Bartlett Contractors Ltd of Sturminster Newton, which was established in 1999 has an illustrious history in ground works, plant hire and agricultural contracting. The Bartlett family have been involved in this type of work for over 35 years, during this time the business has built an enviable reputation for their quality of work and expert knowledge in specialist areas such as rural civil engineering, pipeline works and heavy civil engineering. 
The company’s Cat 324DL seen in action in Thanet, Kent, installing 560mm poletherline pipe.
The company currently runs nine hydraulic excavators which comprise of, 2 x Caterpillar 323DL’s, 1 x Caterpillar 324DL, 1 x JCB JS220LC, 2 x JCB JS160’s, 1 x Fiat Kobelco E80, 1 x Volvo EC55 and 1 x New Holland E35.2. They also run a couple of JCB 3CX backhoe loaders in the fleet as well as a whole host of tractors and trailers from top manufacturers including Fendt, John Deere and Richard Western. 
Managing Director Rob Bartlett, does have a fondness for the 25 ton class Cat excavators, describing them as, “a quality machine that is ideal for our applications”. The two 323DL’s in the fleet are seen here in action whilst working for South East Water on the Surrey reservoir job in Swinley Forest where the machines were involved in the repair and re-alignment of 1200mm pipe.
The company is also involved in many other interesting jobs, one which caught my eye took place in Crichels nr Wimbourne, and involved Rob Williams who we featured on the blog last month in the, It’s a Dog’s Life being a Machine Operator post. 
The job involved site clearance works and excavation, for a new slurry lagoon on a local farm. Rob was using his regular mount on the company, a 25 ton JCB JS220LC Groundworker model, and as you can see by the end result, the team did a cracking job on it! 
Here is another great shot of one of Bartlett’s 323DL’s, taken at the Bray pipeline/water main repair site in Swinley Forest near Slough. This job featured some very deep excavation work and as those of us that operate machines for a living know, in such circumstances a good banksman is worth his weight in gold, especially when manoeuvring pipes with restricted visibility.
All machines on the fleet are equipped to take rock breakers, and the company also have a whole host of attachments including specialist buckets, grapples, and land forks. They also own their own Volvo FH12 low loader and Volvo FH6 8ton tipper making them extremely adaptable to customer’s needs. 
With a team of highly experienced, management & support staff and fully qualified CPCS/CSCS on site operatives it’s hardly surprising that the company are said to be extremely busy right now, with a full order book for the foreseeable future. Good news indeed.
