A new motor grader has joined Horsham Rural City Council's road plant fleet.
The six-wheel-drive John Deere 672GP will be responsible for the important task of road re-construction and maintenance across the municipality.
The timing of its delivery is particularly valuable as HRCC gets to work repairing flood damaged roads.
"The new grader is a big step up in technology compared to the older machines. This allows it to provide much improved fuel economy, driver comfort and ease of operation," Acting Fleet Coordinator Tim McDonald said.
"Graders have traditionally been one of the more difficult pieces of equipment to master but manufacturers have incorporated GPS guidance technology to make operation easier and increase production and efficiency," he said.
With a road network that spans more than 3,000 kms, Council's graders can always be found working on road maintenance, improvement and rehabilitation.
"We aim to replace our graders every 10 years to obtain good trade in values while minimising repairs and down time," Mr McDonald said.
One of the new grader's first operations will be the reconstruction of Polkemmet Road in the north west of the municipality.
As well as sealed road construction work, the grader will be used for the gravel road re-sheeting program which will continue in the Haven and Wartook areas in coming weeks.
The new grader is one of five motor graders in the HRCC fleet and replaces an older model which has recently completed 10,000 working hours.
