GARDEN ROUTE DISTRICT NEWS - A new Caterpillar (CAT) D7R bulldozer was officially handed over to the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) Roads Department on Thursday 6 December at a borrow pit near Riversdale. Handré Strydom, chief engineer at the Western Cape Department of Transport, together with Henk van der Merwe of CAT South Africa, complemented the GRDM roads services' fleet count at the handover.
The machine was received by GRDM portfolio chairperson of Roads Services, Cllr Rowan Spies, in the presence of GRDM executive manager of Roads Services John Daniels, GRDM manager for Maintenance, Construction and Mechanical Services Japie Strydom, GRDM deputy manager: re-gravel Lionel Coetzee, and officials from the GRDM Roads Department.
The new R5,7-million bulldozer is one of two machines that were delivered to GRDM by the Department of Transport this year and is just what the department needs to maintain the roads of the Garden Route district more regularly.
Describing the mechanical features of the bulldozer, Handré Strydom said, "This 28-ton machine is strong enough to handle a mass of up 30 tons". He added that the machine has a lifespan of 20 years but can be in use for up to 30 years, if well maintained.
Answering a question of Daniels on the availability of the parts, Strydom responded, "All parts of the machine are available in the Republic of South Africa, therefore if parts need not be replaced, it will not cause a delay in the road maintenance operations".
Japie Strydom said the bulldozer will be utilised to stockpile useful road material from 38 borrow pits situated in the Garden Route, but will mostly be responsible for stockpiling of material from the DR1524/18.5/0.5R borrow pit near Riversdale.
"Material hauled from a borrow pit is transported to a specific road section for further processing. When the material is finally approved, the re-gravelling of the road can commence. This process will repeat itself over a certain period of time, e.g. 10 years, as small amounts of material get lost over the years, which results in the deterioration of the road. The material gets lost due to environmental factors, traffic counts and weather conditions, such as rain and wind."
Daniels said that they can now continue to deliver services to road users by ensuring that the quality of the roads in the Garden Route is on standard. "I am confident that with this type of machine, we will definitely achieve our goals of effective service delivery and well-maintained roads."
Japie Strydom said Jaco Gunter, the machine operator, had specialised training, by a Barloworld specialist operator trainer, Elias Shabalala. "With all these resources to our avail, we will be able to do a high level of preventative maintenance on the machine to ensure that it reaches a lifespan of 20 years and more."
The new machine will be housed at the GRDM Riversdale depot.
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