Bobcat get stuck into digging Madrid out of the snow
This month’s Storm Filomena surprised the entire community of the Spanish capital city, Madrid. Its streets, parks, roads and airport woke up to a great accumulation of snow, as what was predicted to be just 20 cm of snowfall instead turned into a much bigger storm.
Sonia Royo, President of the community of the Polígono de Albresa de Valdemoro commercial area of the city covering 36 hectares and incorporating almost 600 affected companies, called in Bobcat Of, the Bobcat Authorised Dealer for the area, for help in carrying out snow removal tasks throughout the district.
Bobcat Equipment Reopens Routes into Valdemoro
Bobcat Of made available a fleet of Bobcat equipment for the snow removal, including two S510 skid-steer loaders and two TL30.70 telehandlers and four operators, who worked continuously over four days. The telehandlers operated on the wider avenues and in wider areas, while the compact loaders were engaged on the narrower streets or at the entrances to industrial buildings, clearing the way for vehicles and workers to access offices and warehouses.
The Bobcat S510 compact loader is ideal for this type of work owing to to its long wheelbase, providing greater traction force than other skid-steer models. This provides excellent stability for snow removal, whilst the radial lift design offers the perfect kinematics for pushing and loading snow, further aided by the greater reach at mid-height that it offers. This model can be equipped with heating and air conditioning, which allows operators to work in all conditions.
The TL30.70 telehandler has a reach of 7 m and with its compact dimensions, guarantees good access, excellent manoeuvrability and great comfort for operators, who worked for long hours without rest. Combining this with a lift capacity of 3 tonne, the TL30.70 offers a very good solution, that utilises its excellent short turning radius to manoeuvre and clean up in tight areas and hard to reach places.
Upon seeing how effective the Bobcat compact equipment from Bobcat Of was, the Valdemoro City Council also requested that the machines be used to clear the access roads in the Polígono area, including many of the entry roads and streets in the municipality.
Ferran Recio, Manager of Bobcat Of, comments: “The situation has been very complicated, with the access roads to the Polígono área and the warehouses totally blocked by snow. We received an avalanche of calls from private and public companies requesting Bobcat machines to remove snow and ice in different areas.
“With all of our Bobcat compact equipment working on the streets of Madrid, there was nothing else left to offer from our Bobcat rental fleet for several days. We have met all requests within our means. Nobody foresaw such a thing happening.”
Madrid Airport Also Utilised Bobcat Equipment
The historic snowfall forced the suspension of all operations at the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez airport, stopping all aircraft from taking off or landing on the runways. Eight Bobcat S450 skid-steer loaders equipped with heated cabs, snow blades and sweepers have worked day and night to clear the runways and airport facilities.
One of the special features of the Bobcat machines is their ability to clean right up to the edges of the planes, owing to their compactness and manoeuvrability in narrow spaces.
Using its fleet of Bobcat machines, Bobcat Of has helped various parts of the Madrid community to return to normal. Even in the most extreme of conditions, such as in this ‘once in a century’ snowfall that hit Madrid, Bobcat compact equipment shows its versatility, work capacity and high level of performance.
