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WATCH: Here's an idea for what to do with unused construction sites...

One savvy operator has started a ‘grown-up sandpit’ – where users pay to play with full-size diggers and bulldozers.

WHAT CAN IRELAND do with its legions of disused construction sites? Well, here’s one idea – turn them into “adult sandpits” where grown-ups pay to play around with diggers and earth-moving machines.

Users of Ed Mumm’s ‘Dig This’ facility in Las Vegas, Nevada get just a ten-minute training session before they are let loose on the construction equipment to push around dirt, rock and giant tyres. Trainers are also on hand via headset if people get stuck with a tricky JCB manoeuvre.

Mr Mumm said he started Dig This after renting and operating an excavator for himself for two days while building a house. He quickly realised that toying with heavy construction equipment is a diversion that takes participants completely out of their everyday lives.

“I thought to myself: If I’m having this much fun, imagine the amount of people that don’t get to do this stuff that would love to do this,” he said.

“When they’re in those machines, everything else doesn’t mean anything,” added Mumm, 45. “They’ve forgotten about all the stresses in their lives because the fact is, they’ve got to focus on that piece of equipment. When they get in there and they rev up that engine, they know they’ve got a serious programme on their hands.”

The idea isn’t quite recession-proof – a single session costs US$750, or around €500 – it seems to be working. “This was a day just to chill out sans kids, sans family” said one customer, Sheryl, who got behind the wheel of a bulldozer. “I want to go on the excavator next.”

Watch: The grown-up sandpit in action

- Additional reporting by AP

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