The articulated haulers .. proven themselves in the harshest conditions.
Volvos work hard to green the desert
Volvo's articulated haulers are being put to good use on a major Egyptian irrigation scheme.
01 SEPTEMBER 2001
A total of 34 Volvo articulated haulers are currently operating on the Toshka irrigation scheme, a project that will eventually irrigate over 200,000 hectares of Egyptian desert by diverting water from Lake Nasser.
"The River Nile supplies 99 per cent of Egypt's irrigation water supply for its 3 million hectare cultivated area, but with a rapidly-expanding population, the country is being forced to find new ways in which to increase its water supply and cultivated land area," says Volvo spokeswoman Beatrice Cardon.
"Egypt has thus embarked on a programme to optimise its water supply and expand its agricultural land. By diverting water from Lake Nasser, the Ministry of Public Works hopes to irrigate previously uninhabited areas of the Eastern Desert."
The Toshka irrigation scheme consists of a giant pumping station on the eastern shores of Lake Nasser, from where water will eventually flow down a 50-km-long channel, known as the Sheikh Zayed Canal, and then into four branch canals, which in turn will feed a myriad smaller irrigation channels.
"Work on the Sheikh Zayed Canal is nearly complete," Cardon says. "This channel is
58 m wide at the top by 7 m deep, with a 2:1 slope for the sides. It will eventually be overlaid with a filling layer of sand and cement, followed by a waterproof membrane and a top layer of concrete."
"At the top edge on each side of the canal is an 8 m wide by 80 cm deep berm. This acts as a platform for dredging excavators, which will regularly clear the canal of debris. After 50 km, the canal splits into two guide channels.
"Guide channel 1 will be 22 km long before dividing into two branches of 25 km and 28 km lengths respectively. It will be
44 m wide at the top by 6 m deep, with a 2:1 slope for the sides. Meanwhile, the two branches will be 18 m wide at the top by 6 m deep, with a 2:1 slope for the sides, and eventually descend in size to 13 m in width and 3 m in depth.
"Guide channel 2 will be 20 km long before dividing into two branches of 20 km and 80 km in length.
"At present most of the earthmoving is being carried out on guide channel 1 and its two branches. "Here main contractor is a consortium of four companies.
"Because of the differing hardness of the rock, drilling and blasting as well as ripping by dozers is being employed to excavate the channels. Loaders and excavators then load the overburden on to the Volvo articulated haulers.
"Each of the four contractors has a fleet of machines which includes Volvo units. General Company for Land Reclamation has three Volvo A40 units, as well as two Volvo L220 wheel loaders on site. The Arab Company for Land Reclamation has six A35Cs, Egyptian lkaria Company has seven A35s and six A35Cs, while Wadi Komombo Company has four A35s, three A35Cs and five A40s.
"On average each of the companies' Volvo articulated haulers are working eight hours a day, six days a week. The excavated material, a mixture of sandstone, limestone and iron ore, is either dumped in the desert or, if it is pure limestone, used as a sub-base material for nearby asphalt roads.
''A typical round cycle involves on average a journey of 2 km, and each hauler completes a least 30 cycles a day.
"The Volvo A35s and A35Cs are carrying between 16-18 cu m every cycle, while the A40 units are averaging 20 cu m.
"All of the Volvo haulers have been delivered over the last four years and according to the contractors, they have proved themselves in some of the harshest conditions around."
In a region where summer temperatures can reach 50 deg C plus, the Volvo hauler's brakes cooling system has proved to be excellent, according to a spokesman for Wadi Komombo.
Once excavated, the channels are being concreted and lined at a rate of 80 m per day.
Many of the Volvo A35C haulers have been transferred from another major irrigation project in the Sinai desert, which was completed last year. Here the haulers successfully coped with similar high temperatures and loose sand on the El Sheikh Jaber Elsabah and El Salam canals.
"Both of these canals form the main channels of a new 150-km-long system to bring sweet water from the Damietta branch of the River Nile to the Sinai. The project is named after the Amir of Kuwait, who has provided the financial backing," says Cardon.
On this project water is pumped through
80 km of canals on the western side of the Suez Canal, three 16-m-diameter pipes under the Suez, and 70 km of canals to the east, rising up to 5 m above sea level.
"With its 12-litre engine, the 6x6 A35C is an extremely powerful hauler that can handle the toughest jobs. It has a very high capacity and is comparable to bigger units. With a top speed of 52.3 km/hr, the machine has a struck volume of 14.8 cu m and heaped volume of 19 cu m," Cardon says.
"The 6x6 Volvo A40 is the most productive articulated hauler that exists. Despite its payload capacity it is manoeuvrable, easy to operate and has the same fine off-road characteristics as other models. With a top speed of 52.6 km/h, the unit has a struck volume of 16.3 cu m and a heaped volume of 22 cu m."
Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) is a major international manufacturer of wheel loaders, articulated haulers, excavators, motor graders and compact equipment for the construction and related industries. VCE is part of the global Volvo Group, which is headquartered in Sweden.
