MORGANTON – Division 13 employees are some of the most skilled heavy equipment operators in the state.
More than 120 employees tested those skills against each other earlier this week following training sessions at the Division 13 Equipment Operator Safety Training conference at the Burke County Maintenance yard.
The annual two-day event brings together employees from seven counties — Buncombe, Burke, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey — for sessions on safety and competition against each other on one of eight machines they regularly use on the state highway system in the greater Asheville area.
Employees steered dump trucks through an obstacle course, towed a lowboy trailer through a similar path, worked the blade of a motorgrader to various heights while rolling, and new this year, maneuvered a skid-steer in tight quarters.
“This is an excellent event for our younger operators to watch the veteran operators and learn some of the procedures and techniques that experienced operators use to get the most of the equipment,” Division 13 Engineer Tim Anderson said. “It’s also an opportunity for everybody across the seven counties to interact in a controlled environment that is not on the side of a highway.”
The following winners earned a trip to Raleigh to compete for a state championship later this summer:
• Lowboy Trailer: Peyton Rose, Buncombe County Maintenance
• Motorgrader: Jonathan Hunter, Madison County Maintenance
• Tandem-Axle Dump Truck: Steve Lovelace, Rutherford County Maintenance
• Backhoe: Tanner Rose, McDowell County Maintenance
• Skid-steer: Joshua Jones, Rutherford County Maintenance
• Tractor Mower: Skyler Ramsey, Burke County Maintenance
• Single-Axle Dump Truck: Patrick Russell, McDowell County Maintenance