Civil engineering company offers added value service on construction sites
For 21 years, GET Erdarbeiten & Tiefbau GmbH, under the management of Heiko Gros, has been serving its customers in the areas of demolition, drainage and earthworks. The transport of bulk materials and construction machinery as well as mobile construction waste recycling complete the steadily growing range of services offered by the civil engineering company located in Diez, Rhineland-Palatinate. At the helm of the family business with around 20 employees, the company founder is supported by his daughter Sabrina Gros and his son Jura Gros. Together they manage projects within a radius of up to 400 km. “As an established traditional company, however, we mainly work with long-term customers and licence partners or dedicate ourselves to more extensive projects such as currently a major demolition at an industrial group operating throughout Germany,” explains Heiko Gros.
Flexibility makes the difference
“Nevertheless, we also want to hold our own in the market when it comes to contracts from the private sector, for example demolitions of single-family houses,” adds Jura Gros, who is in charge of this business area at GET. “In the fast-moving day-to-day business, it is not only a matter of reliability and adherence to schedules, but also of short-term availability and far-reaching flexibility. Due to the generally prevailing shortage of land, many private builders decide to buy a developed plot of land, only to be able to start building directly on the same spot after demolition. Of course, a civil engineering company that offers demolition, redevelopment and excavation of the building pit from a single source has a clear advantage here – and ideally in such a way that no extra machines have to be hired for the overall service.”
As a company traditionally at home in the demolition and earthworks sector, GET has wheel loaders, excavators and trucks. However, in order to be able to start recycling construction waste directly on site, it used to be necessary to rent appropriate processing equipment, which was costly and time-consuming and whose limited availability could make it even more difficult to fulfil the order on time. For Heiko Gros, the decision was therefore made to stand on his own two feet in mobile construction waste recycling. Through a recommendation, he got in touch with Fischer-Jung Aufbereitungstechnik. As the central German partner of Metso Outotec, the Krefeld-based company specialises in the sale of crushing and screening plants.
Process-safe and manoeuvrable
The plant that came closest to GET’s operational needs was the Nordtrack J90 mobile jaw crusher from Metso Outotec. “The crusher had to be flexible enough to support us in the general processing of bulk materials such as construction debris, excavated earth and sand, while being compact enough to be used on confined private land and to be easily moved from one construction site to another,” explains Sabrina Gros, who is in charge of the project organisation. “The Nordtrack J90 is so interesting for us precisely because we can transport it on one of our normal four-axle low-loaders due to its manageable size and comparatively low weight. In addition, its crawler chassis makes it easy to manoeuvre on the construction site – especially where there is really little space available.”
Immediately after the pre-selection, a test plant was available for the first operations of Fischer-Jung Aufbereitungstechnik. Equipped with a water spraying system for dust suppression, an additional side discharge conveyor as well as a magnetic separator for the removal of impurities from the crushing process, the J90 was able to prove its performance under real conditions. In the rough everyday demolition and processing conditions, the plant delivered what it promised after thorough testing.
To close the gap in the classification of soils and recycling materials, the decision was made shortly afterwards during a roadshow event in Ettringen in favour of a mobile screening plant – a Lokotrack type ST2.3 from Metso Outotec. Together with the J90, it is to provide independent material preparation in the future and thus secure the business area.
Just two months after the purchase of both machines, Heiko Gros sums up: “We are very satisfied with the overall performance of the Nordtrack J90. Its features allow us the degree of flexibility we had envisaged from the outset, even in the case of spontaneous order acceptance. The Lokotrack ST2.3 mobile screening machine has also proved its worth and is to be used for the time being at a fixed location for screening various bulk materials. Both machines harmonise very well with each other. I would also like to thank Fischer-Jung Aufbereitungstechnik for their support: competent advice, short-term delivery and commissioning of both plants as well as service and handling convinced us right away.”
In order to continuously expand the range of services, GET is also planning a test plant for wood shredding. As soon as the results with the rental machine are available, the next operational decisions will be made.
