Charging Ahead at Chicklade Service Station
One of the companies pushing to expand their network of charging stations is the UK’s leading Charge Point Operator Instavolt.
Working alongside several trusted partners to deliver a combination of vehicle charging stations and rest stops around the country, Instavolt’s has a huge expansion plan underway with plans to expand their coverage in the UK and Ireland to over 10,000 charging points by 2032.
One of their current development sites is on the A303 at Chicklade in Wiltshire, a busy tourist route for holiday makers heading to the South West. The site was home to a former petrol station which had closed down several years ago and had fallen into disrepair. The owners of the land, when approached by the Instavolt team were happy to lease the site to provide a reliable charging site along this busy road.
The original site was ideally suited to vehicles passing through and whilst it provided a small restaurant, the sloping site required a significant portfolio of works to bring it up to the standards required by its new owner.
Headquartered just a few miles away in Templecombe, Gartell and Son was awarded the contract to transform the site into a state-of-the-art charging station and rest stop.
Originally established in 1950 by John Gartell as an agricultural contracting business, the company has continued to grow and diversify, expanding its expertise into groundworks, earthworks, civil engineering, and construction across both the agricultural and industrial sectors. Now led by Andrew Gartell and joined by the third generation of the family, Gartell & Son remains proudly family-run. With over seven decades of experience, the company continues to deliver quality, reliability, and craftsmanship across Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Devon.
The redevelopment of the site at Chicklade required the Gartell team to excavate over 70,000m3 of material to re-shape the ground to facilitate the new services. The narrow, roadside site was to be extended away from the A303 which meant the existing batter be reengineered to a steeper angle with all of the material resulting from this work removed and used as fill material on another part of the land.
This meant creating a haul road for transporting the material the 500m or so from cut to fill area, a substantial feat in itself considering the works commenced just before Christmas 2025, one of the wettest periods for the area on record. “Usually, we wouldn’t have started such a job at that time of the year.” Andrew Gartell commented. “But with the client wanting completion of the site as soon as possible, we rose to the challenge. The material we uncovered wasn’t the best either which didn’t help. We know it is a predominately chalk landscape and this was proved right as the first soils were stripped but the poor quality meant it was so fine that in any wet weather, it just turned to slop. To keep the trucks running and the job on program, we decided to build a haul road and have it stabilised to ensure we could carry on working and this has proved to be a turning point for us here.”
The site has been home for the past few months to some of Gartell’s larger fleet of machines which is predominately sourced from Liebherr. “We have been running Liebherr machines for several years now and find them to be an excellent fit for us.” Andrew explains. “We find their back up to be good, when it is needed. They are also giving us fuel efficiencies we need as costs continue to rise. Operators like them too, they are a driver’s machine, comfortable, smooth and well-appointed.”
The site at Chicklade has seen the company’s current largest excavator, a 25 tonne R 924 G8 undertake the bulk of the earthmoving works ably supported by a pair of 30t class TA 230 G8 ADTs and a 20t class dozer in the shape of a recently added PR 726 G8.
“This team has been ideal on the site over the past few months.” Earthworks Supervisor Dave Forster commented. “It’s a relatively compact project, despite its volumes, as we have been working alongside the team demolishing the existing building while we are on earthworks operations. Now they have finished we can complete the excavation works to create the finished levels for the new site.”
Whilst the Liebherr brand sits predominately at the larger end of the Gartell fleet, they are almost exclusively using Trimble’s Earthworks machine control system to run an efficient and accurate earthworks operation. “We have swapped entirely over to Trimble recently as we feel this gives so much more flexibility and information gathering than any other system on the market.” Andrew commented. “The recent addition of their MS976 pods has been a major gamechanger for us and is proving its worth day in, day out.”
Whilst Dathin Church completes a tight corner of the site ion the R 924, Dave in the PR 726 completes an area which will be used for future parking spaces. “It’s typical that as we are getting to the final levels where we need to get an accurate finish, we are finding some of the hardest bands of material so far!” He comments. “Having the ripper on the dozer makes a big difference at this stage as I can loosen enough material to be able to doze it off quite accurately.”
The PR 726 G8 joined the fleet following the use of a similar machine on a recent project. “We were in the market to upgrade our original dozer and had the opportunity to try out a PR 726 from Liebherr Rental.” Andrew explains. “It delivered the performance and productivity we needed and like the rest of the fleet, the low fuel consumption too.”
The PR 726 was also joined at a similar time by a pair of TA 230 ADTs which had impressed Andrew and his team on the same project. “We had a large earthmoving project which required 4 ADTs so we took a pair from Liebherr Rental and a pair from a local hire company.” He explains. “The difference was immediate to see. The ride quality was there on the Liebherr as was the build quality too. They were also quicker across the ground which meant higher productivity. Whilst we needed dump trucks, the massive cost of purchasing new put us off as we may have them parked up during winter months or certain projects. We spoke with Paul Besley our Liebherr Sales Manager and John Diggens at Liebherr used and found a suitable pair of low hour examples coming off the Rental fleet which not only met our price bracket but were very well maintained.”
The PR 726 on the Chicklade project has proved its worth on the fleet already not only undertaking the site stripping operations but also maintaining the tip, haul roads and finishing off the complex level changes for the site. “Having hit harder material close to the finished levels we are able to accurately carve out the different areas with the dozer which means far less imported material will be required.” Dave comments.
As one of seven dozer models in the Liebherr range, the PR 726 is the second smallest with an operating weight from 17.5 to 20.8 tonnes depending on the exact specification. Powered by a 170hp, 4-cylinder Liebherr engine, the dozer delivers smooth, step-free power to the LGP undercarriage via its hydrostatic drive. “I came off an older, mechanical drive dozer at my old company.” Dave comments. “This is so smooth and easy to operate compared to that machine.” Dave is also impressed with the cab and the view from the seat. “There’s plenty of room in here and the vision is so good both to the front and rear.”
The site has been fraught with wet weather and poor underfoot conditions but despite this, the trucks have kept running which has been testament to the TA 230’s impressive performance. “We have had to make sure the road has been good, but it is the tip area which has proved to be the hardest spot for them.” Dave explains. “Saying that, not once have they been stuck to the point where they can’t get out and they’ve kept up with the 22t capacity LGP truck we have had on hire too.” As the weather eventually breaks the Gartell earthworks team will start wrapping up their operations in readiness for the civils teams to start with forming access roads and parking areas.
“It’s been a challenging job because of the weather.” Dave concludes. “We’ve got a good team on the earthworks side and coupled with good, reliable kit and the right technology, it just makes the challenging a little easier.”
