'Ditch Witch' digs deep ditches

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 40, 18 March 1986, Page 14

'Ditch Witch' digs deep ditches

Drivers travelling between Waiouru and Tangiwai last week were startled to see a huge machine ploughing deep ditches, planting cable in them and covering its own tracks, leaving paddocks tidy and clean. This was the Ditch Witch R200, recently purchased by Bob Odlun of Morrinsville, whose company Piako

Trenching is contracted to the Post Office to lay cables, in particular the delicate new fibre-optic cables which will revolutionise telephone transmission. The 200 horse power, four-wheel drive machine is the largest of its type made anywhere in the world, and the particular model seen last week is the only one outside the United States, according to Mr Odlun. Ditches are dug by a plough which vibrates at 1600 strokes a minute and develops 90,000 pounds of thrust. The power of the machine is such that huge rocks are broken up or pushed out of the.way. A cable drum is mounted on the front of the machine and cables are fed over the cab and guided into the freshly-dug ditch through a groove behind the plough. Two wheels mounted on the plough smooth the earth back into place leaving a

neat, zipper-like line as the only sign of disturbance. Bob Odlun said fibreoptic cables need to be covered with a metre of earth and the Ditch Witch is the only machine which can do it. Another advantage is that it can manouevre on ashphalt roads with its massive rubber wheels, unlike tracked vehicles. He went over to the manufacturers, the Charles Machine Works in Perry, Oklahoma, before Christmas, to assess the machine. The Ditch Witch has been used for fibre-optic laying there, as well as for research into plough blade design. A new machine is worth over a half million dollars but as his had been used for three years as a demonstration model, Bob was able to get it for about half price. Last week the Ditch Witch laid cable from the Desert Road to Winstone Samsung Industries Ltd in about six days.