Accomplishing a range of both construction and maintenance jobs with a single machine is a huge plus for the Tarrant Regional Water District, based near Fort Worth, Texas.
The district maintains a 40-mile stretch of the Trinity River. At that location, a Gradall model XL 5100 III was being used to create a bike path.
"We use Gradalls for lots of different jobs along the river," said Doug Mobley, equipment coordinator and fleet manager for the district. They include building and maintaining roads, repairing river banks and spreading riprap.
The district performs similar functions at four major reservoirs and has constructed 150 miles of water pipelines, 27 miles of floodway levees, more than 40 miles of river trails and a 260-acre wetland water reuse project aimed at increasing future water supplies for some 1.6 million people in the north central Texas area.
The district benefits from the productivity that can be achieved by one man and one excavator. On the bike path project, the excavator moved soil, created precise drainage slopes and created the right grade for paving along the river. While spreading soil with the telescoping, tilting boom, the operator further benefited from a new convenience feature standard on all Series III machines. A button on one of the joystick controls initiates a bucket shake function, which makes efficient soil distribution even more convenient.
Another new standard feature is air conditioning—something operators appreciate in hot Texas weather. While the crew frequently leaves the excavator on jobsites overnight, returning it to the safety of the equipment yard is also easy. Like other highway-speed excavators, the Gradall XL 5100 III can be driven back to the yard at night.
