The UK’s first Doosan DX490LC-5 50 tonne Stage IV compliant crawler excavator has been purchased by Hydrock, a leading providers of consultancy and specialist contracting services for the construction sector.
Supplied by Kellands (Plant Sales) Ltd, the Authorised Dealer for the Doosan and Bobcat ranges for South West England, the new DX490LC-5 is powered by the Scania DC13 diesel engine, providing 283 kW of power at 1800 rpm.
Jacqueline Vargo, Plant Manager at Hydrock, said: “As an expert in environmental and land remediation work, the low emissions and outstanding fuel efficiency of the new DX490LC-5 are ideal for the specialist contracts we undertake. The new excavator is working on its first contract on the Kings Weald development in Burgess Hill in West Sussex, where Hydrock is working on behalf of the residential developer, Croudace Homes. We are carrying out a large scale £3.3 million remediation and ground engineering contract on behalf of Croudace using the new DX490LC-5 excavator and additional Doosan DX420LC-3 and DX225LC-3 excavators.”
Kings Weald is a new residential development on the site of the former Keymer brick and tile works. Planning consent has been granted to enable the remodelling of the site to create a suitable development platform for 475 dwellings; associated infrastructure including new vehicular access onto Kings Way, Wyvern Way and Curf Way; and a new community leisure centre in Burgess Hill.
Hydrock has already carried out demolition of the former Keymer Tiles factory buildings, with the work including removal of asbestos from within the building structure and the break-up of the ground floor concrete slabs. This has been followed by remediation of the ground in preparation for the commencement of new home building on this area of the site.
Chris Griffiths, Contracts Manager for Hydrock, said: “As well as the mass excavation works, another key application for the new DX490LC-5 will be vertical band draining. This method provides an economical solution for treating the large area of soft alluvial clays and silts on the site, increasing settlement rates by up to 90% by providing pathways via the band drains to allow porewater to drain away more quickly.”
Phil Hughes, Hydrock Site Manager at Kings Weald, said: “The DX490LC-5 has been performing well in the earthmoving operations and is perfectly suited to the vertical band drain work – it will be used to install over 136,000 drains on the site.”
As well as large-scale earthmoving, the new DX490LC-5 49 tonne excavator offers the strength and productivity needed for heavy duty work such as moving rock, pulling down buildings, secondary breaking, loading haulers and pipeline projects found on quarrying and mining, highway, aggregate, demolition, utility and general construction projects.
