Chapter 4: Familiarization with Construction Equipment

4.1 Advantages and Drawbacks of Using Equipment

Advantages:
 Increase the rate of output of work
Reduce the overall construction cost
Carry out activities which can’t be done by manually
Equipment can work in adverse weather climate and topography
Reduce fatigue and eliminates hazards & health issues
Maintain the planned rate of production where there is shortage of labor
Maintain high quality standards
 Equipment is free from social and emotional factors
It helps maintaining construction site safer and cleaner

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Advantages and Disadvantages Using Equipment

Drawbacks:
If the machine breaks down, it can cause delay of construction
Electric tools can cause short circuit which may result in fire
Only trained and skilled labor can operate the equipment
It may harm health of the people on site
Heavy investment for buying equipment
 Large inventory of spare parts
May create social problem due the unemployment of people
Reselling / disposing off construction equipment will be a problem

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4.2 Equipment Used in Different Types of Construction
A) Earth Work Equipment
Excavating Equipment:
Excavator, Back Hoes, Dozer, Scraper, Drag Line, Power Sovel & Grader
Watering and Dewatering Equipment:
 Displacement Pump (Reciprocating Pump, Diaphram)
 Centrifugal Pump (Conventional, Self-Priming, Air-Operated)
Loading Equipment:
Transporting Equipment:
Dozer, Grader, Scraper, Power Sovel, Drag Line, Tractor, Triger, Dumper
Compacting Equipment:
Tamping Rod, Hand Compactor, Tamping Roller, Smooth Wheel Roller, Pneumatic
Roller, Sheep Foot Roller, Vibrating Roller, Rammer, Frog Rammer,
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Equipment Used in Different Types of Construction
Drilling and Blasting Equipment:
Jack Hammer, Drifter, Wagon Drill, Track Mounted Drill,
B) Lifting and Erecting Equipment: Fixed Crane (Tower Crane)
C) Concerting Equipment:
Aggregate Production Equipment:
Primary Crusher, Secondary Crusher, Tertiary Crusher, Screening
Aggregate Handling Equipment:
Truck, Dumper, Conveyor Belt
Concrete Mixing Equipment:
Hand fed drum mixture, Self loading drum mixture, Concrete mixing pan,
Transit mixture, Mixing plant

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Equipment Used in Different Types of Construction

Concrete Transportation (Handling & Placing):

Metal pan, Wheel barrow, Minidumper, Crane, Conveyor belt system,
Concrete pump,
Concrete Compaction Equipment:
Needle vibrator, Surface vibrator, Form vibrator, Tamping rod
D) Tunneling Equipment:
Tunnel boring machine, Drilling machine, Electric detonating
arrangement, Ventilating arrangement, Wheel barrow, Compressor,
Drilling machine
E) Foundation Equipment: Pile boring machine, Pile driving machine
F) Steel Construction Equipment:

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Equipment Used in Different Types of Construction
Equipment for Excavation:

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Excavator
Excavators are important and widely used equipment in construction
industry.
They use for excavation as well as other many purposes like heavy
lifting, demolition, river dredging, cutting of trees etc.
Excavators contains a long arm and a cabinet.
At the end of long arm digging bucket is provided.
Cabinet is the place provided for machine operator.
This whole cabin arrangement can be rotatable up to 360 degree.
Excavators are available in both wheeled and tracked forms of
vehicles.

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Excavator
Tracked Excavator

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Excavator

Levelled Diagram

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Backhoe

Backhoe is another widely used equipment which is suitable for

multiple purposes.
The name itself telling that the hoe arrangement is provided on the
back side of vehicle.
While loading bucket is provided in the front.
This is well useful for excavating trenches below the machine level
 Using front bucket loading, unloading and lifting of materials can be
done.
The basic parts are boom, Jack boom, boom foot drum, boom
sheave, stick sheave, bucket and bucket sheave.

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Backhoe
Backhoe

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Backhoe

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Drag Line Excavator

Dragline excavator is another heavy equipment used in construction

generally used for larger depth excavations.
It consists a long length boom and digging bucket is suspended from
the top of the boom using cable.
It is used for the construction of ports, for excavations under water,
sediment removal in water bodies

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Drag line Excavator
Drag line Excavator

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Drag Line Excavator

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Bulldozer

Bulldozer is soil excavating equipment used to remove the topsoil,

rock strata, lifting of soil.
The removal of soil is done by the sharp edged wide metal plate
provided at its front.
This plate can be lowered and raised using hydraulic pistons.
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate and
at the rear with a claw like device to loosen densely compacted
materials
It is used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble etc.

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Bulldozer
Bulldozer

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Bulldozer
Levelled Diagram:

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Bulldozer

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Grader
It is used in road construction
It is mainly used to level the soil surface.
It contains a horizontal blade in between front and rear wheels
This blade is lowered in to the ground while working.
Operating cabin is provided on the top of rear axle arrangement.
Motor Graders are also used to remove snow or dirt from the roads
It is used to flatten the surface of soil before laying asphalt layer.
It is also used to remove unnecessary soil layer from the ground.

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Grader
Graders are classified as below
a) Based on weight:
Heavy (17-23 tons)
Medium (10-12 tons)
Light (10 tons)
b) Based on design of running gears, as four wheelers & six-wheelers
c) Based on control system, as mechanical and hydraulic grader

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Grader
Grader

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Wheel Tractor Scraper

It is earth moving equipment used to provide flatten soil surface

through scrapping.
Front part contains wheeled tractor vehicle and rear part contains a
scrapping arrangement such as horizontal front blade, conveyor belt
and soil collecting hopper.
When the front blade is lowered onto the ground and vehicle is
moved, the blade starts digging the soil above the blade level and the
soil excavated is collected in hopper through conveyor belt.
When the hopper is full, the rear part is raised from the ground and
hopper is unloaded at soil dump yard.

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Wheel Tractor Scraper
Scraper

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Trencher
Trencher or Trenching machine is used to excavate trench in soil.
Trench is generally used for pipeline laying, cable laying, drainage
purposes etc.
Trenching machine is available in two types namely chain trencher
and wheeled trencher.
A trencher contains a fixed long arm around which digging chain is
provided.
Wheeled trencher contains a metal wheel with digging tooth around
it which excavates hard soil layer.
Both types of trenchers are available in tracked as well as wheeled
vehicle forms.

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Wheeled Trencher
Trencher

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Loader
Loader is used in construction site to load the material onto dumpers,
trucks etc.
The materials may be excavated soil, demolition waste, raw
materials.
A loader contain large sized bucket at its front with shorter moving
arm.
Loader may be either tracked or wheeled.
Wheeled loader is widely used in sites while tracked or crawled
loader is used in site where wheeled vehicle cannot reach.

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Loader

Loader

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Lifting and Erecting Equipment (Tower Crane)
Tower crane is fixed crane which is used for hoisting purposes in
construction of tall structures.
Heavy materials like pre-stressed concrete blocks, steel trusses.
frames etc. can be easily lifted to required height using this type of
equipment.
It consists mast which is the vertical supporting tower.
Jib which is operating arm of crane.
Counter jib which is the other arm carries counter weight on rear side
of crane.
An operator cabin from which the crane can be operated.
Tower crane is fabricated by the truss elements
Movable (transporting) crane is also used in construction

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Tower Crane

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Tower Crane
Levelled Diagram

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Paver

Paver or Asphalt paver is pavement laying equipment.

 It is used in road construction.
Paver contains a feeding bucket in which asphalt is continuously
loaded by the dump truck.
Paver distributes the asphalt evenly on the road surface with slight
compaction.
However a roller is required after laying asphalt layer for perfect
compaction.

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Asphalt Paver
Paver

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Compactor

Compactor or Roller is used to compact the material or earth surface.

 Different types of compactors are available for different compacting
purposes.
Smooth wheel rollers are used for compacting shallow layers of soil
or asphalt etc.
Sheep-foot roller is used for deep compaction purposes.
Pneumatic tired roller is used for compacting fine grained soils,
asphalt layers etc.

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Smooth wheel Compactor
Compactor

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Telehandler
Telehandler is hoisting equipment used in construction to lift heavy
materials up to required height
To provide construction platform for workers at greater heights etc.
It contains a long telescopic boom which can be raised or lowered or
forwarded.
Different types of arrangements like forklifts, buckets, cabin, lifting
jibs etc. can be attached to the end of telescopic boom based on the
requirement of job.

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Telehandler
Telehandler

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Feller Buncher

Feller buncher is tree cutting heavy equipment.

It is used to remove large trees in the construction field.
It cuts the tree and grab it without felling.
Likewise gathers all the cut down trees at one place which makes job
easier for loaders and dump trucks.

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Feller Buncher

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Transporting Equipment

Trucks, wagons, and conveyor belts are hauling equipment.

They transport deposits from one place to another place.
Classification of truck:
 Size of engine
 No of gears
 Kind of drives
 No of wheels arrangement
 Method of dumping loads: rear/side
 Class of material hauled: earth /rock/coal /ore etc.
 Capacity in tones

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Transporting & Compacting Equipment
Transporting Equipment:
Following also are fully or partially serves as the transporting equipment are:
Dozers, Grader, Scraper, Power Shovel, Drag Line, Dumper & Trippers.
Compacting Equipment:
To increase the strength of the soil, compaction is done for which various types of
equipment are available.
Tamping rod
Hand Compactor
Tamping rod
Pneumatic Roller
Sheep Foot Roller
Vibrating Roller

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Compacting Equipment
Rammer:
Simplest type of compacting equipment
Heavy Iron weight is provided by a wooden handle.
The soil surface can be compacted by lifting and releasing in a cycle.
Frog Rammer:
Rammer with small ramming plate
Jumps with the help of engine mounted on the top
Suitable for very small trenches
Compactor:
Hand held vibrating plate
Diesel / Petrol engine mounted on springs over vibrating plate gives vibration

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Compacting Equipment
Hand Roller/ Tamping Roller:
Suitable for compacting small trenches (90 cm to 1.2m) wide
 Both vibrating and static load type available
Single steel drum is the common type
Smooth wheel Roller
Pneumatic Roller
Sheep foot Roller
Vibrating Roller
Vibrating Roller

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Dump Truck

Dump truck is used in construction sites to carry the material in

larger quantities from one site to another site or to the dump yard.
Generally, in big construction site, off-road dump truck is used.
These off-road dump truck contains large wheels with huge space for
materials
It enables to carry huge quantity of material in any type of ground
conditions.

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Dump Truck
Dump Truck

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Dump Truck
Dump Truck

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Pile Boring Equipment

Pile boring equipment is used to make bore holes in the construction site to
install precast piles.

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Pile Driving Equipment

• It is also the heavy equipment used in construction site

• It is used in pile foundation construction.
• This equipment lifts the pile and holds it in proper position and drives
into the ground up to required depth.
• Different types of pile driving equipment are available namely, piling
rigs, piling hammer, hammer guides etc.
• In any case the pile is driven into the ground by hammering the pile
top which is done hydraulically or by dropping.

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Hydraulic Pile Driving Machine
Pile Driving Equipment

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Power Shovel
Power Shovel

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Power Shovel
Power Shovel

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Bulldozer
Bulldozer

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Scrapers

Scrapper

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Dragline

Dragline

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Equipment for Transportation and Compaction
Transportation & Compaction Equipment

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Equipment for Transportation and Compaction

Compaction Equipment

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Aggregate Production and Handling
Stone Crushing Machine

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Aggregate Production and Handling

Aggregate Crushing plant:

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Aggregate Production and Handling

After receiving stones or boulders from the quarry, they are crushed
into smaller size as required to meet the standard of designer.
Crushed material is then sieved and different size are separated.
The crushers are also classified based on the stage of crushing as
below:
Primary Crusher:
 At this stage, stones are directly received from the quarry and first reduction in
size takes place
 The aggregates obtained will be coarser and non-uniform.
 Jaw crushers, Revolving crusher and Hammer mills are the equipment used at
this stage

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Aggregate Production and Handling
Secondary Crusher:
 The crushed stones received from the first stage are put into the secondary
crusher to further reduce the size of the aggregates.
 Concrete crushers, Roll crushers and Hammer mills are the equipment used at
this stage
Tertiary Crusher:
 Final stage after which the aggregates of required sizes are obtained.
 However some stones need to pass through further more crushers also to reduce
the size.
 Roll crushers, Roll mills, and Ball mills are the equipment used for this stage.

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Aggregate Production and Handling
Screening:
 It is done to eliminate or separate over size crushed stones.
 Screen cloth, revolving screen and vibrating screens are used for screening of aggregates.
 Washing of aggregates is also essential task.
 For mass production, aggregates are screened from multideck screening plant
 Different transporting equipment (e. g. truck, dumpers, conveyor belt etc.) are used.
 Capacity of screen is given by formula, Q = ACEDG
Where,
Q = capacity of screen (ton per hour)
A = Area of screen (Square feet)
C = Theoretical capacity of screen (ton per hour/ square feet)
E = Efficiency factor
D = Deck Factor
G = Aggregate size factor

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Concrete Construction
Concrete production is a stage of concrete construction
Manufacturing Process of Ready-mix Concrete

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Concrete Construction
• The following arrow diagram makes us clear about the concrete
construction procedure
Before Construction During Construction

Material Production Storage Batching Mixing Transportation

Curing Compaction Placing

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Concrete Construction
Martial Production:
 Cement: Direct from Factory/ Shop
 Sand: From River
 Coarse Aggregates: From river or From crusher after seiving
Storage:
 Cement requires special storage because it is very sensitive to the moisture proof platform
 In huge construction works, they are transported by special means powder cement is stored in
cement silo.
Batching:
 Volumetric Batching: Mixing by proportion of Volume. Suitable for small job.
 Weight Batching: Mixing by proportion of weight. Suitable for large construction.

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Concrete Construction
Equipment for Batching:
a) Gauge Box: Used for volumetric
batching and small scale work.
b) Ordinary batching Scale:
 Used for small and medium scale works
 Used for weight batching
 Generally used in lab
 Time consuming and costly
Gauge Box
c) Batching Plant:
 Large scale job are done through automatic batching plant
 The main function of it is to receive various ingredient of concrete, weight them
to required proportion and then transfer to mixing plant.
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Concrete Batching Plant

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Concrete Batching Plant

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Concrete Mixing
To produce homogeneous and uniform concrete, mixing of ingredients should be
done properly.
For small scale work (V  1 m3), hand mixing is suitable suitable
To obtain uniform concrete, turn three times
For large scale work ( V 1 m3), machine mixing is done
It is more efficient and economical than hand mixing
Methods of Mixing:
Hand Mixing: Used for small scale work. Add 10 % more cement.
Machine Mixing: For large scale work

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Equipment Used for Concrete Mixing
a) Hand Fed Drum Mixer
b) Self Loading Concrete Mixture
c) Concrete Mixing Pan
d) Transit Mixture
e) Mixing Plant

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Concrete Construction

Concrete Mixing Pan Concrete Transit Mixture

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Transportation (Handling & Placing)
Concrete should be mixed, handled, placed in position and compacted as quickly
as possible after the water is added.
In no cases this time shouldn’t exceed initial setting time of cement.
For late setting of concrete, admixtures can be added.
During handling, improper method may lead to the segregation of concrete
which lead to low strength of it.
The most common equipment for handling of concrete are as below:
Metal Pan, Wheel barrows, Builders hoist, Mini dumper, Conveyer belt system and
Concrete pumps.
Compaction of Concrete: It is the process of obtaining the dense concrete mass by
removing the entrapped air. Poor compaction leads to honey comb concrete which
reduces the strength of concrete. So, optimum compaction is needed.
Equipment: Needle Vibrators, Surface Vibrator, Form Vibrator and Tamping rod

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Concrete and Curing
Curing of Concrete:
Hydration of cement is the cause of hardness and strength of concrete mass.
Hydration takes a long time even for a year
But maximum of strength is gained in about below 10 days.
To attain maximum strength, concrete should be cured with adequate moisture.
The loss of moisture due to evaporation is accomplished by keeping surface wet.
Methods of concrete curing are:
Sprinkle water at regular interval
Cover concrete surface with film of chemical/ jute mesh/ layer of sand which
prevents from evaporation of concrete surface.

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Tunnel Construction
Tunnel is the underground passage for travelling and navigation.
It is an artificially constructed underground passage to by- pass obstacles safely without
disturbing the over burden.
Tunneling is desirable when Rapid transport facilities are required which needs to avoid
acquisition of land for roads.
Tunnels are also erected when shortest route connection is needed in cities.
Tunnels permit easy gradient & encourage high speed on strategic routes.
Purpose:
Passage way for roads and rail roads
Conduits for water supply/ hydropower
Access to mines and underground space
Passage for Pedestrians etc.
The primary objectives of the tunnel alignments are to reduce transit trip times, increase
quality and reliability of service and minimize impacts of surface transit operations in
sensitive locations.
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Tunnel Construction
Ratio of length to width, in a tunnel , should always be at least in 2: 1.
A tunnel must be completely enclosed on all sides along the length.
The types of tunnels are classified based on three aspects:
Based on purpose (road, rail, utilities),
Based on surrounding material (soft clay vs. hard rock ) &
Submerged tunnels
Economics of Tunneling depend on:
Nature of Soil/ rock
Requirements of fill
Depth of cut > 18m –tunneling
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Tunnel Construction
Tunnel Design Criteria:
Tunneling requires proper design.
Every tunnel will have its own geometry, design, alignment, and
construction methods.
Tunnel design criteria include the following:
Spatial Requirements;
Alignment;
Underground Stations;
Fire Life Safety; and
Tunnel Systems and Operation.
Every tunnel will have its own horizontal and vertical alignment, Tunnel
Ventilation, Tunnel Lighting, Electrical and Safety Equipment, Drainage, Fire
Life Safety, Security.

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Tunnel Construction

The following factors should be taken into consideration when selecting the
method of Tunnel construction:
Tunnel dimensions
Tunnel geometry
Length of tunnel
Total volume to be excavated
Geological and rock mechanical conditions
Ground water level and expected water inflow
Vibration restrictions &
Allowed ground settlements

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Tunnel Construction
Selection of Tunnel alignment depends on:
• Topography of area & points of entrance and exit
• Selection of site of tunnel to be made considering two points
• Alignment restraints
• Environmental Considerations
• Tunnel portal – the interface point of the open cut and the cut and cover tunnel
Classification of Tunnels:
Based on Alignment: Off-Spur tunnels, Short length tunnels to negotiate minor
obstacles.
Saddle or Base Tunnels : Tunnels constructed in valleys along natural slope.
Slope Tunnels : Constructed in steep hills for economic and safe operation.
Spiral Tunnels : constructed in narrow valleys in form of loops in interior of
mountains so as to increase length of tunnel to avoid steep slopes.

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Tunnel Construction
Conventional method , Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM Method) and New Austrian Tunneling
Method (NATM)
Conventional Method of Tunnel Construction (Steps):
 Excavation of earth, Removal of excavated earth and Lining and strengthen of wall and ceiling
Conventional Method of Tunnel Construction (Process):
 Setting up & drilling
 Loading holes and softening explosives
 Ventilating and removing the dust following an explosion
 Loading and hauling muck
 Removing ground water if necessary
 Erecting supports for roof and sides if necessary
 Placing reinforcing steel
 Placing the concrete lining

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Equipment Used in Tunnel Construction
Drilling machine
Electric detonating arrangement
 Ventilating arrangement
Wheel barrow, trucks and loader, rail buggies ( muck cars)
Pumps
Formwork and support
Concreting machine/ batching plant/ concrete pump

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Introduction to TBM
Introduction
Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is used to excavate
tunnels with a circular cross section.
They can be used on any geologies.
 It can bore tunnel of diameter 1 to 20 meter
 It made tunnel boring process risk fee.
Drawback Using TBM
High cost due to the need of supporting
things such as conveyer belt, rails, slurry
separating plant, slurry pipelines etc.
High cost of associates supplies e. g.
drill bits, TBM cutters, blasting agents etc.

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Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)
Comparison of Different Types of TBM

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Terminology Related to Tunnel Boring

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4.3 Selection of Appropriate Equipment

Importance of Construction Equipment

In Case of major construction projects, the speed of work and the
timely completion of work is very important.
The mechanization of most of the construction work is required, in
which the construction equipment play the most important role.
The proper use of the appropriate equipment contribute to economy,
quality, safety, speedy and timely completion of the project.
The cost of construction is a major factor in all the projects.
The factors that influence construction costs mainly are materials,
labor, construction equipment, overhead and profit.

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Importance of Construction Equipment

The cost of construction equipment for civil engineering construction

projects ranges from 25 % to 40 % of the total project.
The amount which is invested in the purchase of a construction
equipment should be recovered during the useful period of such
equipment.
The construction equipment are deployed on the construction
projects for the various reasons, such as

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Criteria for Selecting Construction Equipment

Technology:
The focus should be on machines that are appropriate for the job at hand, the
environment and terrain it needs to work in and the people operating the
machine.
Technical literacy amongst operators is a rather difficult thing to come by in
operators these days.
As a matter of fact, most operators find these advanced machines to be more of a
hassle.
The make of the important parts like engine, hydraulics and the transmission etc.
play a vital role in the service premium of the machine and its resale value.
So look for a machine where technology is appropriate.

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Criteria for Selecting Construction Equipment
Fuel Efficiency:
Fuel usually consists up to 60% of the costs involved and so fuel efficiency should be
given prime importance.
Experts recommend that fuel consumption be measured and considered based on cost
per unit of output instead of measuring it by the hour.
Double and triple check how efficient the machine in question is before buying or renting
it.
After Sales support:
Expertise in matter of heavy construction equipment is a difficult thing to find.
So, when choosing a machine ensure that the replacement parts are easily available and
appropriately priced.
Additionally, ensure that adequate after sales support is available at short notices since
machine down time is usually not welcome.
Ensure that there is adequate appropriate support available before zeroing in onto
machine.

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Criteria for Selecting Construction Equipment

 Reliability and ruggedness:

The machines should be suited to be able to handle the vast differences of the
terrain and climate that the various job sites.
 Machines have to reliable and asking for more than 95% uptime is not stretching
it given the kind of technology available today.
An unreliable machine will have both direct and collateral cost damages.
Say if a asphalt compact was to break down, it would leave a truck full of hot
bitumen stranded, adding to the cost of the project.
So, reliable rugged machines should be preferred.

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Criteria for Selecting Construction Equipment
Price:
• Ensure that the machine is appropriately priced for what it has to offer.
• Considering a 10% per year depreciation value, a machine should last for atlas 10
years, pay for itself and earn profits if one has to buy a machine.
• Most buyers ask cheaper products and expect them to last at least 2-4 project
cycles.
• When it comes to machines various costs come into play.
• The yearly depreciation of the machine’s value, fuel costs, insurance, storage,
maintenance, logistic costs, operator costs and spare parts cost to name a few.
• Take these things into consideration when wanting to select the construction
equipment.

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