Canadian quarry puts North America’s first LiuGong 995F excavator to work

When Ocean Contractors needed to replace a production excavator at their Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, quarry, the timing was less than ideal. Their 90-tonne-class excavator had already been running over 16,000 hours when an engine oil sample indicated an imminent problem, accelerating the need to find a replacement in a size class that is not typically available off the lot.
As it happened, representatives from Atlantic Equipment were sitting across the desk from Steve Wellwood, vice president of Ocean Contractors, when he received the news.
“I said, ‘Do you have a 95-tonne excavator?’ James said, ‘Yes, we do.’ And I said, ‘Could you give me one?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I certainly can,'” Wellwood recalls.
The excavator Atlantic Equipment owner James Bond had in mind was the LiuGong 995F. Ocean Contractors had never owned a LiuGong excavator, and the 995F had no established operating history in North America. Today, that machine is the first LiuGong 995F sold and operating in North America, and it occupies a critical position in the company’s quarry operation, loading blasted rock for delivery to the primary crusher.
Ocean Contractors puts LiuGong 995F to work in high-production quarry
Ocean Contractors has worked at the quarry site in Nova Scotia since 1974 and purchased the operation roughly two and a half years ago. The acquisition gave the roadbuilding and construction contractor ownership of a quarry it had operated from for decades, supplying aggregates for its own operations as well as outside customers.
About 30 percent of the material produced at the quarry is consumed internally by Ocean Contractors’ operations, including its ready-mix concrete and asphalt production. The remaining 70 percent is sold to other customers.
The quarry processes approximately 8,000 tons of material per day, and the 995F works at the front end of that production process. Following blasting, the excavator loads rock into Cat 772 haul trucks for transport to the primary crusher.
Previously, Ocean Contractors relied on a combination of its outgoing 90-tonne-class excavator and a production-class wheel loader to keep that process moving. Replacing the high-hour machine meant filling a key position in an operation where maintaining production depends on keeping material moving to the crusher.​When Ocean Contractors needed to replace a production excavator at their Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, quarry, the timing was less than ideal. Their 90-tonne-class excavator had already been running over 16,000 hours when an engine oil sample indicated an imminent problem, accelerating the need to find a replacement in a size class that is not typically available off the lot.
As it happened, representatives from Atlantic Equipment were sitting across the desk from Steve Wellwood, vice president of Ocean Contractors, when he received the news.
“I said, ‘Do you have a 95-tonne excavator?’ James said, ‘Yes, we do.’ And I said, ‘Could you give me one?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I certainly can,'” Wellwood recalls.
The excavator Atlantic Equipment owner James Bond had in mind was the LiuGong 995F. Ocean Contractors had never owned a LiuGong excavator, and the 995F had no established operating history in North America. Today, that machine is the first LiuGong 995F sold and operating in North America, and it occupies a critical position in the company’s quarry operation, loading blasted rock for delivery to the primary crusher.
Ocean Contractors puts LiuGong 995F to work in high-production quarry
Ocean Contractors has worked at the quarry site in Nova Scotia since 1974 and purchased the operation roughly two and a half years ago. The acquisition gave the roadbuilding and construction contractor ownership of a quarry it had operated from for decades, supplying aggregates for its own operations as well as outside customers.
About 30 percent of the material produced at the quarry is consumed internally by Ocean Contractors’ operations, including its ready-mix concrete and asphalt production. The remaining 70 percent is sold to other customers.
The quarry processes approximately 8,000 tons of material per day, and the 995F works at the front end of that production process. Following blasting, the excavator loads rock into Cat 772 haul trucks for transport to the primary crusher.
Previously, Ocean Contractors relied on a combination of its outgoing 90-tonne-class excavator and a production-class wheel loader to keep that process moving. Replacing the high-hour machine meant filling a key position in an operation where maintaining production depends on keeping material moving to the crusher.