CROOKSTON, Minn. (KFGO-AM) - The world's largest backhoe is at work in Crookston, Minn. It was hauled in for a special project designed to keep Highway 2 and homes from sliding into the Red Lake River.
The massive machine, weighing half a million pounds, had to be hauled into town aboard ten different trucks and then assembled. The boom on the backhoe can dig over 100 feet into the ground. The massive machine holds 1,000 gallons of hydraulic oil and has 2 engines that produce 11-hundred horsepower.
The fee to rent the machine is $56,000 a month. It cost $92,000 just to move it here from California.
The overall $6 million riverbank stabilization project is expected to wrap up in August.