Heavy Construction Equipment
Top digger drivers duke it out in heavy metalshowdown Have you ever seen heavy machinery used to crack open a beer, pour a cup of tea or slam dunk a basketball? Probably not – but these are the kinds of skills required to be in contention to take the title of New Zealand’s best excavator operator at the Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition, held at the Central Districts Field Days in Feilding. The 2021 title was claimed by Andrew Haulage digger operator Troy Calteaux from Otago, who won the competition for the second time.
bit of expectation this time. It creates a few more nerves.” Civil Contractors New Zealand chief executive, Peter Silcock, said the competition’s mix of entertainment, skill and high-tech machinery would provide a highly entertaining spectacle. “Every year the competition gets bigger and better. It’s an ideal way to showcase the outstanding skill of New Zealand’s excavator operators and the capability of the impressive machines they operate. “Whether you’re considering a career in the industry, or just looking for a fun day out with the family, this is the place to be.” The Platinum Sponsor for this year’s competition was CablePrice, which provides and services the Hitachi Zaxis excavators the competitors operate during the event. Other major competition sponsors include
The annual event, now in its 27th year, hosted 11 regional competition winners from across New Zealand who joined defending champion Riki Lum to be put through a series of entertaining and challenging tasks to find an overall winner.
Bell ADT engineering brings together the very best in power and drivetrain technology and efficient, innovative design
Troy was the 2018 champion, but he put family before fame last year to attend the birth of his child rather than defend his title. This meant he had to win the Otago finals to make a comeback. He did it in style, proving he’s one of the very best and adding a second Defending Champion to the mix. The annual event, now in its 27th year, hosted 11 regional competition winners from across New Zealand who joined defending champion Riki Lum to be put through a series of entertaining and challenging tasks to find an overall winner. These tasks range from tests of ‘real-world’ skills such as traversing a trench or lifting and relocating a manhole cover, to crowdpleasing tests of precision such as popping a champagne bottle using an excavator’s bucket, and slam dunking a basketball into a two-storey concrete pipe. The competition also tests competitors’ planning and health and safety skills in an effort to find the all-round top operator. Pre-competition Riki said he was looking forward to his first title defence. The Whangarei-based excavator operator works for Clements Contractors and is a member of the Ngāpuhi iwi.
Bell’s ADT range is ideally suited to a wide variety of applications within the mining, quarrying, construction, road building, forestry, waste handling and agricultural industries. Bell’s articulated dump trucks, get the job done every day to the highest of standards.
For more information visit www.cableprice.co.nz or contact your local CablePrice sales representative.
*T&Cs apply. See online for details.
0800 555 456 sales@cableprice.co.nz www.cableprice.co.nz 94 | B&C - Issue #128
www.buildersandcontractors.co.nz
Also a carver, Riki has earned a reputation as an artist with steel and earth. But this year he faced a field of exceptional talent. “It’s wide open this year,” he said. “Last year I was pretty lucky with the One-Day Job Challenge because it focused on the health and safety side of things and I do a lot of that. I didn’t have any pressure but there’s a
Attach2, BeforeUDig, Connexis ITO, Contractor Magazine, Doug the Digger, First Gas, Hirepool, Humes, Major Oak Group, National Driver Training Centre, Pirtek and Z Energy. An EPIC Careers Hub was a feature at Field Days, featuring virtual reality, a truckmounted excavator training simulator from Major Oak Group, a Connexis digital excavator simulator and a RobLawMax Excavator Experience for adults and teenagers on a 13-tonne Hitachi excavator. These gave people considering a career in civil construction a chance to test their excavator skills – and find a job or training with the civil construction companies attending the event. The civil construction and maintenance industry carries out billions of dollars of work annually, employing more than 60,000 workers, including excavator operators. The industry is expected to employ thousands more workers in coming years following the Government’s decision to invest in infrastructure as a means of modernising New Zealand and leading the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This investment includes spending on new large-scale transport projects and significant investment in New Zealand’s water infrastructure.
