easily between jobs. The 135D is a reduced tail-swing machine capable of maximum production in confined areas and work within a single lane of traffic. Click for more...

E-Crane Offers Alternative to Offloading Bulk Materials →

In small ports around the world, the ever increasing need to offload bulk materials such as coal and limestone at rates from 300 to 2,000 tons (272 to 1,814 t) per hour and do it as economically as possible calls for modern equipment with greater efficiency than can be provided by many of the older cranes still in operation today. Most of these older cranes are at or near the end of their life cycle; cable replacement is a never ending ordeal; and highly skilled operators are required. Click for more...

Komatsu Offers Optional Power Angle Blade on PC45MR-3 →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Komatsu America Corp.’s (KAC) PC45MR-3 compact hydraulic excavator is designed to bring increased production and added operator comfort to contractors in a variety of construction, utility, landscaping and other applications. The PC45MR-3 is equipped with the latest Komtrax technology which sends machine operating information to a secure Web site utilizing wireless technology. Data such as operating hours, machine location and fuel levels are relayed to the web application for analysis. Click for more...

Millennium Pipeline Replaces Old Gas Line in New York →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Replacing a flowing gas line is tricky. If the gas line happens to be 182 mi. (293 km) long and involves working in areas that feature nearly straight vertical drops, it’s that much more of a challenge. And those are the fundamentals of the new underground, natural gas pipeline going into the ground in upstate New York, under the direction of Millennium Pipeline Company LLC, Pearl River, N.Y. Click for more...

Conveyors Save Carolina Sunrock Truckloads of Money →

A Raleigh-based company has found a way to move material out of its quarries that it believes will save dump trucks full of money over time. Carolina Sunrock LLC, a construction materials firm that supplies aggregates, asphalt and concrete to construction projects across the Southeast, has recently begun handling and transporting rock out of its new Woodsdale quarry in Person County via conveyor belt. Click for more...

E-Crane: A Modern Alternative →

In small ports around the world, the ever increasing need to offload bulk materials such as coal and limestone at rates from 300 to 2,000 tons (272 to 1,814 t) per hour and do it as economically as possible calls for modern equipment with greater efficiency than can be provided by many of the older cranes still in operation today. Most of these older cranes are at or near the end of their life cycle; cable replacement is a never ending ordeal; and highly skilled operators are required. Click for more...

Trains Keep a Rollin’ as Morris Group Spans Busy Rail →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Heavy truck traffic coming in and out of the Mobile Container Terminal at Choctaw Point gets backed up by the long CSX freight trains that block Virginia Street when they chug by several times a day. A six-span bridge being built by The Morris Group Inc. over both the CSX tracks and a spur leading into the Port of Mobile is designed to alleviate that congestion. But working around the rail traffic has been a challenge on the bridge job, which began in May, said Shane Sansom, construction superintendent of the Birmingham-based firm. Click for more...

Deere Rolls Out New Wheeled Excavators →

From Construction Equipment Guide... John Deere Construction & Forestry has introduced two new wheeled excavators, the 190D W and the 220D W, featuring Tier III-certified engines and significant increases in horsepower, weight and digging forces over their predecessors. Both units have fuel-efficient 5.2-L diesel engines rated at 159 hp (118 kW), with the 190D W weighing in at 44,974 lbs. (20,400 kg) and the 220D W at 51,368 lbs. (23,300 kg) when both are equipped with two-piece booms and front and rear outriggers. Click for more...

Maxymillian Scales Mt. Greylock for Road Rehabilitation Project in Mass. →

Mt. Greylock became the first state park in Massachusetts in 1898 and has been retouched by man from time to time, decade to decade, in carving out more than 70 mi. of trails and nearly 14 mi. of access roads. The beginning of November marked the end of a critical rehabilitation project atop the mountain, performed many months ahead of schedule by Maxymillian Technologies of Pittsfield, Mass. Project Scope According to senior project manager Tony Simonelli of Maxymillian, the project involved the reconstruction of the 13.8-mi. Click for more...

Creature Comforts, Productivity Enhanced on Komatsu’s PC45MR-3 Compact Hydraulic Excavator →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Komatsu America Corp.’s (KAC) PC45MR-3 compact hydraulic excavator is designed to bring increased production and added operator comfort to contractors in a variety of construction, utility, landscaping and other applications. The PC45MR-3 is equipped with the latest Komtrax technology which sends machine operating information to a secure Web site utilizing wireless technology. Data such as operating hours, machine location and fuel levels are relayed to the web application for analysis. Click for more...

Elk River Pipeline Relies on JCB for First Major Project →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Twenty-five years ago, Terry Gandee started working as a laborer in the pipeline industry. Through the years, he worked his way up to head superintendent in charge of major construction projects, some of which covered more than 60 miles from set-up to completion at costs up to $69 million. When his former employer decided to sell the business, Gandee was in a strong position to strike out on his own. Click for more...

Metrac, Pierce Pacific Spawn Material Handler From John Deere Excavator →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Combine the need for a new material handler with a heavy dash of brand loyalty and you’ll see the newest machine that’s hard at work at Jones Recycling. Gary Jones, CEO and co-owner of the Jefferson, Ga., auto recycling business, had been talking with Metrac, the local John Deere dealer, for nearly two years about his need of a specialized machine. With a specific task in mind, Jones had an extensive list of requirements for the machine. Click for more...

Widened Road Juts Off Side of Mountain →

From Construction Equipment Guide... A highway “hanging off a mountain” in far western Canada is being widened by an American contractor using some imaginative construction techniques. Omaha, Neb., company Peter Kiewit Sons, a subsidiary of Kiewit Corp., is the project’s design-builder and key member of a business consortium that undertook the $600 million highway job in partnership with the province of British Columbia. Click for more...

Patuxent Materials Forges Big Business From Small Jobs →

There are plenty of contractors who are in the business of demolition that are rarely heard of even in the demolition industry, because they are not involved in the big high profile projects such a stadiums or large industrial building complexes. Collectively, the quantity of wood, brick, mortar and concrete structures they demolish is sizeable but not easily measurable. In fact, it would be difficult to get accurate figures on the quantities involved because many small demolition projects such as razing a house or the concrete curbing of a couple of streets rarely are published. Click for more...

Trevcon Helps Pave Way to Big Apple Through Waterways →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Building a large metropolitan city on an island means more than putting in roads, tunnels and bridges that connect it to the mainland. It also takes constant care and maintenance of the infrastructure in and out of the water that surrounds it. Much of that involves highly specialized skills that only a few companies, such as Trevcon Construction Company, possess. For more than two decades, the Liberty Corner, N.J., company has focused a large part of its attention on marine construction and services that help ensure New York City’s waterways remain protected from erosion and are able to handle massive amounts of waterway traffic that comes and goes from the Big Apple. Click for more...

SSC’s System 4000 Vacuum Excavators Clear Track in Ariz. →

From Construction Equipment Guide... Specialized Services Company (SSC) used its vacuum technology to clear debris from more than 8 mi. (12.9 km) of track to allow Metro Light Rail to safely expand testing to the majority of its new line across the valley. Two months after its initial introduction in downtown Phoenix, the Metro Light Rail began testing trains from Mesa through downtown to the intersection of Central and McDowell roads. Click for more...

Yet Another Basic Paving Project… →

From Construction Equipment Guide... The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has awarded a $14.7 million contract to Basic Construction Company to widen a segment of Jefferson Avenue (Route 143) from just north of Buchanan Drive for approximately 1 mi. (1.6 km) to Kings Ridge Drive in Newport News, Va. Work on the project, which also includes other improvements, began in August 2007, and the contractor has just surpassed the 50 percent completion point. Click for more...

North Construction Takes on Project of Olympic Proportion →

From Construction Equipment Guide... When skiers fly down the sides of mountains, it is called sport. When 35-ton (31.7 t) excavators do the sliding, it is called risky business. North Construction is perfectly familiar with each kind of mountainside thrill. The North Vancouver, Canada, “extreme terrain” contractor specializes in moving earth in places that might give pause to Great Plains contractors. Typical job sites for North are slanted 60 degrees or more. Click for more...