The Heavy Equipment Team That Goes Into Building Our Roads

Building a new road is a fairly complex job, more so if the ground is covered with vegetation. If you were to take some time to watch a new road being built, you would be surprised at the equipment that is used to undertake the job from start to finish. The heavy equipment used includes:

• Bulldozer – the bulldozer is the first piece of machinery used in most construction work. The bulldozer’s job is to clear the land to be built on. When it comes to new roads, the bulldozer clears a strip of all vegetation and rocks and begins the levelling process.
• Loaders – loaders are used throughout the project to move earth and rocks. They are predominantly used initially to load excess earth into dump trucks for removal.
• Dump Trucks – whilst not really heavy equipment, dump trucks play an integral role as they are used to cart waste away and to cart in loads of road base used to build up the new road.
• Graders – graders perform the finishing work, ensuring the new road is smooth and has the right gradient to allow for water run-off.

Other equoipment used include water trucks that damp down the road base, rollers that are used to compress the road base, and specialist heavy equipment that lays the sealant to the prepared base. Like most modern production lines, each part plays their role to a timetable, ensuring a smooth completion of the job.

With new roads being constantly built around the nation, there is always plenty of work for those who operate heavy equipment. If you’re looking for a career as a heavy equipment operator, building new roads is rewarding in many ways, including financial and job satisfaction. You can become a part of one of these teams with as little as three weeks heavy equipment operator training.