Volvo Amphibious Excavator Shaping the Poplar Island

Maryland Environmental Service is using a Volvo EC300E amphibious excavator to restore Poplar Island, a once diminishing remote island habitat in the Chesapeake Bay, North America.

Poplar Island, located 34 miles south of Baltimore, Maryland, is a national model of environmental restoration made up of the Army Corps Baltimore District and Maryland Department of Transportation’s Port Administration (MPA).

For nearly two decades, the the Poplar Island Project Team has used dredged material from the shipping channels that lead to the Port of Baltimore to rebuild the island and keep the channels open.

The island receives between 2 to 3 million cubic yards of dredged material per year. It has received more than 30 million yd3 to date and will need 68 million yd3 in total.

In 2016, MES purchased a new Volvo EC300E excavator from local Volvo dealership that was modified to replace the standard crawler tracks with custom flotation pads. MES now has almost 40 machines operating on the island, seven of them are Volvos.

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