Types and Uses of Bulldozers in Construction

Most construction projects need moving of a large amount of earth, soil, sand, rubble, and debris all the time, especially at the beginning of the project. For this purpose, bulldozers come in very handy in land-based construction projects. Today we will see what these powerful machines are and how they are used in the construction industry.

The phrase "bulldozer" comes from an amalgamation of the words 'bull' and 'dose'. The first word implies power, while the latter indicates a will to force something to happen. The first proper bulldozer in history was produced in 1923 by farmer James Cummings and draftsman J. E. Mcleod. But this was used for farming purposes only. Bulldozers saw construction uses by the 1940’s.

What are Bulldozers?

Bulldozers, or dozers, in short, are essentially tractors with a large blade mounted in front of them. The tractor helps push the blade around the ground. Perpendicular to the ground, the blade is a thick plate of metal, wider than the tractor behind it and sometimes even half as tall. Sometimes the dozers come equipped with a claw-like device attached in the rear called a ripper to loosen up the ground before pushing it around.

Mobility

The vehicles are generally mounted on tracks, which gives them excellent ground traction and mobility on rough unstable terrain. Some versions of bulldozers come with extra-wide "swamp tracks" to handle soft ground. Though in uneven terrain, the use of wheeled bulldozers is common too. These dozers are mounted on four articulated hydraulics-operated large rubber wheels, which gives the vehicle the ability to work on uneven terrain and also much better speed than the tracked versions.

The engines of bulldozers need to be very high-powered since they need to create a huge amount of energy to push heavy objects. Also, the same engine needs to power the often-used hydraulics system. Depending on tasks the engines of dozers can vary from 70 to 1000 horsepower.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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Standard Designs of Gabion Retaining Wall

A gabion is a cage, cylinder, or box full with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, and military applications and landscaping.

Here are some different designs based on different heights:

1m high wall

A 1m high wall is very easy to build and it requires 1m x 1m x 1m or 2m x 1m x1m baskets. The smaller size is recommended if the length user have to cover is small as it will lessen transport costs. User can also use 1/2m deep baskets this will save on the cost of fill but will decrease the strength of the wall and is recommended only in situations where the bank is fairly secure.

2m high wall

Gabion baskets are a mass retaining system accordingly, to construct a wall for the higher area which requires retaining; for that reason the wall must be heavier enough. For a gabion wall’s standard design the structure is like a pyramid. As a matter of fact, for every 1m expansion in wall height, the bottom row basket depth should be expanded by half a meter.

3m high wall

In this example the top 2 rows are the same as a 2m wall but with a .5m increase in the depth of the bottom row.

The bottom row is 2 meters deep middle row 1.5m deep and top row 1m deep. In general usage of 2m x 1m x 1m baskets bottom row 1.5m x 1m x 1m baskets in the middle row and 1m x 1m x 1m or if possible 2m x 1m x 1m baskets going sideways on the top row.

The image below is the example of gabion retaining wall design of different heights.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co

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How To Resolve Wood Fencing Damage Due To Rot

The following construction video offers some good construction tips on management of wood fence construction and how proper maintenance of wood fence can significantly reduces the costs for home repair. The video also highlights how wood fence construction is affected with rot due to moisture & water and collapsed easily. If you can sort out these problems easily, the life of your wood fence will be expanded greatly. Other reasons for damage may range from severe weather (like rainfall, snowstorms, heavy wind, or salt air), damage from vehicles or devastation, and insect incursion.

Some useful tips for installation

If you are going to set up a wood fence, ensure that the lumber is sufficiently dried to prevent warping. Apply pressure-treated wood (particularly for posts, which are uncovered to high levels of moisture in the soil) or naturally moisture-defiant hardwoods like cedar. A special finish, like stain or paint, will be essential to safeguard the above-ground structure. Refrain from using galvanized nails if you’re close on a body of salt water. Set up fence posts not less than 3 feet deep, with tops cut at an angle, to facilitate them to cast off precipitation.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co 

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Soil Reinforcement And It’s Application

This construction article is based on a B.Tech thesis for Civil Engineers. The article focuses on Soil Reinforcement Method and its application mainly the study of the behavior of centrally loaded strip foundation on multi layered geo-grid reinforced sand bed.

Soil Reinforcement refers to a robust and reliable method for improving the quality and strength of soil.

The hardened soil or mechanically arranged earth is a solid soil fill, reinforced with the study of pliable components like geogrids, geotextiles, metal bars and strips. It is currently developed in big development industry for building the structures like holding dividers, banks over delicate soil, steep inclines and so on.

The reinforced soil belongs to the soil in which its engineering behavior is enhanced by delivering the metallic, synthetic or geogrids.

The provision of geogrid reinforcement renders anisotropic mechanical properties, improve stiffness, tensile strengths as well as bearing capacity to the foundation soil.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co

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