Featuring a two-speed thrust drive, the JT60 drill power provides operators with the performance needed to drill through a variety of soils on a diverse range of jobsites.
“This power, combined with an innovative design, ensures increased project profitability for the end user,” Ditch Witch CEA Territory Manager Wayne Cox says.
Featuring a Tier 3 engine, the JT60 offers contractors 60,000 pounds of thrust and 9000 foot/pounds of rotational torque.
Drilling with a 200-horsepower diesel engine, the JT60 is also designed to deliver the power to bore through challenging underground obstacles, including rock and other hard, fractured soils.
“Heavy-duty anchor systems provide the necessary stability required during drilling and back reaming to use the machines’ full thrust capabilities when navigating challenging underground conditions, keeping the drill operating efficiently and the bore path stable at all times,” Cox says.
The power offered by the JT60 is just one of the reasons Matt and the team at Boremore Civil Group in Sydney chose the JT60 for their fleet.
“We work on a lot of remote projects in varying locations where ground conditions can differ dependant on location,” says Matt.
“We needed a drill we knew we could take to site and would handle whatever conditions we threw at it.”
Boremore Civil Group offer precision horizontal directional drilling (HDD) services throughout Australia. Working across all aspects of infrastructure including telecommunications, gas, electricity, water and sewer projects for major service providers. Matt and his team’s method of installation includes horizontal directional drilling and open cut trenching in all ground conditions.
“This type of drilling ensures minimal disruption to the community and environment,” says Matt.
“It’s the preferred way to install pipelines and other utilities, by drilling under roadways, rivers and mountainous regions we can use less equipment and lower sites costs.
“To do this we needed a reliable machine that’s not only fit for purpose but takes in to consideration operator comfort given our team can be in the machine for lengthy periods of time in quite isolated locations.”
The cab of the JT60 is climate-controlled, and features intuitive controls, an ergonomic seat, colour LCD engine display, an excellent view of all drill functions, and easy to operate intuitive carve mode reducing operator fatigue.
Featuring plenty of power and a rugged, reliable undercarriage, the JT60 Horizontal Directional Drill delivers the powerful combination operators need to get more done. The onboard, enclosed 150-gpm (560-I/min) fluid pump ensures productive drilling at greater distances, and the flow rate can be adjusted simultaneously with thrust/pullback and rotation.
The automated pipe-loading system fitted to the JT60 is designed to save contractors time and money. While the double rack-and-pinion thrust drive is field-proven and designed to push/pull through the long, tough bores. The two-speed thrust drive motor also provides exceptional low-speed drilling control as well as the high speeds necessary for rapidly loading drill pipe.
Boremore Civil Group was formed by Matt when he was just 20 years of age, building the business from the ground up. To this day Matt is still very hands on in the family business and is joined by his wife Bree, who handles the administration while he handles the project planning and plant operation for each project.
Matt and the team at Boremore Civil Group recently completed a job at the Mt Selywn Snowfields in Southern NSW where, as part of the sites rebuild after the fires in 2019, they are installing 2x140mm of power conduit and 1 x 63mm of communication conduit. The ground conditions have been extremely challenging with the rock in excess of 250mpa.
“It’s been a challenging but really rewarding project for our team to be part of,” Matt says.
“Seeing the devastation caused by the fires was horrible but knowing we are helping restore power to the site and assist in bringing the ski fields back to life, encourage tourism back into the area, has been really satisfying.”
Having owned a Ditch Witch AT30 for a number of years, Boremore Civil Group recently purchased the JT60 to handle a more diverse range of projects. The team is now able to take on jobs in small tight spaces in a variety of conditions as well as large diameter bores that can be up to 600m long. The two drills are complimented by a FM25, 400GPM recycling system and two large capacity vacuum units.
“This was the first job we used the Ditch Witch JT60 for and it handled the conditions really well,” Matt says.
“The project at Mt Selwyn presented a lot of challenges from the extreme temperatures to the tight timeframe required to have all the conduit laid for the site to be up and running for the 2022 ski season.
“As part of the project we also installed additional conduit, allowing for future upgrades or mains failure. By installing the infrastructure underground this time we can also hopefully eliminate or minimise the damages should another natural disaster occur in the future.”
With a powerful combination of rugged reliability and proven intuition, the JT60 is here to work more efficiently with less downtime.
For more information visit Ditch Witch CEA.
This article featured in the June edition of Trenchless Australasia.