A range of high pressure water jet machines supplied by a Midlands firm withstood Britain's coldest winter in a century to remove concrete from an 8-mile section of the M80 near Glasgow.

Specialist civil engineers Chemcem used 5 units from Halesowen-based Jetstream Europe for a variety of tasks including hydro demolition, surface preparation and paint and rust removal as part of its £2.5 million contract to upgrade the motorway at Cumbernauld.

The Falkirk company removed more than 500 cubic metres of concrete not only in tricky weather conditions, but also in a challenging environment, as traffic was running just 2m away from the workface.

Two 265hp (195kW) Jetstream Europe units equipped with 15k fluid heads were connected to 1.5t mini diggers for the hydro demolition work, which removed around 2.5 cubic metres of concrete per shift.

A pair of 190hp (140kW) machines also fitted with 15k fluid heads were used to remove concrete in areas where the diggers couldn't be used while a 125hp (92kW) unit with a 40k fluid head was employed for surface preparation as well as rust and paint removal.

M-way upgrade uses Jetstream water blast systems/2..

"I chose Jetstream Europe water jet units mainly because they are easy to maintain and have interchangeable fluid heads," explained Alasdair Beaton, Chemcem's managing director.

"Even though this contract was carried out in temperatures below minus 20°C, there was no damage whatsoever to the pumps," he added.

Jetstream Europe equipment is also the choice of contractors who are restoring the iconic Blackpool Tower to its former glory. Jetstream Europe has also won the contract to supply two ultra high pressure water pump units to NUVIA's new facility in Scotland where they will be used to remove naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) scale from oil and gas pipes.

The Midlands firm will exhibit its latest water blast solutions on stand 4E 170 at Offshore Europe, Aberdeen, from September 6-8.