Wheeled excavator customised for Kent drainage board

Gem Plant Sales has supplied a specialist Wacker Neuson EW65 wheeled excavator to the Upper Medway Internal Drainage Board (IDB).

The customised EW65 will be involved in some pioneering works on watercourses this summer.

Upper Medway IDB is a statutory body set out under the Land Drainage Act to ensure adequate drainage and water management within its river catchments. The board, comprising elected landowners and appointed councillors, is tasked with the oversight and control of ordinary watercourses that lead to the main rivers, which are then controlled on their behalf by the Environment Agency.

While conventional tooling is used for maintenance work across its network, a specialist machine is required by Upper Medway IDB to carry out tasks such as weed clearance and desilting operations, while also being suitable for both on and off-road use, given that travelling can be involved as well as roadside working operations.

Typically, a large tracked machine would be used for these tasks but they lack the flexibility to get themselves from site to site, which is why a roadable wheeled excavator was chosen instead.

The requirement was for smaller profile machine with large reach and a double-jointed boom section.

After discussions with Gem Plant Sales about what Wacker Neuson could offer, the board decided on the 6.5-tonne wheeled excavator with a double boom, extended dipper, and additional Steelwrist omni-hitch.

The board also bought some specialist tools for the machine from West Country attachment specialist Exac-One, including a tree shear and a mulcher head.

Completing the order was a twometre Bradshaw type bucket from Flails Direct for weed and reed clearance. Due to the system requirements of the bucket, however, additional low flow circuits had to be installed, requiring multiple settings, hookups and limiters.

Oliver Pantrey, clerk to the board, said: “The machine will see its first outing on the watercourses this summer and the board would like to thank John, Graham, the staff at Gem Plant Sales, Wacker Neuson, Andrew and Doug at Exac-One, Flails Direct and the team at Steelwrist for their expertise, patience, and quality service to deliver this incredibly diverse product.”