SIMPLY ADVANCED:
CAT AP500 PAVER Victoria-based contractor NorthVic Asphalt recently added a Caterpillar AP500 paver to its machinery fleet.
FOR CONRAD FARRELL, MANAGER OF VICTORIAN COMPANY, NORTHVIC ASPHALT, THE CAT AP500 PAVER HAS SPELLED RELIABILITY, SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY. HE RECALLS WHY HE CHOSE THE PAVER IN THE FIRST PLACE AND HOW IT HAS BENEFITTED HIS TEAM.
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arly in his career, Conrad Farrell received some advice from an old friend: “let the job take you where it takes you.” He took that advice to heart and the journey has since taken him through interesting twists and turns, from brick road paving to asphalt paving to owning a contracting business with 10 employees and projects all over the northern Victoria and southwest New South Wales. The story of how he turned from a brick paver to an asphalt paver is an interesting one. “I had a couple of clients in the Port of Echuca, where I had been engaged on some of the heritage-listed brick structures. One time, they wanted me to do an asphalt paving for a café sitting area. The contractor did not show up, so I ended up doing it 30
ROADS DECEMBER 2021
myself. Things sort of started from there,” he reminisces. Today, his business, NorthVic Asphalt, handles projects from major contractors and local governments in the Echuca and surrounding regions, with projects that have grown in scope and complexity, particularly over the past five to six years. To keep up with the level of reliability required for these projects, NorthVic Asphalt recently added a Caterpillar AP500 paver to its machinery fleet. For Farrell, the decision was one that followed months of deliberation. “I was considering the upgrade to the Cat paver for about 12 months. Then, we had a breakdown with one of our machines and that’s when I decided we needed more reliability to get us through our major projects,” he says.
Working with their local William Adams Caterpillar dealership in Swan Hill, NorthVic Asphalt purchased the AP500 paver a couple of months ago. Operations have been going smoothly since, according to Farrell. “We have clocked over 100 hours of operation and we’ve already done our 50hour service through the Swan Hill branch. Their service has been exceptional and I’m very happy with how they’ve looked after us,” says Farrell. EXCEPTIONALLY QUIET Among its other features, Farrell and his team are particularly impressed with how quiet the paver operates. “The biggest thing our operators have noticed is the quietness of the machine. It’s exceptionally quiet and when we work with asphalt mixes that have too much fume,
