WHY CHOOSE SUCTION EXCAVATION

 

Suction excavation could deliver HSEQ, practical and financial benefits for your business.

HSEQ

• Fewer utility strikes: utility envelopes are becoming ever more crowded leading to an increased risk of utility strikes. Utility strikes can lead to serious injury and, in extremis, death. You are making a huge contribution to the health and welfare of your workforce by choosing suction excavation.

• Huge reduction in manual handling: manual handling – in particular hand-digging – is a major cause of injuries in the construction sector. Suction excavation eliminates this problem.

• Safety culture: using suction excavation shows you care for the health and safety of your workforce, and can lead to significant behavioural change on site when backed up with toolbox talks.

• Environmental: suction excavation minimises the potential for damage to tree roots.

• Professional finish: suction excavation delivers a neat and tidy excavation which looks more professional. The visual impact of your excavation activities is reduced which may be a critical factor in, for example, tourist locations.

Practical

• Smaller excavations: suction excavation can be tightly controlled and could minimise the ‘footprint’ of your excavation; sometimes by as much as 33%.

• Less disruption: a suction excavator’s telescopic arm and ability to ‘suck’ horizontally for over 100m means it can be located well away from the work itself. This can be a major benefit in busy city centre highways where traditional excavation methods can cause significant disruption to traffic flows.

• Flexible planning: with a suction excavator on site, excavation is no longer so much the critical path activity; excavation can proceed at the same speed, or quicker, as other activities.

• Location, location, location: excavating near historic monuments or sensitive industrial installations can be problematic due to the vibration of traditional excavation plant and equipment. Suction excavation has only minimal vibration and is far quieter than conventional diggers and compressors.

• Clean: a suction excavator captures dirt and dust as it excavates, keeping your site tidy and clean.

Financial

• The economics of risk reduction: utility strikes are dangerous both from a safety and an economic perspective. What is the financial impact of a utility strike for your business? Delays on site; HSE investigations; compensation; reputational costs…and more.

• Simplification of logistics: with suction excavation you can complete the excavation works before other trades require site access.

• Accurate scheduling: traditional excavation requires the co-ordination of multiple pieces of plant and work teams. With W M Donald’s suction excavators, you only have one call to make.

• Better resourcing: suction excavation means you are not using skilled team members – e.g. pipelayers – to undertake unskilled work digging holes. You can focus on core profit-generating work.

• Reinstatement cost savings: with suction excavation, both the volume of excavated material and the excavation footprint are reduced. Less material to landfill equals a reduction in landfill tax; smaller excavations requires less reinstatement materials.