Construction Equipment and Plant Management

1. Introduction to Construction Equipment and Plants

1.1. Introduction to Construction Industry
Construction basically necessitates the needs of proper project management which ensure the efficient
utilization of labor, material, finance and equipment in order to meet complete the project on time,
budget and quality. On a large scale Construction Projects, it is vital to complete huge amount of work
with Quality in short time. These emanate the need for mechanization or the use of Construction
Machinery & Equipment.
The need for Mechanization arises due to the following reasons:
 Magnitude & Complexity of the Project  High quality standards
 Projects
involving large quantities of material  Importance of keeping the Time Schedules.
handling. Optimum use of Material, Manpower and

 Complexity of Projects using high grade Finance.
materials  Shortage of skilled and efficient Manpower.
Proper use of appropriate equipment contributes to Economy, Quality, Safety, Speed and Timely
completion of the Project. Construction equipment is an important part of any construction process. It
is not always desirable or possible for the Contractor to own each and every type of Construction
Equipment required for the Project. Considering the various aspects of the utility of particular
Equipment, the Contractor has to economically justify whether to purchase the Equipment or to hire it.
Level of equipment use by type of construction
Types of Construction Level of use Work Activities
Residential Light Finish site work, foundation excavation, ground material
moving, up to three-story lifting, Pneumatic assembly tools.
Commercial Moderate Rough and finish site work, stabilizing and compacting,
multiple story material and man lifting, ground and on-
structure material moving, miscellaneous types of assembly
and support equipment.
Industrial Heavy Large volume rough and finish site works, stabilizing and
compacting, ground and on-structure material moving, multi-
storey heavy lifting and precision placing, numerous
miscellaneous special types of equipment for assembly and
support .
Highway Intense Mass dirt and material excavating and moving, stabilizing and
compacting, ground material moving and hoisting, concrete
and asphalt paving and finishing, miscellaneous special types
of equipment for support.
Speciality Intense Pipe line, power, transmission line, steel erection, railroad,
offshore, pile driving, logging, concrete pumping, boring and
sawing, many others

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Construction Equipment and Plant Management
Selection of Construction Equipment
Selection of 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
 Availability
 Specification requirement
 Weather condition
 Time schedule
 Management conditions
 Material influence
The selection of the appropriate type and size of construction equipment often affects the required
amount of time and effort thus the job-site productivity of a project. It is therefore important for site
managers and construction planners to be familiar with the characteristics of the major types of
equipment most commonly used in construction. Besides this, the selection of appropriate type and
size of equipment affects the amount of time and job site productivity of project.
1.2. Role of Construction Equipment
Proper use of the appropriate equipment contributes to:
 Economy  Safety
 Quality  Speed and timely completion of a project
Almost 15-30% of total project cost has been accounted towards equipment and machinery.
It is therefore important for site managers and construction planners to be familiar with the
characteristics of the major types of equipment most commonly used in construction.
Advantages of Utilizing Construction Equipment’s
• Increase the rate of output through work progress with the best effective and efficient methods.
• Reduce the overall construction costs especially for large contracts.
• Carry out activities which cannot be done manually or to do them more economically and much
faster.
• Eliminate the heavy manual work by human thus reducing fatigue and eliminates various other
hazards and health issues.
• Maintain the planned rate of production where there is a shortage of skilled or unskilled labor.
• Maintain the high quality standards often required by present-day design and specifications
(technical standards).
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Construction Equipment and Plant Management
1.3. Property of Soil
A) 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.
 Specification requirement
 Weather condition
 Time schedule
 Management conditions
 Material influence

B) General Soil Characteristics

As earth moving equipment are mostly related to woks 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.
C) 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].

Soil Volume Change Characteristics

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Construction Equipment and Plant Management

Shrinkage: - A volume reduction usually occurring when soils or rock they are subjected to moisture or
mechanical compaction

Swell: - The percentage of original volume that a material increases when it is removed from its bank state
and becomes “loose.”

When excavated, the material breaks up into different size particles that do not fit together, creating voids
that reduce the weight per volume.
For example, to hold the same weight of one cubic meter/yard of material, it takes 30 percent more volume
(1.3 times) after excavation if the swell is 30 percent.

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 Equipment and Plant Management
In earthwork, load factor is the ratio of the loose volume of a material to its bank volume. It's used to
convert the loose volume of material moved into a bank volume measurement, which is what most
contracts are paid for.
Load Factor: The ratio of the loose volume to the bank volume. Since most contracts are paid in bank
volume, load factors are useful for converting the loose volume moved into a bank volume
measurement.
The load factor can be calculated using the following equations:
Weight /loose unit volume
 Load factor=
Weight /bank unit volume
1
 Load factor=
1+ swell
Load factors are specific to the type of equipment and the operating conditions.
Factors that can affect the load factor include:
 Swell:-The percentage by which a material increases in volume when it's removed from its bank state.
 Shrink:-The ratio of the initial bank soil to the volume resulting from compacting the loose soil into
earthen structures.
 Operator skill: - Expert operators can reduce the cycle time of equipment, which reduces time spent at
high load factors.
Shrinkage for soil
 The shrinkage factor indicates the reduction in volume of soil from the borrow pit stage to the final
compacted stage or the percentage decrease in volume of soil when it is compacted. For most types of
soil, a swell factor of 25% is assumed
 The shrinkage factor is the ratio of the compacted dry weight per unit volume to the bank dry weight
per unit volume:
Compacted dry unit weight
Shrinkage factor =
Bank dry unit weight
 The shrinkage factor of soil is the percentage by which the volume of soil decreases when it is
compacted from its original state:
 Shrinkage factor: The percentage by which the volume of soil decreases when it is compacted
Shrinkage factor = 1 - Shrinkage
 Shrinkage (%): The percentage decrease in volume of soil when it is compacted, calculated using
the formula: Shrinkage (%) = (1 - Compacted density) x 100
 Compacted volume: The volume of soil after it has been compacted, calculated using the formula:
Compacted volume = Bank volume x Shrinkage factor

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Construction Equipment and Plant Management
Shrinkage and swell factors can significantly impact the cost and effort of an earthwork project. The exact
values for shrinkage and swell factors can vary depending on the following factors: Grain size, Moisture
content, and Compaction.
For this reason, designers may need to apply individual factors for each type of soil used in a project,
especially when using different soil types from a borrow source.
The shrinkage factor is the ratio of the compacted dry weight per unit volume to the bank dry weight per
unit volume:
Table 1: Common Materials Loose & Bank Table
Material description* Loose (kg/m3) Bank (kg/m3) Load Factor
Clay, natural bed 1660 2020 0.82
Clay, dry 1480 1840 0.81
Clay, wet 1660 2080 0.80
Clay & gravel, dry 1420 1660 0.85
Clay & gravel, wet 1540 1840 0.85
Earth, dry packed 1510 1900 0.80
Earth, wet excavated 1600 2020 0.79
Earth, loam 1250 1540 0.81
Gravel, pitrun 1930 2170 0.89
Gravel, dry 1510 1690 0.89
Gravel, dry (1/4 - 2”) 1690 1900 0.89
Gravel, wet (1/4 - 2”) 2020 2260 0.89
Sand, dry loose 1420 1600 0.89
Sand, damp 1690 1900 0.89
Sand, wet 1840 2080 0.89
Sand & clay, loose 1600 2020 0.79
Sand & Clay, compacted 2400
Sand & Gravel, dry 1720 1930 0.89
Sand & Gravel, wet 2020 2230 0.91
Crushed stone 1600 2670 0.60
Top soil 950 1370 0.70

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