Civil Engineering Construction Basics – The Excavator
Excavators are the cornerstones of projects as far as civil engineering and construction projects go. It is more than a vehicle project manager’s use for excavating and moving large objects. Excavators at the beginning consisted of two primary parts which are:
- A base for driving linked and in control of a powerful boom arm with an attachment resembling a bucket with teeth designed for excavating. The operator or the driver of the excavator inserts himself into a small cab connected to the base where the controls for the arm are located.
- The second component is the Hydraulic system that the excavator is fitted with which generates Hydraulic force that moves the mechanical arm. Excavators either come with a chain wheel system or standard wheels. However, nowadays there are excavators with spider like legs that provide better support and stability for the machine when working in unstable, soft and muddy ground.
Excavators are applicable for large to small scale construction projects based on the fact that they are able to replace human raw labour much more effectively both workwise and cost wise. Even home improvement projects or demolition tasks are much more effectively and efficiently handled using excavators to cut, move and fill.
They are good for road construction, to build marine structures (placing armours and large rocks or moving them) and also move construction material into dumpers. The advent of mini excavators that are available for hire has been a welcome element within the spectrum of the construction industry as hiring excavators is not only cheap and effective, but they also save a lot of time. The excavator is undoubtedly the most common among other machines that are applied by construction managers due to their extensive range of tasks that they are able to perform which include digging trenches, holes for foundations, demolishing old structures, handling and moving material, grading & landscaping, brush trimming and so much more.
These tasks are currently handled by excavators mainly due to the advent of hydraulic attachments which make excavators versatile. Even river dredging and forestry work is easily managed by excavators. The fact that excavators for hire are readily available in places like Melbourne, it has become a norm for construction companies to use hired machines rather than buy them outright due to the high price of these machines that depletes working capital. A point worth noting at this juncture is the fact that excavators are only as good as the operators who operate them, it is critical that the right type of operator is hired along with the right type of excavator.
Getting this equation wrong could be quite disastrous as it would most certainly cause unwarranted delays. Hence, it is critical for project managers to conduct due diligence pertaining to the type of excavator for hire that they are planning to get in relation to the tasks that the machine has to perform and also the type of operator based on his or her previous experience.