Once uneconomical to dig basements of existing buildings, increasing land value across major cities has sparked a trend to excavate to create valuable car parking, storage or expanded living areas.
Sydney’s Elanora Country Club Ltd needed additional golf buggy parking, so the best solution was to excavate rock from an area under the Club’s pro shop.
A major challenge was the removal of around 150 cubic metres of solid sandstone. Making the task even more complex was the confined headspace under the building where an excavator was required to operate with specialised rock cutting, breaking and removal tools.
Rick Davis Civil Contracting was assigned the task, which involved sawing the extended rock wall into segments to enable sections to be broken with a rock hammer so spoil could be removed.
“Most of our excavation equipment was too large to tackle situations such as those encountered in the restricted overhead height of the car park construction,” said Scott Davis.
“Our regular fleet consists of mid-sized construction equipment so we acquired a Takeuchi TB215R; the first excavator we have owned in the micro machine class. The golf club buggy parking site is a perfect example of where you need this type of excavator with the ability to perform tasks that may otherwise be done by men with jackhammers…and at a much greater cost, not to mention a lot noisier and presenting OHS risks.
“With an operating weight of 1.5 tonnes and 11.0 kW output, the TB215R is able to effortlessly drive the Groundtec GT1 diamond saw. Our operator is able to cut precisely right up flush against the outer boundaries of the walls.
The saw has the benefit of requiring no case drain line and can be bidirectional, so the water spray doesn’t interfere with the operator.
“The addition of the TB215R means we can access more jobs of this type which are often just as commercially attractive as our regular work, using larger equipment,” Scott added.
