It has been a busy few months for the personnel at National Vegetation Management with the opening of their new branch in Newcastle, ordering new equipment, plus bringing a new Low Loader and Field Service Vehicle on line.

With the establishment of the Newcastle branch in July to better service the NSW region, National Vegetation Management has made a major commitment by basing several high production units in the city. Newcastle was chosen due to ongoing regional expansion in NSW and its proximity to Sydney.

The company is a truly national operation and to further improve efficiencies and service support a new Low Loader has been put into operation to move their own equipment around Australia. Managing Director Stephen Goodall says “Having control over the logistics and a new fully equipped field service vehicle will ensure we can meet our customer’s production schedule by reducing downtime whilst increasing utilisation of the equipment.”

The new Field Service Support vehicle will be in operation in October and will be fully equipped to handle 95 per cent of field work and will be stationed with equipment on major projects.

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In September, National Vegetation Management ordered a new 850 hp Vertical Mulcher which is due for delivery in January 2006. With twice the horsepower and three times the torque output of the current Vertical Mulchers, this new machine is expected to bring major production benefits especially with the Australian hard woods. The new unit is to be mounted on a new 30 tonne class excavator.

Over the past two months National Vegetation Management has completed several major easement clearing projects including a 28 kilometre x 50 metre easement for the new Kogan Creek Power Station, together with several other smaller powerline easement projects and a gas pipeline spur for Origin Energy.

Based on requests from customers, National Vegetation Management has also added Access Track Construction to their range of services. This new service enables them to hand over to the customer and/or construction crew a completed easement with some customers opting to tender the easement clearing separate to that of construction. This has proven to be beneficial, allowing environmental and other issues such as detailed surveying to be resolved prior to the construction company arriving. Stephen Goodall says “Often when we arrive on site, we are the first making a path and the construction and budget approvals are usually delayed so there is massive pressure on the construction company.”

This method of tendering has proven beneficial as it gives everyone more breathing space and staggers budget approvals. The construction crew have a set standard of easement, a detailed survey can be done after clearing and design problems can be resolved in a timely fashion rather than on the run. This method has proven to more effective in bringing contracts in within budget, lessening variations and wastage material. Another advantage is that with increasing lead times of construction materials, this method reduces construction time delay risks.

National Vegetation Management still have got a busy few months ahead with work and moving in to a new maintenance facility in Brisbane in December. Stephen says he thinks it will be a welcomed Christmas break!