Quicker at an angle

By: Roads & Bridges

The construction boom in western Washington spawned many new entrants to the construction business.

The leaders of the pack availed themselves of the right tools to provide quality workmanship on time, every time. Thomas Construction Co., located in Maple Valley, Wash., fully understood the importance of having the right tools for the job.

A change in bucket attachments allowed Thomas Construction to double its productivity on a host of heavy construction projects that required 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 slopes for retention ponds and roads.

A cylinder-style tilting bucket forced the equipment operator to put extra dirt on the uneven road under the tracks of his excavator to level the machine in order to build a smooth, consistent slope that the customer demanded. A switch to a more versatile swing attachment manufactured by Helac Corp. allowed them to deliver consistent quality without all the hassle and time inefficiency of a tilting bucket.

“Our cylinder-style tilting bucket did not have the adequate range or rotation necessary to do our slope work efficiently. We found that we had to reposition our excavator far too frequently, resulting in wasted time spent moving the machine instead of doing productive work,” according to Dennis Gilkison of Thomas Construction.