My

My name is Gerhard Führer and I am an operator for Porr in Vienna, Austria. The company was established in 1869 and has become one of the largest construction groups in Austria. I have worked at the company for 25 years.

One of the group’s current projects is the demolition of the south railway station in Vienna. Porr is one of the main general contractors and has a total of 20 machines and 20 trucks at the 80,000m² site. The station is being demolished and will be replaced by a larger station with one main platform area instead of two.

Hitachi

Porr has nine Hitachi excavators, with four machines at this site: ZX350LCN, ZX250LCN-3, ZX350LC-3 and ZX470LCH-3. The ZX350LC-3 and ZX470LCH-3 are both high-reach machines (21m and 27m respectively) that are used for the demolition of the main ticket hall. The ZX350LC-3 has a combined attachment and the ZX470LCH-3 is equipped with a hammer. The ZX250LCN-3 has a grab attachment that is used to separate the material so it can be reused on another part of the site.

Experience

I have worked with several Hitachi excavators in the past and I only have positive things to say about them. I have used the ZX470LCH-3 since it was delivered in January 2010 and I particularly like the comfortable cab. The controls are responsive so it is easy to manoeuvre and extremely precise in high-reach operations.

The rate of fuel consumption is almost half that of another brand of machinery and it is also a powerful machine. The most important benefit for me personally is its 100 per cent availability – it never stands still.

Austria > ZX470 > Demolition