%0 Research Notes %T The productivity, work quality and the costs of employing backhoes and excavators in ditch network maintenance %A Lauhanen, Risto %D 1993 %J Suo - Mires and peat %V 44 %N 4-5 %U http://suo.fi/article/9731 %X Four backhoes and four excavators were studied in different excavation difficulty classes (1-5) during the unfrozen period in the western part of Finland. The productivity (per effective hour) of the backhoes in ditch digging (additional ditching) was 54-172 m/h and 68-202 m/h in ditch cleaning. The productivity of the excavators was 114-289 m/h and 88-250 m/h, respectively. Productivity decreased as the difficulty class increased. It was affected by the width of the ditch line opening, the stoniness, and ditch depth. Productivity seemed to be affected by the machine operator, too. The work quality was acceptable. The operating costs were 268-388 FIM per hour for the machines costing 400 000-1000 000 FIM. Key words: additional ditching, ditch cleaning, excavating machines, forest drainage, work studies