High-Altitude Excavating

New holland E485 and E215B crawler excavators carried out work on there-opening of a road under the mouth of Mount Etna in Sicily at a height of 3300 m.

The machines operated between the lava flows that have covered the slopes of the largest active volcano in Europe in recent years and were used to reopen the road that was submerged by lava during the most recent eruption in 2006. The excavators, together with a wheel loader, were used to repair the infrastructure of the ski slopes, which were hit by volcanic eruptions.

Riccardo Antico, New Holland Construction manager for the Italian market, said the re-opening of the road meant that the sole link between the north and south sides of the volcano, a crucial connection in the case of an emergency, had been restored.