In the centre of Caserta, a few steps from the Royal Palace, Ecorif demolished a 19th-century building with a Develon DX140RDM-7 and sent the rubble back into the supply chain as aggregate
Urban demolition is rarely about brute force. In Caserta, southern Italy, the challenge was to take down a 15 m-high building made largely of tuff, a volcanic stone common in historic Campanian construction, without disturbing the occupied homes pressed against it.
The job fell to Ecorif Srl, a Campanian demolition contractor that has been operating since 2013 and employs around ten people. The site, close to the Royal Palace of Caserta, is being cleared for a new residential complex with 24 housing units. Ecorif completed the demolition in just over a month.
Why a compact demolition machine
Ecorif already runs a Develon DX340 demolition excavator with a 20-metre boom. For tight urban sites, it needed something smaller. After discussions with Edilnoleggi, Develon’s importer and distributor for Campania, it chose the DX140RDM-7.
Getting the machine into the city centre was the first task. It travelled on steel tracks fitted with heavy-duty rubber road liners, so the asphalt stayed intact. Its variable-width undercarriage then did double duty: retracted to 2.5 m for transport and access, extended hydraulically to 3.7 m for stability once on site.
The monolithic version of the DX140RDM-7 handles demolition attachments of up to 1,450 kg at the boom tip and reaches a maximum working height of 16 m. The cab tilts by up to 30° for visibility when working at height, and the machine carries Level 2 FOGS protection, dedicated auxiliary lines and a stability warning system with hydraulic lockout.
Working a fragile material
Tuff is relatively fragile, and its cohesion can vary considerably within the same structure. With buildings only a few metres away, the work had to proceed in stages, section by section, in a controlled way.
The DX140RDM-7 worked with a demolition grapple, letting the operator take apart the tuff with a high degree of precision while the machine stayed stable during the high-level phases.
“The DX140RDM-7 has all the advantages of a compact machine, but its performance is comparable to that of an excavator weighing more than 30 tonne. Another key advantage for us is that the machine remains within transport dimensions, thanks to its variable-width undercarriage. The excavator comes off the truck trailer and is immediately ready to work!”
Said Nicola Autieri, Managing Director of Ecorif.
Ecorif is already planning to add a Develon DX530DM for its largest demolition projects.
From rubble to resource
The project did not end with demolition. The material was taken to the inert-material crushing plant operated by DIAF Srl, run by Antonio Autieri, Nicola’s brother, and processed into aggregate for the construction sector instead of being sent to disposal.
That link between demolition and recovery is increasingly what clients expect on urban sites, and a family business that controls both ends of the chain is well placed to deliver it.
Behind the purchase is a long relationship with Edilnoleggi, Develon’s exclusive partner for Campania since 2022. The dealer covers the provinces of Naples, Salerno, Caserta, Benevento and Avellino with a fleet of more than 750 machines, around 60 employees, eight mobile workshops and roughly 20,000 m² of facilities, and also operates in rental.
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