Tag Team Heavyweights

We had to snap this picture because it is so rare to find both the Antraquip AQM 150 (left) and the Mitsui Miike (right) road headers under blue skies.  The road headers are highly mobile tracked tunneling machines used for conventional excavation.  Don’t let the well worn appearance of these machines fool you.  At a combined 90-tons these two heavyweights were built to chew up hard rock deep underground.  But even big bad machines need a day in the sun for routine maintenance.

This dynamic duo, Mitsui Miike and his sidekick, Antraquip, are “experienced” tunnel excavators and were instrumental in cutting through hard Briones sandstone, Great Valley shales, and a host of varied ground formations.  Meantime, a third roadheader, Antraquip’s twin brother is taking its turn in the mines and recently scored a single day record of 60 feet of tunnel excavation in one heading—as much daily excavation as produced by three headings just last year.  Together the three roadheaders have been instrumental in mining over 11,000 feet of tunnel as of August 2012.

Great job big boys and enjoy the day in the sun!