Last Friday we received a call from a customer working on a coastal project to inform us that one of our excavators had become stuck in an inter tidal zone whilst on hire and carrying out some investigative works. Unfortunately the timing of the tides was not on our side and on Friday morning the machine became submerged under the waves of the high tide.

This is where it was agreed by the customer that we needed to get involved in order to safely recover this machine from the sea.

We assembled a recovery team made up of experienced people from across the group of companies to bring together people with backgrounds in earthworks, drainage, quarrying and engineering. The team quickly sprang into action and worked together to devise a plan to recover this machine safely and with zero environmental impact. Challenged with a twice a day high tide we needed to ensure everything was ready to commence work once the tide went back out and the machine was unsubmerged.

We quickly delivered to site a 30t excavator and a full load of crane mats to assist with the operation and after a number of hours of planning, digging, lifting and pulling, our team had freed the machine and loaded onto the low-loader ready to be transported back to the depot. Under the watchful eye of the environment agency, the recovery could not have gone any smoother and they commended us for our approach to the operation, recovering this machine safely and with zero environmental impact.

We feel that cases like this show the lengths we go to in order to support our customers. When things don’t go to plan, we are always on hand with the experience and knowledge to assist with the problem. It is a credit to the whole team who worked tirelessly throughout Friday to recover this excavator and get our customer’s works back on track.