Different Types of Road and Construction Equipment and its Usage

A wide variety of equipment are used on road and construction sites to make the job easy, safe and quicker. In fact, no construction is possible, without the use of different types of equipment and good machines act as a backbone in the case of huge road and construction projects. It is also seen that the selection of the appropriate type and size of equipment often affects the required amount of time and effort and thus, the job-site productivity of a road or construction project.

Mentioned below are some of the commonly employed road and construction equipment with their usage details:

1. Bulldozers: Also called as dozers, bulldozers are powerful equipment which are largely employed for shifting huge amount of dirt on job sites where there is wide open spaces, rough grading and grinding rocks. They are also used for flattening the road. Bulldozers come in variants with tyres and tracks.

2. Loaders: They are used on road and construction sites to move or load materials such as asphalt, demolition debris, dirt, gravel, rocks, sand etc. There are many types of earth digging equipment and loaders, which depending on their design and application, are called by various names such as backhoe loaders, bucket loaders, front loaders, front-end loaders, wheel loaders, skid-steers etc. The most common and heavily used loaders on a road and construction site include:

• Front loaders: They are like tractors and used to move a pile of material from the ground and load it onto a dump truck or into an open pit. They are also known as wheel loaders or bucket loaders. Front loaders consist of a front-mounted square wide bucket joined to the end of two arms.

• Backhoe loaders: They have a front bucket that allows them to work as a wheel loader and an excavator-style digging mechanism at the back. Consisting of three segments i.e., boom, stick and bucket, backhoe loaders come with extensive range of attachments which are used to perform various tasks while paving the roads such as lifting, grabbing objects, dozing, drilling and levelling the ground.

• Skid steer loaders: Considered to be the best choice for smaller sites, they are used to perform many tasks like lowering soil compaction or working in difficult conditions such as with snow/mud. The front bucket of the machine can be replaced with various types of attachments like hydraulic breaker, pallet booms, auger, mower, snow blower etc., to execute different jobs.

3. Excavators: They consist of a boom, dipper or stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the house. This house sits on the top of an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. Excavators, also known as diggers, are usually employed together with loaders and bulldozers at any road and construction site. They are used for variety of applications like digging trenches, holes and foundations, material handling, general grading/landscaping etc.

4. Mini excavators: They are wheeled vehicles that generally include a standard backfill blade and independent boom swing. Apart from digging, mini excavators can do grading, lifting heavy items and compact a sub-grade. Based on the digging depth of the boom and bucket, mini excavators come in various sizes.

5. Forklifts: A forklift truck, also called a lift truck, a fork truck, a forklift or a tow-motor, comes with an attached prolonged platform that can be lowered to pick an object on or below the ground and raised to move the object. Forklift trucks are available in many variations and load capacities.

6. Cranes: For movement or hoisting of materials at any road and construction site, the equipment that gets top-most priority is the crane. It is generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains and sheaves that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. Cranes can be of many types like fixed or mobile cranes.

Apart from the above mentioned equipment, there are many other equipment which can make the work easy and faster at any road and construction site. So, look at your usage and take your right pick!