R5,7-m bulldozer for Garden Route roads
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: regravel 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. The 28-ton machine is strong enough to handle a mass of up 30 tons. It has a lifespan of 20 years but can be in use for up to 30 years, if well maintained. All parts of the machine are available in South Africa, which will help ensure that replacement of parts won't cause too long delays in road maintenance operations. 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.
Japie Strydom said that the process to motivate for the machine of this magnitude does not happen overnight. "The process required months of thorough planning and motivation to the Department of Transport, to finally be in possession of a machine of this nature." He thanked Handré Strydom and the Department of Transport for the years of continued support in ensuring that the GRDM Roads Department has the resources available to give the Garden Route roads the necessary attention.