by Nick Drew | Tue 22 Oct 2013
Cat E series excavator tackles water problem
On a recent spell of holiday relief cover, I was working on a site in Bideford in North Devon, where I spotted Coles Plant’s special 50 year anniversary branded, Caterpillar 312E working on the formation of a lagoon at the bottom end of the site.
Once completed this lagoon will store surface water from a brand new housing development, and slowly release it into the main drainage system. The idea behind it is to alleviate a flooding problem to the existing houses that lie in a low spot just behind the newly formed pond. In what can only be described as challenging conditions, Cole’s operator Matt Budd has been skilfully shaping a swale that links into the new lagoon, trimming up the sides of the lagoon and placing sand in the bottom.
Once again this was yet another example of a job that was crying out for a tiltrotator fitted machine, which would have made the whole process easier and faster, but as is so often the case in the UK, we have to struggle in the old fashioned way. Having said that Matt is doing a great job considering the weather we have been having lately!
Talking about his new mount, which replaced his outgoing 312C, Matt said he has been very pleased with the new machine overall. He also finds it a comfortable place to spend a shift, and reports no problems with the seat, which has been a bit of an issue for some operators on the E Series. He had one criticism, which was about the positioning of the offside rear view mirror, which was initially positioned on the top of the handrail facing downwards. He relocated it to the more conventional position at the front of the handrail facing backwards, which he says gives him improved rear vision.
It will be interesting to see how this lagoon copes with the amount of surface water that is likely to be generated from this development. Let’s hope the designers have got it right!