The 2018 National Gas Rodeo, organized by MEA Energy Association and sponsored in part by CASE Construction Equipment, held its annual two- and four-person team championship events September 13-15 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The 2018 overall Rodeo champion in the two-person field was Lil’ Gashouse Gang (Steve Bouse, Barry Hicks and Jeff Busch [alternate]) of Spire. Mercaptan ‘Merica (Joshua Jaskolski and Steve Scheffel) of Alliant Energy took second place, while the High Pressure Hitmen (Reece Graves, Andy Andrews, Caleb Overton [alternate] and Scott Overcash [alternate]) from Duke Energy/Piedmont Natural Gas took third place.

The CASE CX145D SR excavator has been named one of the Contractors’ Top 50 New Products of 2018 by Equipment Today magazine.

“The products recognized by the annual Contractors’ Top 50 New Products awards represent what contractors are seeking most to boost profitability on their construction projects,” says Becky Schultz, Equipment Today editor. “The high level of interest they generated from Equipment Today readers and visitors to ForConstructionPros.com demonstrates that these are products contractors feel are capable of improving performance, efficiency and productivity on their jobsites.”

CASE Construction Equipment, and heavy equipment dealer Southeastern Equipment, donated the use of compact track loaders and excavators for blight removal in East Cleveland, Ohio as part of Operation Ray Chapman. “The Beast”, a specially outfitted CASE SV340 skid steer, was also deployed on the operation with a forestry mulching head to assist in removing years of overgrown brush.

Equipment for the operation was supported out of Southeastern’s Brunswick and Mentor, Ohio locations.

CASE Construction Equipment announced that its CASE SiteWatch™ telematics portal is now aligned with the new Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) 2.0/ISO-15143-3 standard. The AEMP-compatible portal is populated with data provided by equipment manufacturers in a standardized format to ensure a practical and intuitive user experience for the contractor/equipment owner.

This allows owners of a mixed fleet to access the telematics data of all their AEMP 2.0 equipment in a single place, gaining efficiency in running their operation. CASE equipment owners can activate the new AEMP API from the CASE SiteWatch web portal, where they can now monitor more elements in shorter intervals, view more data, and monitor new types of parameters related to fuel, idle times, engine load and speed.

Sun Valley—a quiet resort town in Southern Idaho that offers everything from camping, hiking, and mountain biking to world-class cross-country skiing and other wintertime sports—is home to a multibillion-dollar tourist economy. The scenic mountain town has expanded steadily over the years—hotels, theaters and other commercial building projects continue to invigorate the valley, while condo developments and high-end luxury subdivisions continue up the hillsides unabated. Sun Valley is also home to Burks Excavation, LLC. Burks Excavation was founded in 1996 and has played a role in the development of this scenic mountain town ever since.

“We do a lot of custom homes, site work, commercial projects, subdivision work, water/sewer infrastructure, wetland projects,” explains Bo Burks, owner of Burks Excavation. “We also do site prep for paving and concrete work.”