Earthmoving & soil compaction

The largest wheel loader in the Hitachi range has been delivered to Lasa Marmo’s Whitewater marble quarry near the village of Laas in northern Italy. The new ZW550-5’s main function is to lift each marble block that has been extracted from the cavernous site – situated 1,600m above sea level – and transport it through a series of passageways to an outdoor storage area. The ZW550-5 was delivered in December by Comac, a sub-dealer of the Italian Hitachi dealer for construction machinery, SCAI. The fuel

The new 16M3 motor grader from Caterpillar is an essential machine for building and maintaining mine haulage roads. The grader has a 4.9m moldboard and an average operating weight of 32,411kg, making it a perfect size for operations using 136tonne or smaller trucks. The 16M3 features a Cat C13 ACERT engine with the Cat Optimised Variable-Horsepower system, which provides net power ratings from 216-259kW.

The UK drainage and maintenance specialist Lanes Group has helped deliver the new A453 dual-carriageway in the county of Nottinghamshire, one of England’s worst congestion areas. Main contractor Laing O'Rourke managed the two-and-a-half-year project that included the widened commuter route from Junction 24 of the M1 motorway to the A52 highway in Nottingham city centre at a cost of US$265 million. The new road - named Remembrance Way in honour of the 453 British soldiers who lost their lives in Afgha

Using a linear road crusher can rebuild gravel roads using material onsite at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. Gravel roads are common in many rural areas in the US to provide access to temporary work sites and are also used widely in developing countries. Maintaining and repairing these roads can pose challenges and new methods may offer improvements in efficiency.

German firm BOMAG continues to grow its presence in the road construction equipment sector. In the 10 years since BOMAG was purchased by the French Fayat Group, BOMAG has broadened its product range beyond being a leader in the compaction sector and invested heavily in its manufacturing facilities. It has also forged strong links with its Italian sister company Marini, the asphalt plant manufacturer, with the two jointly developing a wide array of asphalt road construction technologies. BOMAG recently he

Komatsu is now offering an updated version of its GD675 grader. The new generation GD675-6 benefits from an improved drivetrain with a dual mode transmission that is said to help to cut fuel consumption by up to 15%. In addition, the GD675-6 has the longest wheel base in its class and is said to offer a fine grading performance. Power comes from a high-performance Komatsu diesel that delivers 163kW and is equipped with selective catalyst reduction (SCR) and AdBlue diesel exhaust fuel technology. This pa

Ecuador’s Buenavista – Zaruma Highway will provide a key route that will help boost economic activity – Mauro Nogarin writes Ecuador hopes to boost economic activity with the construction of new highway links. Most economic activity in the Piñas canton currently relies on agriculture, forestry and fishing. These sectors employ over 50% of the economically active population of the region. Meanwhile, most of the working population of the Portovelo canton is dedicated to mining and quarrying, with this area