Tired of sweating profusely while mowing your lawn? You’re not alone. The Ministry of Transport (MTQ) is currently testing a fully remote-controlled lawn mower to cut grass on its hard-to-reach areas.
Objective: reduce the risk of injury among employees and minimize arduous tasks.
“Everything you see was done by guys with harnesses and a weed eaterdespite the slope,” explains Raymond Laplante just off the Mercier Bridge in Montreal. In front of him, a steep hill dotted with marmot burrows.
With the joystick on his chest, the man calmly drives his machine up the hill. The Agria 9600 (that’s its nickname) leaves a close-cut lawn behind it.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Remote-controlled lawnmowers allow MTQ employees to cut lawns in hard-to-reach areas while limiting the risk of injury.
“I said to myself: this is not the 1950s. We have machinery available, why not use it?” explained Mr. Laplante, who has been working to set up the pilot project for two years. He himself “came into the world” with a remote-controlled car controller in his hands and admits to being “a gamer » crazy about controllers in life.
He underwent four hours of training before taking control of the machine, which runs on petrol.
Louis-André Bertrand, from the Ministry’s communications department, stressed that the pilot project at the Turcot service centre could improve the lives of workers normally assigned to these tasks.
“You can reduce the risk of injury, the risk of falls, the risk of exhaustion,” he said, noting that this summer’s very hot weather can be particularly difficult. “Add to that a reduction in the risk of exposure to poison ivy and giant hogweed.”
The grass that covers slopes that are too steep to send workers on was until now cut from the shoulder of the road with a “tractor equipped with an articulated arm.” “This type of operation requires the temporary closure of a traffic lane,” explained Mr. Bertrand.
It’s going “number 1”
With his fingers on the controls, Raymond Laplante continues to demonstrate the mower of the future. With its tracks, the machine can climb slopes of up to 60 degrees and easily shred branches one inch in diameter.
This efficiency, however, comes at a cost: $13,500 for five weeks of rental spread over the summer to test the machine. It is manufactured in Germany by a specialized firm, said Dominic Surprenant of Distribution Équipement TG, Agria’s distributor in Montreal.
His typical customers for this type of equipment are “big lawn-cutting contractors” with institutional or commercial contracts. “You use machines like this on slopes all the time,” he continued. “There must be 10,000 different types of machines that cost less and perform better in terms of speed on flat ground.”
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
With its tracks, the Agria 9600 can mow grass and branches on all kinds of slopes.
In addition to the Mercier Bridge area, the Agria 9600 is also being used this summer to maintain certain areas around Route 138 and Autoroute 15 in Montreal. Motorists enjoy the spectacle: “We get honked at, with our thumbs up,” said Mr. Laplante. All of these areas are mown “five times a year,” from spring to fall.
So far, the results seem positive. “Number 1,” he assures. “She doesn’t mind, [une pente de] 55 degrees. She’s not going to have back pain, she’s not going to have ankle pain, she’s not going to have shoulder pain. There’s a lot less risk of getting hurt.”
“It’s a time saver,” added Louis-André Bertrand. “What a team of ten people used to do is now done by a machine with two people supporting it.”
And the specialized mower isn’t taking anyone’s job, he says. Workers no longer assigned to the trimmer are redeployed to graffiti removal and other road maintenance tasks. “There’s no shortage of work.”