Bahir Dar University

Bahir Dar Institute of Technology (BiT)

Faculty of Civil and Water Resource Engineering
Construction Equipment (CEng 4082 )

Lecture 1: Construction Equipments

By: Habtamu M. (MSc.)

May, 2024
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CONTENTS
 Introduction
 General

Classification of Equipments

 Earth Work

Excavation, soil characteristics

Heavy Earth moving Equipments

 Excavators, Loaders, Dozers, Scrapers

 Grading Equipment

 Graders
 Construction Equipments
1. Introduction
 Today contractors undertake many types of
construction activities that require different types, sizes,
and groupings of equipment for earth moving,
excavating, and lifting.
 There is a piece of equipment for practically any work
activity, large or small.
 Materials, Money, Manpower and Machineries (the 4
M's) are usual resources recognized in most situations.
 The dependency and need for heavy construction
equipment have grown with the size and complexity of
construction projects.
 The development of automated heavy construction
equipment for earthmoving, excavating, and lifting
occurred in the last two centuries.
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 Construction Equipments
1. Introduction

Level of equipment use by type of construction

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 Construction Equipments
1. Introduction
 The efficient and effective implementation of
construction projects requires good management of
relationships for and among resources, activities and
stakeholders as applied to the context where such
projects are implemented.
 Equipment types used in a construction project is largely
dependent on their :
 Direct input to unit prices or not
 Type of work or trades
 Scope of work
 Mobility
 System of control and
 Availability
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 Construction Equipments
1. Introduction
Classification of Construction Equipments
 For the purpose of this course two major classifications of
equipments largely based on the type of works involved
are covered.
I. Construction Equipments
 Earth works equipments: Bulldozers, Loaders, Graders,
Scrappers, Rollers, Drills, Grouting pumps, Pile driving and
Hammers.
 Hauling and Hoisting equipments: Tractors, Normal and
Dump trucks, Scrapers, Hoists, Conveyors and Cranes.
 Compaction and stabilization equipments- Compactors
 Foundation Equipments - Pile Driving Equipments
 Pumping Equipments - Pumps, Hoses, Pipes, and
Compressors.
 Concreting equipment: Mixers, Vibrators
 Tunnelling equipment
 Drilling and blasting equipment
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 Construction Equipments
1. Introduction
Classification of Construction Equipments
II. Construction Plants
 Aggregate production plants,
 Crushers, Screens, Conveyors, and
Feeders.
 Asphalt mixing plant and
 Aggregate Batchers, Bitumen Emulsifier,
and Mixers.
 Concrete Batching Plants and
 Feeders, Mixers and Silos.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
 Earth work includes:
 Site preparation, excavation, loading,
hauling
 Embankment construction,
 Backfilling, dredging,
 Preparing base course,
 Sub-base and sub-grade,
 Compaction, road surfacing
 All the above works involve the use of a large number of
highly efficient and versatile equipment.
 The proper selection of these equipment and the length
of time they will have to be used are an essential part of
the estimator’s work.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
 Earth work equipments are broadly classified into earth
moving, compaction, grading and hauling equipments.
Earth Work
Definition:- Earth work is a process of moving soil or rock
from one location to the other and processing it, so that it
meets construction requirements of location, elevation,
density, moisture content, etc.
 All the above works involve the use of a large number of
highly efficient and versatile equipment.
 The proper selection of these equipment and the length
of time they will have to be used are an essential part of
the estimator’s work.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Excavation Types
 Common Excavation: refers to ordinary earth excavation.
 Rock Excavation: rock excavation cannot be done by
ordinary earth handling equipment.
 Rock materials must be removed by drilling and
blasting or by some other methods.
 This normally results in a considerably greater
expense than earth excavation.
 Muck Excavation: includes materials that will decay or
produce subsidence in embankments.
 It is usually a soft organic material having a high
water content.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
EXCAVATION
 Muck Excavation:
 Typically, it would include such things as decaying
stumps, roots, logs, and humus.
 These materials are hard to handle and can
present special construction problems both at their
point of excavation, and in transportation and
disposal.
 Unclassified Excavation: refers to the materials that
cannot be defined as soil or rock.
 The removal of common excavation will not require
the use of explosives, although tractors equipped
with rippers may be used to loosen consolidated
formations.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
General Soil Characteristics
 As earth moving equipments are mostly related to works and
related to soil, important aspects of soil shall be reviewed.
 From the characteristics of soils trafficability, loadability and
volume change are vital for earth works. Accordingly,
 Trafficability - property that shows the ability of soil to support
repeated traffic loading
 Loadability - property that tells the ease or difficulty of
excavating and loading
 Soil Volume Change - property that is related with volumes of
soil samples on different stress or compaction levels.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Soil Volume Change Characteristics
 There are three principal conditions or states in which soil
may exist: bank, loose, and compacted. The meanings of
these terms are as follows:
 Bank State - This is the state when the material is in its
natural state i.e. before disturbance. Often referred to
as “in – place’’ or “in situ.’’
 Unit - Bank cubic meter [Bm3]
 Loose State - This is the state after the material is
excavated or disturbed.
 Unit - Loose cubic meter [Lm3]
 Compacted State - This is the state after the material is
compacted.
 Unit- Compact cubic meter [Cm3].
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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Soil Volume Change Characteristics

Bank Unit (Bm3) Loose cubic meter [Lm3] Compact cubic meter [Cm3].

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Soil Volume Change Characteristics
Relationship between the three states

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Soil Volume Change Characteristics
 Load and Shrinkage Factors:
 In performing earthmoving calculations, it is important to
convert all material volumes’ to common unit of
measure.
 Bank cubic meter is most commonly used
 Pay load is the volume unit specified as the basis for
payment in an earth moving contract.

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
Soil Volume Change Characteristics
 Swell values for different class of earth

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 Construction Equipments
2. Earth Work Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
A. Excavators
 Replaced the cable operated crane shove family
 Excavators are basically digging machines, having the
following three main components
 An undercarriage to give mobility. This may be crawler
track mounted or wheel mounted.
 A superstructure with operator’s cabin mounted on
either a slew ring to traverse through 360° or on a rigid
frame.
 Hydraulically articulated boom and dipper arms with
bucket.
 Excavators are designed to excavate below the ground
surface on which the machine rests.
 Good mobility and versatility and excellent for general-purpose
work, such as excavating trenches and pits.

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
A. Excavators
Basic Parts of Excavator

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
A. Excavators
 Functions of excavators:
 Excavating – Earthworks
 Loading Excavated Material
 Scarification
 Making of Drains
 Advantages of hydraulic excavators include:
 Faster cycle time,
 Higher bucket penetrating force,
 More precise digging, and easier operator control.
 Many attachments can be made to increase the
versatility of the equipments.

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
A. Excavators
Types of excavators
 Excavators are of the following types based on the type
of carriers on which they are mounted:
I. Crawler mounted excavator
II. Truck mounted excavator
III. Self propelled excavator
IV. Excavators mounted on barge or rail
I. Crawler mounted excavator:
 These excavators are mounted on the crawler system and
are very suitable for carrying out large works in rough
terrain.

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Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
A. Excavators
Common attachments
 Some common attachments
include:
 Augers: Drills holes for poles, posts,
soil sampling, and ground
improvement
 Jack Hammer: vibratory hammer
used to break up concrete and
rock.
 Bucket Ripper: The bucket sides and
bottom are lined with ripper teeth
to break up hard soil or soft rock.
 Thumb Bucket: attached to bucket
to provide a hook capacity.

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2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
 A bucket is attached to the arms and capable of being
raised, lowered, and dumped through mechanical or
hydraulic controls.
 The loaders having bucket in the front, known as “front
end loaders” are very common.
 The loaders are versatile, self propelled equipment
mounted either on crawler or wheel-type running gear.
 These are equipments used primarily:
 To load excavated materials to a hauling unit,
 Excavate soft to medium materials,
 Loading hoppers,
 Stockpiling materials,
 Backfilling ditches, and
 Moving concrete and other construction materials.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
Basic Parts of a loader

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
Types of Loaders
 Loaders are of the following two types:
 Crawler loaders
 Wheel Loaders

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
Backhoe loader features
 Very common piece of equipment
 Many subcontractors own/lease
 Very versatile
 Easily transported
 “Low” maintenance costs
 Operator “friendly”
 Easily rented

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2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
Operations
 Loaders are used to carry out the following main
operations;
A. Loading
 Loading operation is the main operation performed by the
loaders.
 Loading consists of scooping, lifting, turning and dumping
materials such as sand, gravel, and crushed materials from
stockpiles, bank or construction site into the hauling units.
B. Hauling
 Wheel loaders are excellent for moving loose materials
over short distances to dump into hauling units, hoppers,
conveyors, bins, or any other place of work in the
construction site.
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2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
B. Loaders
Operations
C. Excavating
 Crawler loaders and heavy duty wheel loaders are
excellent for many excavation jobs.
 These loaders can excavate as well as lift the excavated
material and dump it into trucks or on the stockpiles
D. Clearing
 Loaders can scoop up and load the debris of demolished
buildings into hauling units.
 Loaders are the first equipment to prepare the site for
building and construction operations; and also the last
equipment in order to backfill, spread, level and top with
selected good soil.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
 Dozers are machines designed primarily for cutting and
pushing the material over relatively short distance.
 They consist of a tractor equipped with a front–mounted
earthmoving blade controlled by hydraulic cylinders to
vary the depth of cut.
 A dozer moves earth by lowering the blade and cutting
until a full blade load of materials is obtained. It then
pushes the material across the ground surface to the
required location.
 Rear mounted hydraulic scarifiers and rippers can be
fitted to loosen hard material prior to dozing.

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Application of Dozers
 The following are the main dozer application
 Clearing land of timber and stumps,
 Opening up pilot roads through mountains and rocky
terrain,
 Moving earth for the haul distances up to
approximately 100m,
 Helping load tractor-pulled scrapers,
 Spreading earth fills,
 Backfilling trenches,
 Side hill cuts
 Clearing construction sites of derbies, and
 Maintaining haul roads.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Application of Dozers

Moving earth Helping scrappers

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Application of Dozers

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Dozer Blades

U-Blade SU-Blade Carry Dozer “CD” Blade

Straight “S” Blade Power Angle &

Variable Radius
Tilt Blade
“VR” Blade
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Dozer Blades

Angle “A”-Blade Cushion “C”-Blade V-Tree cutter -Blade

Rakes K/G -Blade

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Blade adjustments

Tilting Angle adjustment

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Blade adjustments

Angle adjustment (Top View) Pitch adjustment

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Crawler Vs Tyre Tractors

A. Crawler Mounted tractors B. Wheel Mounted tractors

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Crawler Vs Tyre Tractors
 Each type of tractor has certain advantages in certain
conditions.
 Advantages of crawler mounted tractors:
1) More tractive effort, hence can also operate on loose or
muddy soil.
2) In absence of tyres, can easily operate in rocky conditions.
3) Where maintenance of haul roads is difficult, it can easily
travel, especially in rough terrain.
4) Crawler tractors are more compact and powerful and hence
can handle difficult jobs as well.
5) Greater floatation because of the lower pressure under the
trucks.

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
C. Dozers
Crawler Vs Tyre Tractors
 Advantages of wheel mounted tractors:
1) Can travel at higher speeds during operations and also
from one job to the other.
2) Ease in operation. Operator feels less fatigue.
3) Can travel on paved roads without damaging them.
4) Can travel long distances at its own power, whereas
crawler mounted needs trailors.
5) When work is spread over long area, these are found to
be producing more output.
6) Operation, maintenance and repair costs are less in
wheeled tractor as compared to crawler tractors.

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
 Scrapers are capable of excavating, hauling, and dumping
material over medium- to long-haul distances.
 The scrapers are designed to dig, load, haul, dump and spread
and sometimes called as carry all.
Types of scrapers
 The scrappers are of three types:
I. Towed scrapers:
 They are provided with either cable or hydraulic
control.
 They are becoming obsolete.
 When coupled to a suitably powered crawler tractor,
they can operate in extremely adverse conditions.
 Travel at slower speed and can be used for short
hauls only.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Types of scrapers
II. Self propelled or motorized or conventional scrapers:
 Generally manufactured in ranges from 10-20 cubic
meters.
 Needs push loading by a crawler mounted or
wheeled tractor.
 Have more hauling speed and hence are suitable for
long distance hauling .
III. Self loading or elevating scrapers:
 The problem of loading by a pusher is overcome by
these type of scrappers.
 These are twin engine scrappers and can work
completely independently of all other plants.
 Pay loads are restricted because of the additional
weight of the loading elevator and its drive system.

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 Construction Equipments

2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments

D. Scrapers
Types of scrapers
 Another classification method of scrapers
I. Push-loaded (Conventional):
 Single powered axel
 Tandem powered axels
II. Self loading:
 Push-pull, tandem powered axels
 Elevating
 Auger

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Types of scrapers
Conventional (Push loaded)
Become uneconomical when
• Haul grades > 5%
• Return grades > 12%

Tandem powered Twin Engine

•Good for jobs having adverse
grade
•Owning operating costs are
about 25% higher

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Types of scrapers

Push pull scrapers

 Can work as a team or operate
individually with a pusher.
 Tire wear will increase in rock or
abrasive materials.

Elevating scrapers
 Good for short hauls and in
favourable materials.
 Can work alone in the cut.
 Cost more initially and to
operate.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Operation
 Operation of a scraper is described here under for an earth
work:
i. Loading or digging
 The operator moves to the cut with the ejector at the
rear and the apron raised approximately to 40 cm.
 The bowl is then lowered to the desired depth of cut,
increase engine speed, move forward in first gear
keeping optimum depth of cut.
 When the bowl is full, the apron is closed and the bowl
is then raised.
ii. Transporting
 The bowl is transported in high gear in raised position to
provide sufficient clearance.
 During transporting, apron should be fully closed to
prevent loss of material

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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Operation
 Operation of a scraper is described here under for an earth
work:
iii. Unloading
 The bowl should be positioned to spread the material to the
desired depth during this operation.
 A partial opening of the apron during the initial unloading will
help in even spreading.
 For wet and sticky material, the apron should be raised and
lowered repeatedly until the material behind it is loosened and
drops out of the bowl.
 Then the ejector is moved forward to push the remaining
material out of the bowl at a uniform rate.
 When the dump is complete, the tail gate is fully retracted, the
apron dropped and the ‘bowl’ raised to transporting position.
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 Construction Equipments
2.2 Heavy Earth moving Equipments
D. Scrapers
Operation
 Following are some of the suggestions for increasing scraper
production:
 Construct and maintain smooth haul roads for faster travel.
 Depth of cut should be according to the type of soil being
cut.
 Use ripper teeth in hard or abrasive materials for easy
handling.
 Where possible, loading be done in down grade
 To increase the stability of the scraper during travel, carry
the bowl as close to the ground as possible.
 If necessary pre-wetting of the soil is done so that the soil is
reasonably moist, as most soils load easily when they are
moist.
 Whenever possible, plan the work to eliminate all avoidable
turns.
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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
 Grading is the process of bringing earth work to the desired
shape and elevation (grade).
 Motor graders are used for leveling and smoothening the
earthwork, spreading and leveling the base course in the
construction of roads and air fields.
 Motor graders can be used for the following types of works:
 Gravel road repairing
 Road shoulder reshaping, bank cutting and reshaping
 Ditch filling or digging
 Levelled or slopped ground finishing
 Base course spreading and levelling
 Material mixing, hard surface cutting, snow clearance,
 Land clearance, frozen top soil and asphalt breaking

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Comparison with dozers
 A grader is restricted to making shallow cuts in medium-
hard materials.
 They should not be used for heavy excavations.
 A grader can move small amounts of material but cannot
perform dozer-type work because of the structural
strength and location of its moldboard.
 Graders can work on slopes as steep as 3:1.
 Grader are capable of progressively cutting ditches to a
depth of 0.92m.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Basic parts of grader
 The components the grader that actually do the finishing are:
 Blade (Moldboard)
 Scarifier
 Rippers

Scarifier
log Rear
Ripper

Moldboard/
Circle Blade
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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Basic parts of grader

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Blade
 The blade (Mould Board) is the main tool of the grader.
 It is carried by a rotating circle and is easily maneuverable to a
wide range of cutting positions with the help of hydraulic
controls.
 The blade and the circle are mounted on a frame and is
supported at the front of the machine by a ball joint.
 The blade can be adjusted to any position with help of levers as
indicated below:
 Side shift: the blade has Blade Sideshift Ram
 Lifting the blade: The blade can be lifted or lowered
by levers operating the two rams.
 Rotating the circle: A hydraulic motor is provided to
rotate the circle and blade. Blade can be rotated
either in clockwise or counter clockwise direction.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Blade
 Adjusting blade cutting angle (Blade pitch): The
vertical angle of the blade can be adjusted.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Blade

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Blade

Adjusting blade cutting angle

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Blade

Adjusting blade cutting angle

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Scarifier
 Scarifier is a special tool attached with the motor grader
for loosening the hard soil and has a set teeth mounted
on adjustable shanks.
 This attachment digs up hard ground like asphalt, old
pavement, frozen surface and hard soil with vegetation
and brushes which can not be removed by the blade.
 The teeth are replaceable, and the number of teeth can
be varied to suit the ground hardness.
 High strength alloy steel tips can be mounted on the
teeth to prevent teeth wear and extend their service for
economical performance.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Scarifier

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2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Ripper
 The ripper is used to break up materials too hard to cut
with moldboard blade.
 The depth of cut is controlled by hydraulically operated
ripper control lever.
 Type of material to be ripped will determine position of
the ripper shank.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Various Operations
A. Grading:
 Grading in road construction means flattening and
smoothening the road surface and others by the scrapping
action of the blade, includes working operation like, surface
skimming, light duty bulldozing, leveling, spreading and
crowning.
 A cutting depth of 2 to 3cm is considered to be the best for
optimum efficiency. Under no circumstances it should be
greater than 5cm.
B. Spreading:
 Gravel together with binding material is spread by the motor
grader.
 For spreading the cutting angle is set at 60° nearly.
 Cutting edge of the blade is set above the ground at a
distance equal to the depth to which the material is to be
spread.
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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Various Operations
C. Finishing and Leveling:
 In final finishing and leveling, surface have to be finished to fine
limits.
 In such cases make the finishing pass with the blade only slightly
angled and set to skim the surface.
D. Ditch Digging:
 The front end of the blade is tilted down and the rear end is
tilted up above the road surface. The front end cuts into the
ground.
 This is used to dig drainage ditches and road side ditches.
E. Cutting:
 For the purpose of cutting in soft dirt, set the blade to an angle
b/n 40-55 degree, while in hard dirt an angle of 30-45 degree is
proper.

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 Construction Equipments
2.3 Grading Equipments
Graders
Various Operations

Laser Blade controls Ditch Cutting

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2.4 Earth work Equipment Summary

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 Construction Equipments
2.4 Earth work Equipment Summary
 Choice of Excavation Equipment for Building Site
Excavation depends on:
 Size of the job: - Bucket Size and Number of
Excavators
 Activity time constraints: - Number of equipment
 Availability of equipment:
 Cost of transportation of equipment:
 Type of excavation:
 Soil characteristics:
 Geometric characteristics of elements of the soil to be
excavated:
 Space constraints:
 Characteristics of haul units:
 Location of dumping areas:
 Weather and temperature:
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 Construction Equipments
2.4 Earth work Equipment Summary

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2.4 Earth work Equipment Summary

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