
Road Work and the Atlas Weycor Road Roller
What are the general processes involved in road work?
- Clearing and excavation
- Mounting
- Fine grading
- Aggregate base
- Asphalt paving
Road rollers can make road work easy. Expert construction companies know that only the best heavy equipment should be used when working with roads. The Atlas Weycor Road Roller is one of the top-of-the-line road rollers available on the market today. Road work involves a lot of steps, it’s better to use durable equipment that will last long.
Heavy construction equipment is an investment for any construction company, buying the best will give you peace of mind only good equipment can provide. The Atlas Weycor Road Roller can do so much for your road work needs. Let’s take a look at the important stages of road construction and what important factors to remember.
Clearing and Excavation
Simple roads can take a lot of planning even before construction can begin. Complex roads with diverse structural elements like bridges and overpasses take more time, even years to plan. Structural engineers also need to consider environmental factors, cost, materials, and safety. If the land happens to be owned by privately, the government must negotiate the pieces of property for the road. It’s important that various legalities are settled before any construction and grading begin.
Look at the area where you’re building your road. This needs to be cleared of all vegetation including trees, shrubs, and bushes. You will need an excavation vehicle to clear the rocks and stones from the pathway. It’s important to remove these elements so that the road roller has a clean canvas to work on. Once the land is cleared you have to do some extra steps to prevent erosion. You will need to install control devices such as fences, ditches and basic. All of these control devices can help prevent erosion during construction. The last thing anyone wants is an unstable plot. This can slow down your construction process.
Mounting
During the mounting step of road work. Your project begins to take shape as your diggers use machinery and bulldozers to mount dirt and soil all over the pathway. The surface is then leveled and smooth by your graders. Proper grading is important so that the road not only looks nice but also remains completely even. To prevent any problems from flooding, culverts and drains are laid. This can prevent any disruption and damage from groundwater, sewage, and weather. This is an important step as any disruptions caused by weather and water can slow down your project overall. The drainage system is also an integral part of road construction as this can help vehicles travel much easier during storms or floods.
Fine Grading
Your construction workers and structural engineers finally partner up. The plans of the engineers are used by the construction workers to level the surface properly. This part involves much manual labor and digging. Grading machinery is also used in fine grading once the manual labor is finished. In order to make the grading last, limestone or concrete is laid down as a stabilizer. Similar to the previous steps, fine grading is one of the foundations that can support the road over the next years. It’s important to keep the surface leveled properly to ensure the best lifespan for the road.
Aggregate Base
The aggregate base is another grading step. This is when the base course is laid. The base consists of crushed stone or gravel. These materials are evenly placed on the road’s surface. If the road is in a residential or commercial area, a curb and gutter will be constructed after the gravel is placed on the surface. The gravel is added in layers and the road roller starts to compact it. These layers are compacted to be as smooth as possible.
Asphalt Paving
Once your gravel is even and distributed properly. The asphalt is poured over. Asphalt is a petroleum byproduct with an aggregate base material called bitumen. Structural engineers should already have a plan of how many layers of asphalt will be poured. This entirely depends on the traffic the road will experience in the future. The more traffic you expect; the more layers it needs. Thin layers might not offer the same durability compared to thicker layers. Roads need to support the pressure and traffic they will undergo so that it will last longer. With engineer specifications, asphalt is mixed at a local plant. The hot asphalt must be poured immediately upon transport to the construction site, as it has little work time before it sets. Before the last layer of asphalt is used, the sidewalks and gutters must be finished.
Key Takeaway
Road work and road rollers go hand in hand. Road work involves many steps of compaction, instead of manually compacting these layers, use a road roller like the Atlas Weycor Road Roller to make everything easier. You can get the finest finish for your work when you incorporate this expertly engineered roller for your project.