Big Hyundai’s impress at the DIRFT III project

Wed 26 Oct 2016

Big Hyundai’s impress at the DIRFT III project

The DIRFT III (Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal) project is a massive expansion to the existing rail hub site and when completed will include around 15 new warehouses and associated buildings, new road and roundabout infrastructure and an extension to the rail line which already serves the site in Daventry. The £1bn project which covers an area of some 850 acres (345 hectares) is the 3^rd phase of a development which first started with phase 1 in 1997. This latest section, when completed, is expected to create around 8,000 new jobs.

Two of the prime mover excavators on hire to the Buckingham Group from JoinPoint on this project are from the Hyundai stable. The 50 tonne class HX480L’s tip the scales at 49500kgs and are powered by a Stage IV emissions compliant Scania DC13 084Ac 4-cycle turbocharged air-cooled diesel engine which offers a power output rating of 444hp (331kw) @1900 rpm. To meet emissions levels Hyundai have fitted EGR and SCR technology with AdBlue fuel additive.

The HX480L machines were supplied to JoinPoint by local Hyundai dealers Willowbrook Plant Sales, having made their UK premiere earlier this year at a very damp Hillhead exhibition. On this project the machines are engaged in major muckshifting operations primarily loading Bell dumptrucks which are also on hire from JoinPoint Plant Hire.

Operator of the latest HX480L to arrive, fleet number 58 Les Pigg, has been in the plant game for over 25 years and he had nothing but praise for his latest mount , Les said, “I’ve been around all the Hyundai’s and I think they are great machines, good all round visibility, comfortable cab, smooth hydraulics and plenty of power when needed. This one has got a 3.5 cubic metre bucket on and it copes with it no problem at all. For a muckshift these Hyundai’s never miss a beat, I really cannot fault them!”

In the initial stages of this project crawler tractor and scraper boxes were deployed to remove and stockpile some 591,400 cubic metres of topsoil with the main muckshift predicted to involve the excavation of some 2 million cubic metres of earth.

Although these machines were not the largest excavators on site, with other notable machines being a Hyundai HX520L, the two HX480’s certainly seemed to fit the bill in terms of speed and power loading dumptruck’s generally in around four passes.

JoinPoint Plant Hire’s first HX480L fleet number 46 was also working close by and according to a company spokesman has proven to be extremely reliable and most importantly the operator is pleased with the machines performance and the creature comforts provided within the cab.

With a good working relationship between JoinPlant and Willowbrook Plant Sales we expect to see more Hyundai kit joining the fleet in the coming years.

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