Pit and Quarry

Gotta dig it

If I asked you to guess the top-rated attraction in Las Vegas, what would you say? One of the many incredible shows? An extravagant casino? The Fremont Street Experience? The lights and glitter of the Strip? According to TripAdvisor, it’s none of those. Las Vegas visitors say the No. 1 attraction is Dig This – a place where you pay to operate heavy equipment. Seriously.

Touted as “America’s first and only equipment playground, where you can relive your sandbox days,” Dig This was founded by Ed Mumm in Steamboat Springs, Colo., in 2007, and it allows “non-industry folks the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with massive, full-size Caterpillar hydraulic excavators and track-type bulldozers.”

Depending on how much time you want to play and how much money you want to spend, admission ranges from $210 to $750. The site is so popular it has been featured on CBS’ The Early Show, CNN, Fox News, and in The Wall Street Journal and more.

Many magazine editors covering mining and construction will tell you that one of the perks of the job is having the opportunity to operate heavy equipment. From time to time, equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar and Volvo will introduce new machines and let the editors take a test spin. Perhaps it’s not as big a thrill for me: I’ve done it enough times over the years that the excitement has faded, yet not often enough to make me confident that I won’t ruin the enormous excavator I’m operating.

I remember one editor was so into it, they couldn’t get her out of the machine and she dug a hole large enough to fit a full-size basement.

The fact that tourists and magazine editors are able to hop on these machines and operate them relatively well within minutes is testimony to the engineering. In the years I’ve covered this industry, aggregate producers have cited the difficulty in finding skilled operators as their number-one concern. And, despite the bad economy, attendees of our recent roundtable and conference said labor concerns are still a big problem.

In response to the labor concerns, equipment manufacturers have made the equipment more and more user-friendly. It’s often as easy as driving a car. Maybe producers can set up a recruiting office at Dig This. –Darren Constantino

Strike this

According to news reports, union workers at a Massachusetts Aggregate Industries plant have gone on strike against the company over benefits and minimum work hours. At issue, according to Local 170 Business Agent Edward J. Peloquin, is workers now having to pay for part of their health insurance and pension benefits. He acknowledged that many employees who work at other companies have to pay at least part of their health-care costs, but the workers had negotiated for company payment of health-care costs in the past and they shouldn't have to give up that benefit and start paying part of their health premiums. I'm not sure what's in the drinking water over there in Massachusetts, but last time I checked, unemployment was rampant in the construction industry and in general, and almost every job out there requires employees to kick in something for health-care benefits. Now I believe in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and fair cooperation between management and employees, but here's a message to the disgruntled workers of Aggregate Industries: 1) Be thankful you have a job right now, and 2) go back to work and pay part of your health insurance like the rest of us. And your time might be better spent lobbying on behalf of your industry for a new federal infrastructure-spending bill that will ensure you have a job in the future. – Mark S. Kuhar