D7E Design Fits Plote Construction's Conservation Philosophy
During its more than 45 years in business, Plote Construction, Inc. (PCI) has steadily expanded its resources and capabilities, and today the company can handle virtually all phases of residential, commercial and municipal construction, including earthmoving, road building and utility installation. PCI, among the Chicago metropolitan area's ablest contractors, with large tollway- and airport-expansion projects to its credit, operates four asphalt plants, three sand-and-gravel operations, a limestone quarry and an imposing fleet of machinery-which recently has been expanded by adding a machine that is among the earthmoving industry's most innovative, the Cat D7E.

PCI considers the depth of its equipment fleet and the excellent condition of the fleet among its most valuable resources, so placing the D7E with the company was to place it in the hands of equipment experts. And the D7E, at work in one of PCI's aggregate operations, is gaining approval from people who are not easily impressed.

The design of the D7E, which allows it deliver 10 to 30 percent greater fuel-efficiency than dozers of like capacity, fits well with PCI's increasing efforts to conserve resources-both by recycling asphalt and concrete roadway material into reusable aggregate, and by processing construction debris into material with economic value to conserve landfill space.

Crossfire Construction Sees Cat D7E as Means to Green Goals
In the San Juan Basin, an arid and geologically diverse area that covers some 4,600 square miles where the four corners of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, a Cat D7E test unit is hard at work for Crossfire Construction, LLC. The area has ample reserves of coal, uranium, oil and natural gas. According to Crossfire's Curtis Valencia, the D7E is used primarily in the oilfield for location building, reclamation and cleanup.

"Crossfire was interested in being a test site for the D7E, because we do considerable work with major oil companies," says Valencia, "and most of them have acquired 'green' reputations for their work on alternative-energy projects and their efforts to eliminate waste. Crossfire is working to partner with these companies in their alternative-energy endeavors-as well as their energy-saving solutions. So the D7E seemed to fit well in the scope of what we're working toward. We believe the 'hybrid generation' of machines is the way of the future, and we wanted a close look at the technology."