Digging Up the Past

There was a time when the summer days in Mount Olive Township, New Jersey found families from New York City and Newark enjoying activities on the local lakes; summer nights featured bands like the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra at the Oasis and Wigwam nightspots.   By the 1950s, that era had largely ended, and the summer cottages were turned into year-round homes.

Today the Mount Olive Township Department of Public Works is transforming the infrastructure of that bygone era with the help of a community block grant and a Cat^® 420F2 IT Backhoe Loader.

The machine is doing all the trenching and backfilling on a project to replace storm drains. “The machine has done sewer lines, water mains, culverts - basically everything,” says Frank Wilpert, Jr., assistant director of Public Works.

Changing Attachments Quickly and Safely

Township crews operate the backhoe loader an average of 30 hours monthly. The quick coupler on the machine ensures every minute is used wisely. Mechanical attachments can be changed in less than 30 seconds from the cab. “We can go to a jobsite with a multiple set of tools for the front of the machine and not need to bring separate machines,” says Wilpert. “We can use a set of forks instead of bringing a loader with forks. We keep interchanging the attachments at the jobsite. There’s no downtime.”

Township personnel change oil on the 420F2 IT every 250 hours and adhere to the Caterpillar recommended preventative maintenance schedule with service from their Cat dealership, Foley Cat. The result: uptime on the machine is 99 percent. And for a governmental agency, nothing sounds sweeter than that.