Martin & East buys another Bitelli

martin & east has become the first company in southern africa to purchase a bitelli sf 200l deep cut cold planer. this brings to three the number of machines that the cape town-based construction company has acquired ahead of the opposition.

zebra bituminous surfacing was founded in 1982 and is part of the martin & east group of companies. earlier this year, the company’s fleet grew with the purchase of a bitelli sf 101 cold planer from barloworld equipment, and last year, zebra bituminous surfacing was the first company in southern africa to acquire a caterpillar rr250 recycler. all three machines are for use on roads projects and perfectly complement one another.

the new bitelli cold planer has been well integrated into the fleet operated by zebra bituminous surfacing and has already proven its worth. the company has just completed a challenging contract on the hout bay main road, where it was the main contractor on a project to recycle the existing road.

the road was originally constructed using telford pack, which is a layer of single-size stones about two- to three-hundred millimetres in diameter. this is loosely packed together and overlaid over the years with gravel sub bases, basecourses, bitumen treated basecourses and premix overlays.

the original plan for the upgrading of the road was to recycle the existing layer to a depth of 250mm, however, because of the presence of the large boulders within this layer, the recycling operation was abandoned. the engineer then chose to upgrade the road by milling off 100mm of the existing layer and replace it with bitumen treated basecourse. zebra bituminous surfacing was asked to carry out this operation and the bitelli sf 200l proved to be the ideal machine for the job.

the hout bay main road carries large volumes of commuter traffic as it is the only access route to the town, so the milling and asphalt refilling had to be carried out at night. adding to the challenge of an already difficult job, this particular stretch of the road has a vertical gradient of 5-10% and a number of tight curves and corners.

zebra bituminous surfacing director mike winfield says "the bitelli sf 200l performed well under these conditions.

"the machine’s power to weight ratio was of benefit while milling on the steep slopes, while the computerised slope control and the automatic depth control ensured that the road was milled to the correct cross fall."

the bitelli milling machine’s speed and accuracy combined to complete the road reconstruction ahead of schedule with less disruption to traffic than would have occurred with conventional recycling methods. winfield adds, "on completion of the contract, the client, south peninsular administration, and the main contractor and consulting engineer declared themselves very satisfied with a quick and economical solution to what could have been a costly exercise."

the caterpillar-owned bitelli range of compaction and paving products was launched in south africa last year and martin & east were quick off the mark in recognising the quality of these road rehabilitation products. the recent increase in road rehabilitation work in the western cape meant that martin & east needed to expand zebra bituminous surfacing’s fleet of compaction and paving machines.

barloworld equipment in bellville was more than happy to assist them. salesman hugh holmes says, "as the bitelli range of road paving and compaction machines is relatively new in the country, we’re just as excited as the customer to see them proving themselves on the local roads."

bitelli cold planers are used to mill off the existing road surface so that a new surface can be laid down. the new bitelli sf 200l is suitable for milling highways and airport surfaces and offers a maximum milling width of 2000 mm. the previously purchased bitelli sf 101 is ideally suited for use in municipal areas and offers a milling width of