Mini-excavators a fit for urban beltline work
Problem: Brooks Berry Haynie & Associates was the successful bidder on utility work for the new extension of the Atlanta BeltLine Westside Trail, a 3-mile stretch of the 22-mile Atlanta BeltLine. The BeltLine has been ongoing since 2005 and BBH has been part of the project during most phases. The company’s crews install light poles and lighting, traffic signals, fiber optic cables, security cameras and more.
Solution: Mini-excavators are one of BBH’s biggest assets for the company’s portion of the project and for most of the work they do. Their fleet includes several Yanmar SV100s, ViO55s and ViO35s. “We own about 30 of the ViO35s because of their ability to work in very tight spaces like street corners with a lot of traffic,” says Andy O’Kelley, chief operating officer at BBH. “They are a great efficiency-enhancing tool for us and can be paired with multiple attachments, so we don’t have to cross the road back and forth to switch out machines.”
RESULT: The mini-excavators’ versatility saves the crews a significant amount of time on the job site. A light pole, for example, can be completed in an hour. BBH uses a bucket to dig for conduit installation before switching to an auger attachment to drill a hole. Crews then use the excavator to carry over the precast concrete base, place it in the hole and backfill. Previously, crews may have had to dig 10 or 12 holes, pour the wet concrete, wait for it to set while hoping for good weather, then backfill. “These machines are very dependable and pretty much maintain themselves, so all we have to do is preventive maintenance,” O’Kelley says. “This helps our team stay highly efficient on the job site because we don’t have to worry about a lot of machine downtime.” 770-877-9894; us.yanmar.com
