AGILE ADAPTABLE & ABLE

Montdami Constructions & CAT Dealer William Adams Make a Formidable Partnership

As one of Australia’s leading Caterpillar dealers, William Adams’ partnership with the manufacturer stretches back to 1926 – just a year after the first Caterpillar branded two-ton tractor, the Caterpillar Sixty, rolled off the assembly line.

The William Adams story itself dates back to 1884 when William John Adams began a trading business marketing famous brands of railway equipment in the booming Melbourne economy. It soon became a merchant company of note, featuring a remarkable line-up of products.

Today, though, the company is synonymous with one brand – Caterpillar – serving a broad range of customers through economic booms and recessions alike, with a commitment to customer service of the highest level.

The dealership has certainly made its mark, helping its customers to build roads and highways, city skyscrapers, dams for water and power generation for regional and metropolitan projects alike, and huge industrial developments.

"NO MATTER WHERE WE TURNED THERE WAS A CAT MACHINE BUSILY AT WORK ON A MAJOR HOUSING PROJECT IN THE ROWVILLE AREA OF MELBOURNE."

Among those loyal customers is Montdami Constructions, a family-owned business involved in the civil construction and urban development industry across Greater Melbourne since 1976. The company prides itself on being agile, adaptable, and able. It is an efficient, energetic, innovative, and dynamic company that works alongside an expertly trained and veteran team of civil engineers and construction specialists. It has worked on some of Victoria’s most prestigious projects over the past 40 plus years, and it benefits from a wealth of experience in all facets of earth works including road works, residential sub-divisions, stormwater retention systems, open channels, watermain construction, soil remediation, bridges, retaining walls and amenities such as golf course redevelopment.

Clearly, too, Montdami Constructions is a big fan of the Cat brand, having built up an excellent working relationship with William Adams CAT who have provided the company with solid support and service over the years. When Awesome Earthmovers caught up with the company on a recent visit ‘down under’, they were working on a housing sub-division project in the Rowville area of Melbourne – and no matter where we turned there was a CAT machine busily at work.

Montdami has been utilising CAT machinery since its inception in 1976 and currently it has 58 various models of CAT machinery in its fleet, including CAT rollers, excavators, backhoes, scrapers, graders, dozers, skid steer, compactors and loaders.

“We have a great relationship with William Adams and we source all of our CAT equipment from them as the CAT distributor for Victoria. We value William Adams’ outstanding customer service and keep coming back because of their respect and care for their customers. They are always willing to come to the table if or when any issues arise to resolve it or assist where they can.”

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Montdami’s fleet is 75% CAT equipment. “This is due to the great reliability of the brand and the product support provided to customers. The product innovation and technology is state of the art and their continuous improvements mean that they are at the top of their field.

“They are also one of the only businesses that have almost every type of machinery that the civil construction industry requires. Globally, they are the biggest manufacturer of machinery and a large spender of research and development which gives us the confidence to trust their products. They stand by their products and have a good availability of parts for us when needed.”

Exceptional Performance

The biggest CAT operating on the Montdami Constructions site was a 50 tonne CAT 349D L crawler excavator. Powered by a C13 engine which combines exceptional performance capabilities with proven reliability, it offers a comfortable and spacious operating environment, along with excellent visibility from the cab, essential when working on busy sites such as that we visited.

Other notable cab features appreciated by the operators at Montdami Constructions included pilot operated control levers positioned so they could operate with arms on the armrests, joysticks with integrated buttons and sliding switches, dials and controls that are conveniently located within easy reach, a full-colour easy to read monitor with enhanced functionality to provide a simple, comprehensive machine interface, switches, and an air suspension seat that could be adjusted to suit the operator’s size and weight.

The CAT 349D L was working alongside an equally fuel efficient 13 tonne CAT 930K wheel loader which also provided its operator with excellent all around visibility, together with low-effort joystick controls that move with the fully adjustable suspension seat. A large spacious operator environment combined with Caterpillar's exclusive hydraulic cylinder damping and smooth predictable controls further enhances operator comfort.

Also earning its keep on the site was a powerful tracked CAT D6 dozer, another favourite with the operators on the Montdami team as it, too, offered a comfortable working environment, as did the CAT VHP Plus grader, one of two graders in the company’s machinery fleet, and completing the impressive CAT line-up on the day was a CAT CP 563D soil compactor.

Rod Lay Site Forman Montdami Constructions

Darren Lamb Area Manager Montdami Constructions

"CAT EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN PLAYING A PIVOTAL ROLE ACROSS ALL OF THE MONTDAMI CONSTRUCTIONS PROJECTS WHERE THE MACHINES HAVE MORE THAN PROVED THEMSELVES IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY."

‘Hands On’ Approach

On the site we visited on the outskirts of Melbourne, the machines were deployed on the third stage of a major housing sub-division, where the infrastructure for the development was being put in place. There, we spoke with company area manager Darren Lamb who oversees the staffing and machine allocation of sites and assists the foremen for projects across the southern area.

He, together with site foreman Rod Lay, who has like Darren been working with company since 2011, says the CAT equipment has been playing a pivotal role across all of the Montdami Constructions projects where the machines have more than proved themselves in terms of performance and reliability.

“As a team, we pride ourselves on adopting a ‘hands on’ approach to the business,” says Rod, who, as did Darren, began his career as a labourer. “Of course, you can tell someone to do something, but there’s nothing like being able to actually show them how to do it. I don’t expect someone to do something that I wouldn’t do myself, and that’s where my many years of experience in the industry have been beneficial.”

And Darren agrees: “While there is always office work to care for, we find it good to get out on site to help the team where we can. We don’t worry about getting our hands dirty. We want to put our many years of experience to good use and as far as the success of each of our projects is concerned, we strive to get it right first time, every time. Customer satisfaction is our top priority.”