BOBCAT machines have been playing a key role in clearing this month’s historic and surprise snowfall in Madrid.
A predicted 20cm of snow instead turned into a much larger storm affecting the Spanish capital.
Sonia Royo, president of the community of the Polígono de Albresa de Valdemoro area of the city covering 36 hectares and incorporating almost 600 affected companies, called in Bobcat Of, the local authorised Bobcat dealer, for help in carrying out snow removal tasks.
The firm made available a fleet of Bobcat equipment, including two S510 skid-steer loaders and two TL30.70 telehandlers along with four operators. The telehandlers operated in wider areas, while the compact loaders were put to work on narrower streets and on tasks such as clearing the way for workers to access industrial buildings.
Bobcat said the S510 is ‘ideal’ for this type of work due to its long wheelbase, providing the necessary traction force to give stability for snow removal, whilst the radial lift design is said to offer the ‘perfect’ kinematics for pushing and loading snow. The model can be equipped with heating and air conditioning, allowing operators to work in all conditions.
The TL30.70 telehandler has a reach of 7m and a lift capacity of 3 tonne. Bobcat said the machines utilises its short turning radius to manoeuvre and clean up in tight and hard to reach places.
The Valdemoro City Council also requested the Bobcat machines be used to clear the access roads in the Polígono area.
Ferran Recio, manager of Bobcat Of, said, “The situation has been very complicated, with the access roads to the Polígono área and the warehouses totally blocked by snow. We received an avalanche of calls from private and public companies requesting Bobcat machines to remove snow and ice in different areas. With all of our Bobcat compact equipment working on the streets of Madrid, there was nothing else left to offer from our Bobcat rental fleet for several days. We have met all requests within our means. Nobody foresaw such a thing happening.”
The snowfall forced the suspension of operations at the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez airport. Eight Bobcat S450 skid-steer loaders equipped with heated cabs, snow blades and sweepers worked to clear the runways and airport facilities. One of the features of the machines is their abilitiy to clean right up to the edges of the planes, due to their compact size and ability to manoeuvre in narrow spaces.
