Originally Published on www.digdifferent.com
When a hydroexcavation company is called in to an environmentally sensitive area, like a swamp, it is typically a requirement that mats be placed down for the trucks to drive over. It’s a way to protect the environment from any damage that the heavy machines may cause.
For Minnesota-based GreenWay Environmental, however, there’s no need for those heavy, bulky, expensive mats. Crew members will just jump into one of the company’s tracked hydroexcavation units and drive right on in to the job site.
GreenWay has a Vactor ParaDIGm unit with a 3-cubic-yard debris tank, and will soon officially take possession of a new 9-cubic-yard unit from Westech Vac Systems, that can be fitted with tracks from Mattracks. The company got to show off the smaller unit at a job in Egan, Minnesota, last year when it was hired by a gas company to locate for a new gas line going through a swampy area.
“That Egan job was a real unique job, some steep terrain, just some tough areas to get into. That was real unique job,” says owner Troy Peterson. “The company was putting in a new gas line and a lot of it was going to be installed through directional boring under the water ways. We went in there before they did any of the stripping and did all the locates.”
No mats were required across ditches or the wetlands.
“On a typical job, if you sink in more than a couple inches into the topsoil, it’s called mixing topsoil with subsoil and it’ll shut the job right down,” Peterson says.
Not with the tracked units, though. With the tracks on the smaller ParaDIGm unit, and fully loaded, the hydroexcavator is only exerting 4.5 psi on the ground. A human, on average, produces about 16 psi walking on the ground.
“That’s the nicest part about the trucks is that they’re so friendly to the environment,” Peterson says.