When a successful contractor, such as James D. Morrissey, purchases a piece of equipment, it must be the best.
Such was the case recently when the Philadelphia, PA-based contractor used its new Wirtgen W2200 on a milling project at the city’s Northeast Airport.
Although the W2200 first went on the market three years ago, Morrissey’s utilization of the machine on the airport project marks its second appearance on a job site in the Philadelphia area — Morrissey first used the machine several months ago for some milling work on I-95. In fact, Morrissey purchased the first W2200 in the Philly market during the summer of 2001 from CC&T, based in Folcroft, PA.
“The Wirtgens are just a better-engineered machine,” said Joe Morrissey, of James D. Morrissey. “We saw what a Wirtgen machine could do when we purchased the l000DC several years ago and our preference for Wirtgen has evolved from there.”
What made the Wirtgen W2200 so appealing to Morrissey was the machine’s versatility, particularly with how easy it is to swap out cutting drums. The W2200 comes standard with a 7-ft. 3-in.(2.1 m 7.6 cm) housing, but Morrissey also purchased a 12-ft. 6-in. (3.6 m 15.2 cm) housing, which will allow the company to use the W2200 on many diverse projects.
Mike Chenet, who founded CC&T in 1984 and sold Morrissey its entire Wirtgen fleet, explained the salient feature of the W2200 — the ease with which cutting drums can be switched:
“What makes the Wirtgen 2200 unique is that the theory on drum changes always has been to make it as simple as possible and to do this with the least amount of disassembly,” began Chenet. “With the 2200, the whole drum housing unit, which includes the whole board, the end gate, the drum, the planter, is just one unit, which comes out as one piece. It doesn’t have to be disassembled.
“Typically what contractors will do is that they’ll put the cutting drum on a dolly and disassemble it with a tractor, and use the dolly to pull it out from under the drum. Then the contractor would put the other drum on the dolly and slide it back under the machine, put the machine down and hook it back up again. The key with the 2200 is that there’s no disassembly of pieces. The entire thing comes out as a complete unit. Later, three and four years down the road, the machine will still have a lot of integrity and be in good shape,” said Chenet.
Because much of Morrissey’s work involves projects on the scale of airports, turnpikes and interstates, the company needs a machine that allows it to mill with one pass at a 12-ft. (3.6 m) width and 2- to 2.5-in. (5 to 6.3 cm) depth.
In addition to the cutting drum, the Wirtgen’s bolt-on holder design system is a significant improvement for the industry, Chenet said.
“They’re non-welded bolt-on holders, and the size and the strength and the thickness of the drum is very stout,” he said. “The track-drive system is very big and powerful and has four tracks. It’s very stable and the conveyors are wide, which allows the materials to get out of the drum quickly, reducing jams. When you’re moving quickly down the highway, you don’t want to be stopping or slowing the machine down because the belt can’t handle the material,” he said.
Morrissey may be impressed with its 2200, but the company still gets a lot of mileage from its other Wirtgen millers — the W2000, the l900DC and the l000DC.
Morrissey employs its W2000, which can house either a 79-in. (200.6 cm) or an 87-in. (220 cm) cutting drum, on projects ranging from interstate work to residential or township street work and large parking lots.
The l900DC features a 79-in. (200.6) drum, and though similar to the W2000, for Morrissey, the machine has one distinct advantage over its W2000 — it has the ability to perform fine milling or texturing with a textured cutting drum.
For example, some municipalities near Philadelphia require a textured milling. According to Chenet, for this requirement, a cutting drum needs more teeth than a standard drum, which means that the tooth spacing when it hits the ground is half the distance of a standard drum. Consequently, the pattern is very smooth, so that motorists can drive over the milled surface with minimal interference.
Morrissey purchased its 1000DC, which it uses for patch and repair work, in 1995. This smaller machine, which sits on hard rubber tires, can house a cutting-drum width of 48, 40, 30, 20 or 10 in. (121.9, 101.6, 76.2, 50.8, 25.4 cm).
Since 1995, CC&T has enjoyed repeat business from James D. Morrissey, and service has had much to do with that.
“We’re very happy with CC&T,” said Morrissey. “Their service is extremely good. Mike [Chenet] comes out to every one of our job sites to make sure everything is going well for us. He’s very available to our needs.”
“I think our main advantage for service is that we don’t handle 10 or 12 different product lines,” said Chenet. “We focus only on asphalt paving equipment and we know what we’re doing with it. We’ve been with Wirtgen for over 16 years and have been one of their top dealers for most of those years. It’s this experience with Wirtgen and our relationship with them that allows us to offer our customers the right machine for the right job and, if there’s ever a problem, we take care of it and repair the machine quickly.
“Right now, if Morrissey calls us with a problem, we’ll get out to the airport and address it immediately. We’re set up to be able to respond quickly to any of our customers who have service needs.
“Every dealer talks about having good service departments, but I really believe that ours is more responsive to the equipment that we sell because we have that focus on our product.
“Our service technicians have been with us a long time, and they know the product, they know the customers. A lot of times these customers will call our guys directly and they’ll handle problems over the phone. Typically, with a company like ours, because we’re not overly big, they can get decisions and information from us quickly.”
With the first Philadelphia area W2200 sold, Chenet admittedly looks forward to selling more of them, but only to certain contractors.
“I think Morrissey is progressive in that they may be a little ahead of the curve. Contractors who do high-production interstate, turnpike and airport work can benefit from a big machine like the W2200. But it’s not for everybody. We have a lot of customers who don’t do the kind of work that Morrissey does. So the middle machines, such as the 1900 and 2000 are good for the guys who only do commercial, private-type work, as well as smaller residential streets.
“They’re a pleasure to do business with. They put a lot of thought and time into their decision-making process, which we appreciate because we get an opportunity to understand what they need and, as a result, we really feel that’s our opportunity to shine. The Morrissey family is very involved in the day-to-day business They know what’s going on and they know their equipment, they know vendors and to see them commit to the Wirtgen product is very gratifying.”
Craig Mongeau
Craig Mongeau has been Construction Equipment Guide’s editor in chief for the past 21-plus years. He directly manages CEG’s Northeast and Southeast editions (which includes New England, Georgia and Alabama state supplements); Superintendent’s Profile; Crane Guide; Northeast and Southeast-based anniversary magazines; and special event publications. He also oversees CEG’s Midwest and Western Editions as well as all CEG website content.
A Hofstra University graduate, Craig began his publishing career as a staff writer for local Southeast Pennsylvania newspapers. He then became an associate editor and book editor of Springhouse Corporation, a Pennsylvania-based medical publishing house and then worked as a managing editor of Rockhill Communications, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., where he created and managed content for a national Voluntary Hospital Association website.
Originally from Pittsfield, Mass., Craig has lived in North Wales, Pa., for the past 27 years. He has been married to his wife, Hillary, whom he met in college, since 1998 and together, they have two daughters, Jolie and Aubrie.
Read more from Craig Mongeau here.
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