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Contractors and municipalities benefit from the advantages of having a single machine that can handle the entire process of removing and replacing damaged sections of pavement. In many cases, while any number of machines might be able to remove damaged patches of asphalt, either hand labor or another machine might be required to restore the appropriate grade and prepare it for asphalt.An additional piece of equipment might be called in to spread asphalt in narrow areas not accessible to a paver. That adds up to a lot of expense in equipment usage, fuel and manpower—something that can be reduced thanks to Gradall^® versatility.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
Gradall Model XL 3300 excavators handled the entire job at several different locations in Broward County, Fla., including Oakland Park Blvd. in the City of Lauderdale Lakes and in Pompano Beach on Sample Rd. At Pompano Beach,Weekley Asphalt Paving equipped its Model XL 3300 with ditching, grading and pavement removal buckets. One machine was used to remove curbing, prepare the finished grade and then spread asphalt. At Lauderdale Lakes,APAC Southeast Inc. used a single 60-inch ditching bucket for the entire job.Typically, workers would spray the bucket with diesel fuel to resist adhesion by the asphalt. Next, the operator would dip it into asphalt in the bed of a truck and then carefully spread it into the exact needed location using the Gradall boom’s unique tilting action. In all cases, the Model XL 3300 excavator provides exceptional strength, precise movement and a compact footprint with a short rear swing that can work within one lane of traffic on busy Florida highways. The designed-in stability of the Model XL 3300 allows it to handle demanding work off the front, back or either side of the undercarriage. Gradall, the brand that introduced true rubber tire wheeled mobility to the industry, continues to excel with models that move quickly from one job to the next without creating conventional crawler track damage to permanent pavement.

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

Removal and replacement of existing median strips is a job that many municipalities face.The need frequently arises because roads must be widened to handle increased traffic flow at intersections. In other cases, median strips with curbs are removed to accommodate handicapped pedestrians. Other municipalities remove median strips with grass and other vegetation, replacing them with strips that are narrower and complete concrete to avoid the need for maintenance. In any case, removal needs to be done quickly and efficiently and with only minimal interruption of the normal traffic flow.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
APAC Southeast Inc. used the power and versatility of a Model XL 3300 Gradall® excavator to remove existing median strips and curbs at busy intersections on 17th St. near Route 1 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The extra boom power provided by the Gradall XL Series high pressure hydraulics could easily pick up large sections of concrete curbing and asphalt using a pavement removal bucket. Some of the large sections were broken into smaller parts, which operators said was only necessary to fit the material into truck beds. Once the asphalt and concrete were removed with a pavement removal bucket, the operator switched to a grading bucket to smooth out dirt and remove small pieces of debris, preparing the medians for concrete. The rubber tire undercarriage moved easily over paved surfaces and the unfinished terrain, providing a stable working platform that typically did not require use of the outriggers or blade for extra stabilization. The undercarriage also permitted the operator to move quickly over the length of the job, and from one intersection to the next, without damaging pavement that was not planned for repairs.

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

During a six-week period in the late summer of 2004, four hurricanes ravaged much of Florida, including multiple passes through Osceola County in the Orlando area. Each of the hurricanes resulted in mounds of debris from buildings as well as fallen trees and vegetation that clogged important drainage canals. Crews from the Osceola County Road and Bridge Department as well as private contractors, including Wright’s Excavating in the St. Cloud-Kissimmee area, used Gradall® excavators to handle a full range of jobs quickly and efficiently. New Model XL 4100-II excavators, as well as their predecessors, Model XL 4100 machines, are driven at highway speeds to multiple sites. Meanwhile, Model XL 4300-II and Model XL 3300 excavators are called upon for numerous rough terrain jobs, maneuvering easily both on and off paved surfaces.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
The efficient use of grapple attachments is critical for quick hurricane damage cleanup. Using the telescoping, tilting boom, operators can position the grapple to pick up and move material from multiple directions and angles – even reaching under tree limbs and beneath fences and bridges where conventional booms cannot work. County crews removing trees from drainage ditches can use a Gradall excavator boom and grapple to pick up large tree trunks and then turn and break the trunks on the ground, creating smaller pieces that will fit into trucks. Load-sensing high pressure hydraulics automatically adjust to handle leavier loads or more demanding ditching and material removal without the need for operator mode selection. In inhabited residential, commercial and industrial areas, cleanup contractors work quickly to load and haul away vegetation as well as roofing and other parts of buildings and water-damaged contents. The fast load cycle times plus the tilting Gradall booms’ ability to maneuver big loads into trucks is critical to keep the process moving. “The Gradall can load a truck in about 8 minutes,” said one contractor. “That’s fast. In fact, our trucks can’t hardly keep up.”

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

The 2004 hurricane season created plenty of cleanup work throughout Lee County on the Gulf Coast of Florida, including its largest city, Fort Myers. The county’s Gradall^® excavators, including a new Model XL 3100, were rushed into action for the initial cleanup work to restore public safety. Next, crews hurried to respond to the many calls from residents regarding drainage ditches that had been blocked by trees, vegetation and debris. Even during normal times, crews must maintain the important network of drainage ditches to prevent flooding. Particularly after the hurricane strikes, Lee County crews were inundated with residents’ calls for cleanup help.The Gradall machines’ ability to get on-site quickly was vital to the well being of the public.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
Lee Countys’ Gradall excavators, including its new Model XL 3100, have highway-speed wheeled undercarriages, enabling them to travel quickly to work sites without the need, cost and time involved with using lowboy trailers. Unlike other cleanup machines, the highway-speed Gradall excavators can be driven quickly from one cleanup site to the next, often working at many locations in a single day. A boom-end grapple attachment enables an operator to quickly and effectively load sludge, vegetation and other materials into trucks. Boom-tilt capability makes it possible to position big loads to fit into truck beds, plus the ability to re-position the chassis from the upper operator cab saves valuable time. Lee County also uses a Telestick boom extension for its Gradall excavators to reach far out into streams and drainage ditches to remove silt and vegetation.The full-tilting boom movement can efficiently direct the boom-end bucket through turns and bends in the ditch, and also restore bank slopes on each side.

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

Without unnecessary interference with traffic flow, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saw a need to remove a landscape island to create additional traffic lanes in both directions. State Contracting handled the job cost effectively, without the need for individual pieces of equipment for demolition of the island and then preparing the surface for concrete.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
Able to work productively in tight quarters, the Gradall^® Model XL 3100 makes good use of its small footprint and short rear swing to work productively in tight spaces, such as in the middle of this multi-lane highway. XL Series hydraulics enabled the Model XL 3100 to handle the entire job. Automatically adjusting its hydraulic flow to handle the task at hand, the single machine and just one worker, operator Bill Murphy, were able to demolish and remove the landscape island, grade the ditch for forms, clean around the forms and then finish grade for the 11-inch asphalt installation. Not only does the load-sensing hydraulic advantage save fuel, overall machine cost is reduced because the Model XL 3100 uses just one engine for its highway mobility and for the multiple Gradall boom functions.

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

Preparing an area for concrete along Olive St. in West Palm Beach, FL, posed a delicate challenge for Community Asphalt. The company needed to clear and excavate the narrow section without disturbing PVC irrigation pipe or new concrete on both sides. Working in a heavy traffic area, it was also important to work effectively without unnecessarily hindering traffic flow.

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
The Model XL 3100 Gradall^® excavator utilized its unique boom movements to excavate dirt from over and around the established PVC pipe, without causing damage that would have required replacement of the irrigation system. The boom movements were also able to carefully remove dirt while working at various angles alongside the established concrete sections. XL Series hydraulics automatically adjusted boom power for excavation or for fine grading without the need for mode selection or wasting fuel. Not only was the Model XL 3100 able to complete the job effectively and quickly, the short rear swing of the machine enabled traffic to continue to move smoothly through the area. The mobility of the Model XL 3100 also was an advantage. Not only could workers drive the machine to the site, avoiding the need for a trailer, the Model XL 3100 also is designed to be repositioned from the upper operator cab. Operator Freddie Perez said he previously operated a Model G3WD Gradall excavator for five years, but found the Model XL 3100 to be faster and smoother with a more comfortable joystick location. “And it has an overall better feel,” he added.

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.

Many folks think of Florida as the land of sand. But as the state’s site work contractors will tell you, Florida can also be the land of some extremely tough rock. And when that rock is encountered during the course of site work, the contractor had better be up to the challenge. That’s the situation that was faced by McLeod Services, a site work contractor based in Sarasota, FL. McLeod called on the capabilities of a Gradall^® Model XL 3200 for tough demolition work at the Sarasota Bay Club. McLeod was involved in excavating at various depths in preparation for the foundation of a new structure at the site, then back filling and compaction of suitable fill material to the bottom elevation of the pile caps. The material to be excavated, according to John Azar, McLeod’s land services division general manager, was a combination of “standard Florida soils and a 5-foot-thick layer of good solid rock.”

GRADALL VERSATILITY ADVANTAGES
Shooting the rock was not an option because of the project’s close proximity to other buildings. But the Gradall XL 3200, with its unique boom movements, was able to work quickly and efficiently in the tight space using the Allied hammer and a 5-inch diameter tool. Working in one 45-square-foot area at a time, the rock layer was fractured into a two-foot pattern. Once the first chunks were removed, the hammer and chisel were tilted by the Gradall boom, working along the edge of the rock and fracturing it with relative ease while allowing for quick removal. “We only moved about 2,500 cubic yards of material, but the time and effort involved were bigger than what you see on most projects around here,” said Azar. “We were rushed, to say the least, and because the area was environmentally sensitive, the work had to be done right the first time. After the October 1 deadline, there would be no opportunity to come back in and fix things.”

Posted with permission from The Gradall Company, www.gradall.com.