Cool graders
By Mike Anderson
On most jobsites, the grader operator is king.
Nobody dares get in his way … and, should anyone need to tell him anything, such a task is left to only the most senior of supervisors. The “blade hand” is staunchly independent, often gruff, and yet universally admired and respected. Rarely is there another equipment operator within 50 miles who can, be it with traditional lever or breakthrough joystick in hand, feel his way from rough ground and raw material to the glass-like smoothness that will cradle the office buildings, parking lots and roadways to come.
It stands to reason, then, that the king’s carriage is maintained with discipline and order, whether it be driven through snow or dust, be it tasked with winging back drifts on a blizzard-closed township road in Minnesota or carving through barren hardscrabble in west Texas.
