The City of Natchez, Mississippi is the site of the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River and claims one of the largest collection of antebellum structures in the United States.

Founded in 1716, the city's historic downtown features meticulously-maintained buildings dating from the late 18th Century, the perfect setting for bed-and-breakfast inns and antique and specialty shops. The downtown area also has many stately mansions.

Located 160 miles north of New Orleans, Natchez suffered little damage from Hurricane Katrina.

The city's water and sanitary sewer infrastructure is operated and maintained by the Natchez Water Works. The water system produces more than 1 billion gallons of water a year; sanitary sewage is collected through a citywide network of gravity-flow and pressurized pipes.

Because of the historic nature of much of the city's residential and business areas, maintaining water and sewer lines can be a challenge.

"Working space often is extremely limited, and it is important to keep surface damage to an absolute minimum," explains David Gardner, P.E., city engineer, and superintendent of Natchez Water Works. "For point repairs we often must work in narrow alleys and small yard areas."

Standard backhoe loaders and smaller trackhoe models often are too big to fit in such spaces, and Gardner says the physical size of these machines often means that a large amount of soil is displaced to uncover buried pipes needing repairs.

To work in such areas more efficiently, the city recently placed a new compact machine in service. The Ditch Witch XT850 excavator-tool carrier is only 52 inches wide and 120 inches long, so the machine can access areas that previously required hand labor. Weighing only 3,980 pounds, it can move across landscaped areas and paving without tearing up surfaces.

Using a broad selection of specialized attachments, the excavator-tool carrier can be equipped in many configurations. With a loader bucket on one end and backhoe mounted on twin lift arms extending from the opposite end, the machine is a small backhoe loader riding on rubber tracks. The city's machine is equipped with a front loader bucket and 18-inch digging bucket on the back.

Unlike conventional backhoes, the XT850 is able to offset the backhoe boom and bucket to dig parallel to buildings, paved surfaces and other obstacles.

Offset excavating is accomplished with a dual-pivot arrangement. As on mini-excavators, the boom's pivot point is at the front of the machine where the boom is connected to the tractor. The second pivot is near the center of the machine beneath the floor of the operator's station, under the seat. It rotates the boom assembly, including the boom swing pivot. To offset dig, the assembly is rotated in one direction from the center pivot, and the boom is swung at the front pivot point in the opposite direction. Maximum digging depth of the excavator is 83 inches with a loading height of 72 inches. Reach from the swing post is 103 inches. Specifications list maximum excavator sweep as 260 degrees.

"The machine definitely fills a need for us," says Gardner. "It can get in some really tight spots and its light weight and rubber tracks cause minimal surface damage. The hydraulics are easier to control than on larger machines, which is important when operating in confined spaces where precise control is needed."

The smaller size machine also can make smaller excavations to uncover buried pipes.

Adds Gardner: "Larger equipment often makes much larger excavations than are actually necessary. We are finding the smaller machine reduces costs because moving and replacing smaller volumes of dirt saves time cutting labor costs, and there are added savings from reduced fuel consumption."

Gardner says four different maintenance crews use the machine.

"It is very popular," he says. "Everyone wants to use it."

Ditch Witch equipment is manufactured by The Charles Machine Works, Inc., Perry, Oklahoma. The product line includes trenchers, vibratory plows, compact skid-steer loaders and excavators, vacuum excavation equipment, horizontal directional drilling equipment and electronic tracking systems, pipe and cable locators, and related underground construction products.