ATHABASCA — In order to stick with the five-year replacement cycle, Athabasca County has ordered four new graders, a little bit ahead of schedule.
Due to wait times, council chose to order the four graders so they could be manufactured by the time they are needed to help the 13-grader fleet maintain the 2,400 kilometres of roads in Athabasca County.
“We’re still waiting on our graders from last year,” said the county's director of infrastructure Robert Dauphinee at the Oct. 11 regular meeting.
Last fall, the county ordered two Cat 150 graders for $1,020,000 and one John Deere 772 G/GP grader for $508,000, and one of the three has yet to arrive.
“The only thing I'm wondering about it says in preamble (of the information provided to council) that we're going to look at instead of going with the buyback we’re going to sell them through (auctioneers),” said Coun. Rob Minns.
Dauphinee said selling the equipment by auction will get a better price than the buy-back option.
“That would be the most advantageous option for us right now,” said Dauphinee. "The market for used graders is like any vehicle these days, it’s very high.”
Coun. Gary Cromwell wondered if the new order would be going through the same vendor who hasn’t delivered the last order.
“You said we're still waiting on one grader in the order last year,” said Cromwell. “What is the ETA (estimated time of arrival) on that and are we ordering from that supplier that cannot fill the order on time?”
“The latest ETA on that one is mid-November,” said Dauphinee, adding the fleet is comprised of a near 50-50 split of Caterpillar and John Deere brands of graders.
“The value of the equipment is relatively the same and the service they provide. We have some staff who love Cat and some John Deere so, we're looking at a two-and-two option that would work within the timelines they provide.”
The four additional replacement graders will cost $2,542,000 with an offset of $764,000 if the buy-back option is used.
Council passed the motion to buy the graders unanimously.
