Reclamation of a woodland dirt track using the FAE RSL/DT

A new road to reach the Vaia Dragon, a work of art dedicated to the famous storm of 2018

The terrible storm Vaia wreaked havoc in Trentino Alto-Adige on October 28th, 2018. Tens of thousands of hectares of alpine forest were destroyed, leaving a bold and permanent mark on this Italian territory.

Today, what was destroyed by Storm Vaia lives on, thanks to world-renowned sculptor, Marco Martalar. After months of hard work, 3 thousand screws and 2 thousand shrubs that had been uprooted by the storm, he created the Dragon of Magrè, a towering sculpture measuring 6 meters tall and 7 meters wide. It is currently the largest wooden dragon in the world.

“The dragon is in Lavarone, on Alpe Cimbra, and attracts many tourists. For us locals, the dragon is a sign of support and courage”, said Fulvio Caneppele, owner of the “Soto al croz” farm and a FAE customer.

“A few months ago, the City Hall called us to commission a job, because, besides managing our farm, we also oversee activities on behalf of third parties. We needed to reclaim a dirt track leading straight to the sculpture. We all call it the Dragon of Vaia. The woodland dirt track had stones measuring 8 inches and larger and it was really difficult to drive on. We were asked to crush the stones and transform them into fine gravel.”

To do the work, Fulvio used his new FAE RSL/DT, a multitask head for tractors from 80 to 190 hp, capable of milling rock and asphalt, crushing stones and stabilizing the soil up to 28 cm deep. The most common applications for this model are stone and rock crushing, asphalt shredding and soil stabilization.

“It was one of the first jobs we completed with our new FAE. We processed around 500 meters of road by hooking it up to a Steyr CVT 6160, 160 hp tractor, that has a working speed of around 0.5 km/h. Fuel consumption ranged from 20 to 27 liters/hour and we were very satisfied by how the machine behaved and by its final product: a fine and uniform gravel.” Added Caneppele.

“In a few hours we completed the work on the road, so we were able to spend some time cleaning up an adjoining meadow, reclaiming an additional 400 square meters of terrain.”

What will be the next challenge for the new FAE RSL/DT?
“There will be many because we are counting on using our FAE for many years to come! Our next scheduled job is for land reclamation for a new crop. The RSL/DT will be very useful for crushing the stones in the land, and we plan to tackle tree stumps with a new miller specifically for wood – this is our latest endeavor to expand our fleet!”