The versatile W 210 from Wirtgen America Inc. is as much at home doing urban milling in congested San Francisco, as it is doing utility cuts for suburban gas-line repairs, a San Francisco Bay-area contractor has found.
Last December, ABSL Construction, Hayward, Calif., was using two of its W 210s to undertake maintenance milling in the streets of San Francisco and utility cuts south of the city as natural-gas pipelines are upgraded in the area.
“In San Francisco we are using the W 210 to do a 2-in. grind full-width [6 ft 7 in.],” said ABSL’s Quinto Allende. “And near Stanford University we are removing 9 in. of asphalt cold mix, basically digging out a 9-ft-wide trench for utility repair.”
ABSL is a long-time user of Wirtgen cold mills. The firm currently has a wide array of more than 20 cold mills, and the contractor has benefited from the technological improvements the W 210 has over its predecessor, the W 2100.
ABSL’s W 210s have a unique fuel-saving drive concept utilizing two diesel engines, generating a total of 671 hp with both engines engaged. Its CE operating weight is 62,126 lb.
“The W 210 has two engines, so it has a lot more power,” Allende said. “It won’t overheat and can work hour after hour with no problems.”
In late 2012 the W 210 was updated by the Tier IV-interim-compliant W 210i, with very similar specifications. Their Parallel-to-Surface (PTS) technology automatically keeps the cutter housing level as the W 210 or W 210i move into a cut, accelerating production.
“Once you finish a cut, you turn off automatic, pushing one button, and the machine just lifts up out of the cut all by itself,” Allende said. “It’s one less thing for the operator to think about.”
Asphalt and concrete milling is one of the most abrasive environments for any machine, but the new Vacuum Cutting System (VCS) option will remove dust, fines and smoke from the cutter chamber and extract it out the conveyor, keeping the machine cleaner and prolonging component life.
“The VCS works well,” Allende said. “There are jobs where they really want to minimize dust, such as when we work at San Francisco International Airport. They want to keep dust down for visibility but don’t want us to use a lot of water, as they want to pave the cut back on the same shift. The vac system picks up a lot of that fine material and is an ideal system to use on a job like that.” R&B
