Bell ADTs fuelling success for L.E.S

Land Engineering Services purchase four Bell B50Ds for colliery reclamation scheme in Fife

LAND Engineering Services (L.E.S) have purchased four of Bell Equipment’s flagship B50D articulated dumptrucks to haul overburden at a former coal mine in Scotland. The deal represents the first venture into Bell ADTs by the Wakefield-based land restoration and surface mining specialists.

All four trucks are at work at Comrie Colliery, in Fife, which is currently undergoing a massive reclamation scheme. According to Iain Devine, director of Land Engineering Services, the sheer size of the operation demanded an uplift in handling capacity from the company’s existing 40-tonne ADTs.

‘We wanted to stick with articulated dumptrucks, but we needed bigger capacity, so we decided to go with the Bell B50D, which is still the biggest ADT on the market. They suit the difficult conditions, the site and our overall operation very well,’ he said.

Mr Devine said that Bell’s advanced GPS-based Fleetm@tic management system was also showing that the Bell trucks were returning much better fuel consumption figures than the 40-tonne machines from another leading manufacturer, which had previously operated on site.

‘Fuel consumption on the Bells is between 18 and 22 litres/h, depending on conditions, gradient and distance,’ he said, ‘which is a real improvement on what we were getting before.’

The former Comrie Colliery is recognized as the largest area of post-industrial dereliction in West Fife, with over 100ha of land currently unfit for conventional countryside use.

L.E.S will be extracting an estimated 680,000 tonnes of remaining coal resource from the site over the next few years and will use the revenues to bring the vast area back into use as countryside.

The B50D trucks are each shifting about 3,000 tonnes of overburden per day – approximately 270 tonnes per hour – as part of the project. The contract for three of the four new B50Ds was signed at this year’s Hillhead exhibition (pictured), with a fourth machine ordered more recently.

Nick Learoyd, sales and marketing manager for Bell UK, said: ‘Bell have been in talks with Land Engineering Services regarding this deal for more than a year now, so we’re absolutely delighted to finally put pen to paper. They’re a great company to work with and we’re over the moon that L.E.S have put their faith in Bell.’