LONG reach specialist WM Plant Hire has revealed details of the ‘instrumental’ role its specialist fleet of excavators have played in supporting onshore and offshore wind developments, port redevelopment projects, and flood protection schemes across Scotland and UK-wide.
The company’s ‘Spider’ excavator recently provided the solution for a coastal defence project where limited access and tidal restrictions were proving problematic. Weighing 14 tonnes, the model – which has independent legs and floatation tyres – can handle heavy attachments while manoeuvring on tricky terrain. On this scheme it was used to transport heavy concrete skips across steps to an awkward site location.
Elsewhere, the firm’s larger CAT 385 long reach has completed a ‘complex’ underwater demolition operation deploying a seven-tonne hydraulic shear at a depth in excess of 16 metres to cut off steel piles.
One of WM Plant Hire’s larger 85-tonne long reach excavators, set up with GPS capability to ensure accuracy underwater, was utilised to carry out maintenance dredging in the Clyde, while the company’s 60-tonne CAT 352 long reach worked in Lochmaddy to help George Leslie deliver improvements on an infrastructure project. The same machine also worked with Breedon to carry out rock armour repairs at Arnish Point in Stornoway.
With RJ McLeod, smaller long reach machines from 15 to 40-tonnes have been involved on the land-based Viking windfarm and at Ullapool on the new ferry terminal, undertaking a range of operations from soft ground excavation to berth dredging and rock armour placement.
WM Plant Hire’s long reach machines have also been active on Scottish canals working from pontoons on both the Gairlochy Swing bridge and at Fort Augustus using ‘essential’ reach required for dredging the deep channels.
