Sweeper Attachments On The Job

Versatile attachments keep jobsites clean, make skid steers more productive.

1130175183129 10304463

A growing trend among pavement contractors and municipalities is maintaining surfaces during and after pavement projects, such as re-surfacing a street, driveway, or trails. These groups are looking to their compact equipment dealers to help them with a cost-effective solution to keep the area clean. One answer has been angle broom or sweeper attachments, which can be easily added or removed to an existing attachment carrier.

More and more, contractors are being asked — or even required by local legislation — to reduce the amount of dust generated during road construction, according to Greg Rostberg, Bobcat Company marketing manager.

"One way of dealing with this challenge is by attaching an angle broom on the front and integrating a water kit," says Rostberg.

Angle broom attachments, which are hydraulically driven, clear dirt, dried mud, light snow, and other debris from roadways, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, loading docks, and warehouses.

Keeping paving jobsites tidy
Jim Robinson founded Robinson Paving Inc. in Chantilly, VA, more than 20 years ago. Since then, the company, which specializes in asphalt driveways, trails, parking lots, tennis courts, and asphalt sealing, has grown to 35 employees.

New driveway construction is a special niche Robinson says he has cultivated by working with 21 homebuilders in the northern Virginia area. He says that part of building a good rapport with homebuilders is being able to meet their pressing deadlines and maintaining a clean jobsite. In order to do this, Robinson makes sure his five crews are stocked with the equipment they need. For Robinson Paving that means a Bobcat® skid-steer loader and several attachments.

When Robinson Paving's crews show up in a new housing development, they get right to work. In some areas where there is limited access, the crews must use the loaders to transport the asphalt from the truck to the paver. Once the material has been laid, the crew will attach an angle broom to clean up any excess material.

"I'm using the angle brooms with my builders to make sure that when we finish what we're working on, we leave the jobsite as clean or cleaner than when we got there," he says. "It's better to have the broom attachment … they know that evening, somebody has to get in there and sweep everywhere we've been. It just makes for good clean-up policy."

With 55 years of experience in the business, Miller Brothers Construction, Archbold, OH, knows bridges: how to build them, how to repair them, and how to do it cost-effectively. They also know how to keep them clean during and after construction: they use a broom attachment on their all-wheel steer loader.

Miller Brothers stations an all-wheel steer loader at each of its bridge projects, equips the loader with a broom and other attachments — and crews keep the loader and attachment plenty busy. The broom attachment helps protect people working at the site from dust, and also is used to suppress jobsite dust.

Keeping the jobsite neat and clean is just a matter of hooking up the Bobcat angle broom attachment, which can take only minutes with the Bob-Tach™ mounting system.

Year-round use for broom attachments
During the winter, the angle broom attachment becomes a popular tool for removing snow from surfaces where larger equipment can't reach.

Dave Desmeules, supervisor of support services for the City of Calgary Wastewater Treatment Plants, says he started looking for a machine to help with snow removal because the wastewater treatment plants rank lowest on the city's snow removal priority list.

"The plant staff used to do all of the grass cutting and snow removal and we had all of our own equipment, but we have since contracted out this service," Desmeules says. "We were then at the mercy of the contractor to get here. We had to wait for the plows to clear access to certain areas before we could deploy staff to facilitate repairs to the equipment."

So the plant purchased an angle broom attachment for their Toolcat 5600 utility work machine and has since been able to remove snow without waiting for the plows. Desmeules says the angle broom's bristles easily push light-to-moderate snowfalls off of surfaces.

In another northern city, Shoreview, MN, crews rely on angle broom attachments to supplement their plowing efforts.

Pat Dunn, City of Shoreview, uses an angle broom attachment to reach those difficult areas where larger equipment doesn't fit. Shoreview's crews attach the broom to a skid steer to sweep snow off sidewalks. They also use the brooms to plow areas of the city that had never been cleared that winter.

"It worked really well," Dunn says.

Ryan Johnson, Two Rivers Marketing, writes for Bobcat Company, West Fargo, ND.

Companies in this article
Latest