Established over 40 years ago, WA Limestone is a family-owned company with quarries strategically located all over the Perth Metropolitan Area. It is known as one of the biggest suppliers of road construction materials in Western Australia.
The company’s director Steven Della Bona is no stranger to the quarrying industry. He has been instrumental in Limestone’s continued growth, which now encompasses the construction of sea walls and breakwaters among various other applications within the industry. He’s also a long-standing IQA member, former chairman of the IQA’s Western Australian branch and a former national IQA director.
Recently, Della Bonna’s business took on the breakwater construction on the Ocean Reef Marina, near Joondalup, about 30km north of Perth. Work is scheduled to be complete by 2022. Commissioned by the WA Government, the two breakwaters will stretch for two kilometres. Each breakwater is up to 18.5 metres high from the ocean floor and includes 650,000 tonnes of limestone and 300,000 tonnes of granite.
The heavy lifting of such materials has been secured with the recent purchase of a Hitachi ZX690LCH-5 mid-sized excavator. Della Bonna said Hitachi machines are “renowned for their reliability, performance and fuel economy”.
The ZX690LCH-5 features an optimised hydraulic system and engine which assures Della Bonna the machine will not only run efficiently but maintain high durability – in spite of the harsh weather conditions it will be subjected to along the coastline.
Striving to meet customer satisfaction and go the extra mile, Della Bonna remarked that “so far the machine has had outstanding reliability with minimal down time. In particular, the operator comfort and overall machine performance is second to none. We’re also enjoying the peace of mind the ConSite Oil technology has provided, allowing us to monitor the machine’s condition and operational performance in real time.
“I’m particularly impressed with the strength of the boom arm. It seems the Hitachi excavators are equipped with more steel in this area compared to other excavators which improves the overall lifting capacity,” he added.
This is WA Limestone’s first purchase of a Hitachi machine. Della Bonna acknowledged the support of Hitachi Construction Machinery’s major accounts manager Steve Gunn. “He made it very easy to access the information required and provided an honest timeline on machine delivery, so I could continue to meet the demands of the Breakwater construction project.”
For more information on equipment and services available through Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia), visit www.hcma.com.au
This article appears in the August issue of Quarry Magazine.