Kent leased six reach forklifts for a flood protection project.

The Kent public works department has leased three JCB and three JLG reach forklifts from Sunbelt Rentals during a major pre-flood season protection operation.

Ron Green, Kent fleet superintendent, reports, "The forklifts were being used to move giant sandbags from a conveyor/filler machine to the stockpile area."

Two shifts with six forklift operators each "were going 22 hours a day", says Michael Bishop, sales representative in the Kent centre for Sunbelt Rentals.

The sand-filling machine was pouring in material, resulting in bags weighing 3,200 pounds (1,440 kg) fully loaded, Green notes.

Kent employees filled 17,000 sand sacks that a contractor subsequently positioned on shores along 12 miles of the Green River to increase levee heights by up to three feet.

The project from 3 October through 30 October kept workers busy and outdoors during some inclement rainy and cold weather as well as more favorable times. The effort aims to protect populated areas in the Green River valley and the cities of Kent, Auburn, Renton and Tukwila from seasonally higher river flows and potential leakage from a damaged abutment at the Howard Hanson Dam upstream.

In October, members of Kent County council and managers of the county flood control district authorized a USD2.5 million reimbursement to the city for the levee-raising project.

The city council at a 17 November meeting recognised 22 public works department employees for their diligence in the project.

Sunbelt Rentals operates 397 profit centres and is the US construction and industrial equipment rental division of publicly traded London-based Ashtead Group plc.