There are many types of heavy equipment involved with the making of our nation’s roadways. You can see them moving along, removing asphalt, grading the ground, putting new pavement down, and making sure that the road is ready for vehicle travel.
While you may not like seeing them or having to wait for sometimes long periods, these machines are important. We are all very happy when they are done, not just because they are gone, but also for the smoothness of the new roadway.
The equipment used in constructing and paving roads is not the same as those employed in business and residential construction. In this list, mixers and concrete plants are included along with cement fly ash silo systems and hydraulic sweepers. Soil compactors and vibratory rollers are also needed.
Look at the most common types in the list.
1. Concrete batching mixing plant
This road profiling equipment used to construct highways, bridges, airports, and even multi-story buildings. The concrete batching mixing plants are usually pneumatically operated with bulk headgates and aggregate buckets.
The mixing plant is powered by a 4-load cell on a mounting screw conveyor. The plant is composed of a cement and water weigher, mixer, plant control cabin, control panel, and radial scrapper. Usually, the concrete batching plant is large-scale equipment and used for big road construction.
2. Hydrostatic sensor paver
This equipment is designed with state-of-the-art components, making it suitable for all types of projects ranging from main roads and rural roads to airports and motorways.
It is usually made up of an engine, a splitter gearbox, a driver, an operator console and a remote control panel. Conveyors, sensors, and screeds are also part of the paver.
3. Hydraulic sweeper
Hydraulic sweeper or broom has a cleaning brush that operates through the help of a hydraulic motor. The dust on the road construction is gathered through a special waste collecting container.
The hydraulic sweeper is often used before and after the road construction process. It is simple to operate and is usually powered by a tractor or a forklift.
4. Dump trucks
Dump trucks not only do they haul away the old asphalt, extra dirt, and debris when tearing down the existing road, they also bring in many of the materials used in road construction. Some of these include new asphalt, gravel, and rock, as well as many other materials.
5. Front end loader
The next most important heavy equipment is the front end loader. These vehicles are the workhorse of the construction site.
They can load the dump trucks with debris, haul smaller loads around the job site, and be used to pick up machinery that is too heavy for people.
They are also used for scraping up the old roadway, on sites that are too small, or difficult for a paving remover to get into.
6. Paving removers
Paving removers are a piece of heavy equipment that moves slowly along, picking up sections of roadway, breaking them up and loading them onto a truck to be hauled away.
They make the job of pulling up outdated asphalt roads faster and easier than a front end loader, or by hand. They also cut down on the labor force needed when it comes to this area of road construction.
7. Graders
Graders are an important part of road construction because they level the dirt once this layer has been applied. This piece of heavy equipment can control the height of the roadway, as well as scrape aside any extra layers. Without this machine, the road would be uneven.
8. Pavers
Pavers can be used to put down and compress the underlying layers of dirt. Moreover, these can also apply the asphalt to the road surfaces.
While these machines move relatively slowly, without them layering and paving roads would take up to ten times as long to complete.
They are precisely computer-controlled instruments that are one of the most important pieces of equipment needed to complete the job.
9. Rollers
The roller is used to flattens and seals the asphalt layer and makes sure that the surfaces of the roadway are smooth.
It compresses the surfaces and removes any air pockets that may have gotten trapped between the layers of materials.
Without it, the expanding and contracting would create cracks and holes in the newly created road.
10. Miscellaneous
Soil compactors are also essential to road constructions. These machines have standard equipment inside the package.
A list includes oscillating center joints, hydrostatic systems, articulated steering, hour meter, horn, steel sun canopy, oil bath dry air, engine filter, and tool kit.
It also has engine oil pressure, engine temperature, fuel gauge, oil level and air filter clogging indicators.
Final Words-
Various other pieces of heavy equipment are required, depending on the type of road, where it is located, and the size of the project. There are concrete mixers, for making edge forms, heavy cranes that lift large steel beam into place on overpasses and bridges, as well as many others