Plant & Equipment News from Highways.Today
Trailers, the Hidden Workhorses of Construction
Trailers, the Hidden Workhorses of Construction A compact excavator might spend eight hours digging trenches, but its profitability can depend on what happens before the first bucket touches the ground. If the machine cannot reach the jobsite on time, its capabilities become irrelevant. Across the construction industry, equipment trailers perform an essential but frequently overlooked … Read more…
Trimble Expands 3D Excavator Grade Control with Dual DA2 GNSS Receivers
Trimble Expands 3D Excavator Grade Control with Dual DA2 GNSS Receivers Trimble is introducing a lower-cost configuration of its Earthworks 3D grade control system for excavators, using two DA2 GNSS receivers to make machine control more accessible to small and medium-sized construction contractors. Scheduled for availability in mid-Q4 2026, the new configuration combines Trimble’s ProPoint… Read more…
The Economics of Moving Earth
The Economics of Moving Earth Why Construction Machinery Productivity Depends on Much More Than the Machine Two identical hydraulic excavators are working on separate earthmoving projects. Both have the same engine power, operating weight and bucket capacity. Both are mechanically sound and operated by experienced personnel. Yet by the end of a ten-hour shift, one … Read more…
Caterpillar Introduces Three Compact Excavators Built for Different Demands
Caterpillar Introduces Three Compact Excavators Built for Different Demands Caterpillar has introduced three compact hydraulic excavators designed around the different demands of restricted access, machine stability and lifting performance. The new Cat 301 CR, 302.4 CR and 302.6 cover the one-tonne to 2.6-tonne classes, offering contractors a choice between retractable undercarriages, compact-radi… Read more…
John Deere Expands Compact Grading with SmartGrade Box Blades
John Deere Expands Compact Grading with SmartGrade Box Blades John Deere has introduced two SmartGrade box blade attachments for its 333 and 335 P-Tier compact track loaders, bringing integrated grade control to finish grading applications without requiring a dedicated grading machine. The BX07 and BX08 combine hydraulically controlled blade hardware with the loaders’ onboard systems, …… Read more…
Volvo VNX Brings Heavy-Haul Capability to North America’s Construction Fleets
Volvo VNX Brings Heavy-Haul Capability to North America’s Construction Fleets Volvo Trucks has introduced the all-new Volvo VNX for North American construction, vocational and heavy-haul operations, with gross combination weight ratings reaching 200,000 lb (90.7 tonnes), a range of specialist chassis configurations and technology designed for manoeuvring heavy vehicles in demanding operating… Read more…
Ritchie Bros. Expands Orlando Heavy Equipment Auction to Six Days for 2027
Ritchie Bros. Expands Orlando Heavy Equipment Auction to Six Days for 2027 Ritchie Bros. will extend its annual February Orlando heavy equipment auction from five to six days in 2027, following an event that attracted more than 19,500 registered bidders from over 80 countries. The expanded programme will run from 15–20 February, with five days … Read more…
Why Construction Machines Look the Way They Do
Why Construction Machines Look the Way They Do In 1885, an American road inspector named J.D. Adams developed an improvement to the horse-drawn grader that remains recognisable on modern machines. Rather than keeping the front wheels rigidly upright, Adams devised a mechanism that allowed them to lean sideways, helping the grader resist the forces generated … Read more…
RB Global Expects Stronger Marketplace Trading as Equipment Sales Grow
RB Global Expects Stronger Marketplace Trading as Equipment Sales Grow Billions of dollars’ worth of construction machinery, commercial vehicles and industrial assets change hands through RB Global’s marketplaces every year, providing a substantial secondary market for equipment that may have many years of working life remaining. The business is expecting another year of growth in R… Read more…
From Horsepower to Kilowatts – The Evolution of Construction Machinery
From Horsepower to Kilowatts – The Evolution of Construction Machinery In 1895, the British Army’s statutory allowance for each horse placed in civilian quarters was 10 lb of oats, 12 lb of hay and 8 lb of straw every day. A large working stable therefore consumed tonnes of forage before any useful work was done. … Read more…
High Voltage Takes Hyundai Electric Forklifts to 18 Tonnes
High Voltage Takes Hyundai Electric Forklifts to 18 Tonnes An 18-tonne forklift working around a steel yard, port or precast concrete plant presents a rather different electrification problem from a warehouse truck moving pallets between racking. Hyundai Material Handling is now targeting precisely that territory. The completion of its B-X range extends the manufacturer’s high-voltage …… Read more…
Flannery Adds 97 Kubota Excavators in Major Fleet Investment
Flannery Adds 97 Kubota Excavators in Major Fleet Investment Utility work places different demands on construction equipment from a conventional building or major infrastructure site. Machines may move repeatedly between small excavations, roadside interventions and emergency repairs, making transport speed and attachment availability almost as important as digging capacity. Flannery Plant Hire ha… Read more…
Keeping Connected Construction Machinery Online Across Borders
Keeping Connected Construction Machinery Online Across Borders A Komatsu excavator working in Saudi Arabia presents few unusual mechanical challenges simply because it was built for an international market. Its diesel engine, hydraulic system and undercarriage do not particularly care which side of a national border they occupy. The communications equipment transmitting operating data from that &#… Read more…
John Deere Targets the Transport Sweet Spot with New 40 P-Tier Excavator
John Deere Targets the Transport Sweet Spot with New 40 P-Tier Excavator John Deere is adding a new machine between its 35 P-Tier and 50 P-Tier compact excavators, targeting a particularly useful part of the market where digging performance, attachment capability and transport weight have to coexist. The new 40 P-Tier Compact Excavator is scheduled … Read more…
Miller Plant Invests in Smarter Cat Earthmoving Fleet
Miller Plant Invests in Smarter Cat Earthmoving Fleet Miller Plant Ltd has committed £1.7 million to a seven-machine Caterpillar fleet for civil engineering and infrastructure work across north-east Scotland, combining additional earthmoving capacity with onboard safety, grading and fleet-management technology. The Inverurie-based contractor’s order from Finning UK & Ireland includes a Cat 966… Read more…
Mascus at 25 and the Evolution of Used Equipment Sales
Mascus at 25 and the Evolution of Used Equipment Sales Selling a used excavator across borders was a considerably more cumbersome business when Mascus launched its first website in Helsinki in January 2001. Machinery dealers still depended heavily on printed classified advertising, established trading relationships, physical yards and telephone enquiries, while presenting hundreds of thousands … Read more…
Volvo A45 Hauler Makes its Japanese Quarry Debut
Volvo A45 Hauler Makes its Japanese Quarry Debut A one-tonne increase in payload does not sound particularly dramatic on a machine already capable of carrying more than 40 tonnes. Repeated hundreds of times through a quarry haul cycle, however, small changes in payload, loading accuracy and fuel consumption begin to accumulate. That is the operating … Read more…
Autonomous Rollers Move into Production on Puerto Rico Airport Project
Autonomous Rollers Move into Production on Puerto Rico Airport Project Three autonomous compaction rollers are working together on the construction of a new runway at Rafael Hernández International Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, with a single operator supervising all three machines. Ferrovial has adapted the rollers to operate autonomously within predefined working areas, following planned … Read more…
Develon Puts Machine Intervention and Electric Excavation to Work at steinexpo
Develon Puts Machine Intervention and Electric Excavation to Work at steinexpo Construction machinery safety systems are beginning to cross an important boundary. Cameras, radar and object detection have spent years giving operators more information about what is happening around a machine. Develon’s latest excavator technology goes further, allowing the machine itself to respond when a R… Read more…
Komatsu Pushes Excavator Development Closer to Asia’s Jobsites
Komatsu Pushes Excavator Development Closer to Asia’s Jobsites Komatsu is expanding its excavator range for Asian growth markets with three machines spanning the 7-tonne and 20-tonne classes, but the more interesting development is taking place behind the specifications. The new PC75-10M0 is the first hydraulic excavator developed under the leadership of Komatsu India Private Limited … Read more…
HD Construction Equipment and Manitou Building a Bigger Compact Machinery Business
HD Construction Equipment and Manitou Building a Bigger Compact Machinery Business HD Construction Equipment and Manitou Group have agreed to exchange compact construction equipment across their respective product portfolios, creating a cross-distribution arrangement that gives both manufacturers a faster route to broaden their machinery ranges. For HD Construction Equipment, the agreement carries… Read more…
From Toilet Paper to Robots – How Road Crack Sealing Has Evolved
From Toilet Paper to Robots – How Road Crack Sealing Has Evolved In November 2016, Highways.Today published one of those stories that sounded too ridiculous to ignore. Road maintenance crews in Littleton, Colorado, were repairing cracks in asphalt and then covering the fresh sealant with toilet paper. There was nothing particularly sophisticated about it. The … Read more…
Xwatch Safety Tech Moves Into Fleet Specification at Select Plant Hire
Xwatch Safety Tech Moves Into Fleet Specification at Select Plant Hire Around 30 new JCB machines entering the Select Plant Hire fleet are passing through an Xwatch installation programme as part of a wider £5 million equipment investment, putting machine safety technology into the specification before much of the new plant reaches its working environment. … Read more…
Ritchie Bros. Lines Up 1,300+ Lots for UK and Ireland Equipment Auction
Ritchie Bros. Lines Up 1,300+ Lots for UK and Ireland Auction More than 1,300 equipment lots are now listed for Ritchie Bros.’ UK and Ireland unreserved auction on 23 and 24 September, bringing excavators, dozers, access equipment, telehandlers, trucks and agricultural machinery together for one of the larger equipment sales of the autumn. The live … Read more…
Palletised Variable Message Sign Removes the Trailer from Urban Roadworks
Palletised Variable Message Sign Removes the Trailer from Urban Roadworks Variable message signs have spent decades travelling with their own trailers. SG has now separated the two, developing a pallet-mounted VMS that can be delivered, positioned and moved using a shared lifting trailer, forklift or lorry-mounted crane rather than carrying a dedicated towable chassis beneath … Read more…
Updated Volkswagen Caddy Rolls Off the Line in Poznań
Updated Volkswagen Caddy Rolls Off the Line in Poznań Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has started production of its updated Caddy in Poznań, Poland, extending a manufacturing programme that has produced almost 2.9 million examples at the plant since 2003. The changes are evolutionary rather than a wholesale redesign. Volkswagen has concentrated on the areas drivers encounter … Read more…
HKX Brings Field-Installed Hydraulics to Wheel Loaders
HKX Brings Field-Installed Hydraulics to Wheel Loaders Ordering a wheel loader with auxiliary hydraulics can mean a factory lead time of 12 to 20 weeks, according to HKX. The company’s first field-installable hydraulic kits for wheel loaders are designed to move that configuration work from the factory to the dealer workshop, allowing machines already in … Read more…
Buying a Used Excavator Without Buying Someone Else’s Problems
Buying a Used Excavator Without Buying Someone Else’s Problems A used excavator with clean paint, reasonable hours and an attractive price can still conceal an expensive history. Worn undercarriages, tired hydraulic components, structural repairs and undocumented modifications rarely show themselves in the sales photographs, but they can quickly become the most expensive part of ownership. … Read more…
Develon Refines DX35Z-7 Mini Excavator for Confined-Site Work
Develon Refines DX35Z-7 Mini Excavator for Confined-Site Work Develon has reworked its four-tonne zero-tail-swing mini excavator with a new engine, altered boom geometry and faster arm movement, concentrating much of the engineering on visibility, hydraulic response and the everyday operation of the machine. The upgraded DX35Z-7 uses Develon’s 18.4 kW DW01 Stage V diesel engine … Read more…
Carbon-Fibre Dust Puts Electric Compressor Design to the Test at Hexcel
Carbon-Fibre Dust Puts Electric Compressor Design to the Test at Hexcel Electrifying industrial equipment becomes a rather different engineering proposition when conductive carbon-fibre dust is circulating through the building. That was the problem facing composite materials manufacturer Hexcel when it needed to replace the standby compressed-air capacity at one of its production facilities. Previ… Read more…
Volvo Electric Machines Put Nuremberg’s Zero-Emission Tender to the Test
Volvo Electric Machines Put Nuremberg’s Zero-Emission Tender to the Test Nuremberg has turned the demolition of a former nursery into an unusual test of municipal procurement. The German city required the Sauerbrey site in Westpark to be demolished without conventional combustion-powered machinery, extending the requirement beyond excavators and loaders to the trucks moving material from … Read more…
HKX Acquisition Takes MPS into Construction Equipment
HKX Acquisition Takes MPS into Construction Equipment Multi Parts Solutions has entered the construction equipment sector through the acquisition of HKX, bringing a specialist in excavator hydraulics and electronic control integration into a business previously concentrated on automotive and commercial vehicle markets. The deal makes Monroe, Washington-based HKX the third operating division of MPS… Read more…
MAJOR Takes High-Vibration Screening into the Basalt Quarry at steinexpo
MAJOR Takes High-Vibration Screening into the Basalt Quarry at steinexpo Screening equipment rarely receives the attention given to crushers, excavators and loaders in a quarry, yet comparatively small changes at the screen deck can have consequences throughout the production process. Blocked apertures restrict capacity, incorrectly sized material becomes carryover, abrasive rock accelerates wear… Read more…
Volvo R70 Rigid Hauler Makes European Debut at Bettenfeld Quarry
Volvo R70 Rigid Hauler Makes European Debut at Bettenfeld Quarry Europe’s first Stage V Volvo R70 rigid hauler has entered service at SHF Steinbruchbetriebe’s Bettenfeld Quarry in Germany, where rigid haulers routinely accumulate between 25,000 and 35,000 operating hours. Built at Volvo Construction Equipment’s Motherwell facility in Scotland, the 65-tonne machine joins a quarry… Read more…
Making Existing Diesel Trucks Compatible with Electric Highways
Making Existing Diesel Trucks Compatible with Electric Highways Europe has spent years proving that heavy trucks can draw power from overhead lines while travelling at motorway speeds. Germany’s ELISA field trial ran from 2019 until the end of 2024, putting specially equipped trucks into real traffic and recording more than 146,000 kilometres under catenary power. … Read more…
Mountain Bike Trail Building Turns to On-Site Material Processing
Mountain Bike Trail Building Turns to On-Site Material Processing Mountain bike trails may be built for recreation, but beneath the berms, rollers and carefully shaped corners sits a surprisingly conventional earthworks problem. Material has to be excavated, graded, placed and compacted, while water has to be controlled and the finished surface must withstand repeated loading … Read more…
Seven Liebherr Cranes Coordinate Ulm’s B10 Bridge Reconstruction
Seven Liebherr Cranes Coordinate Ulm’s B10 Bridge Reconstruction Replacing a major road bridge above an operating railway is as much a problem of space and logistics as it is one of lifting capacity. In Ulm, Germany, seven Liebherr tower cranes are being assembled into a coordinated lifting system for the reconstruction of the Wallstraßenbrücke, where … Read more…
Ritchie Bros. Takes Heavy Equipment Bidding Fully Mobile
Ritchie Bros. Takes Heavy Equipment Bidding Fully Mobile Buying a used excavator, truck or wheel loader at auction no longer necessarily requires a buyer to stop what they are doing, open a laptop and settle in front of a browser. Ritchie Bros. has redesigned its mobile application to bring the complete bidding process inside the … Read more…
Mastenbroek Refines 20/15 Drainage Trencher for 2026
Mastenbroek Refines 20/15 Drainage Trencher for 2026 A machine first introduced in 1981 might seem an unlikely place to look for equipment development, but Mastenbroek’s latest 20/15 drainage trencher makes a good case for evolution rather than reinvention. The Lincolnshire manufacturer has updated the long-running self-propelled machine for 2026, concentrating on the things that determine &… Read more…
Used Equipment Supply Tightens as European Buyer Demand Accelerates
Used Equipment Supply Tightens as European Buyer Demand Accelerates Demand for used tractor units across Europe rose 72% year-on-year during the second quarter of 2026 while the number advertised for sale fell by 26%. Few figures capture the current condition of Europe’s secondary equipment market quite so neatly. Ritchie Bros.’ latest European Market Trends Report … Read more…
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