Caterpillar 988G Tunnel Loader - Mucking out in Record Time in NorwayThe NY E39 Oysand-Thamshamn road project, near Trondheim in Norway, includes six bi-directional tunnels with a total length of 10,060 m. It is the first BOT highway project in Norway, and is being undertaken by international construction giant Skanska.Along the alignment of the E39, the important 1.7 km-long x 65 sq m Mannsfelltunnel is being driven using drill/blast techniques in green slate and glimmer gneiss. At the main face of the Mannsfelltunnel, the new 57 t, 475 HP Caterpillar 988G wheel loader, equipped with a 6 cu m side dump bucket, has been demonstrating its outstanding production capability. With an average loading cycle of 35 seconds, and a bucket load fill factor of 1.1, the Cat 988G is achieving up to 930 t/h whenever trucks are continuously available. This means that a full face with drill depth of 5.0 m is mucked out in just over an hour, considerably reducing the overall production cycle time, and increasing the daily tunnel advance. Click no/41.Caterpillar Tunnelling Industries is developing a series of loaders and excavators suited to tunnelling. For more information contact Stauffer_peter@cat.com at Caterpillar European HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. 02/04.