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Built in the middle of the twentieth century, the American road infrastructure system is a one-time jewel needing serious repair and modernization. Tens of thousands of miles of paved and standardized road connect every American, designed to get people and products anywhere in the country within days. This system, however, requires constant care and maintenance, and those entrusted with that important job need the right tools, including vehicles, to do the job.
Bipartisan infrastructure legislation is currently under consideration to help overhaul aging assets, such as roads, bridges and tunnels. If any of the projects proposed in the bill are to be completed, a lot of equipment will be needed. However, even apart from new projects or upgrades, routine maintenance is required to keep roads in their current condition. Here, we’ll discuss the most important, in our opinion, equipment for road maintenance construction – trucks.
Types of Road Maintenance and Construction
Road maintenance can include pothole repair, road resurfacing or pavement resurfacing, and all can be organized into three main types:
Routine maintenance is your daily inspection of conditions to monitor any problems or damage. During inspection, issues that may lead to more significant and costly rehabilitation are addressed. This type of maintenance can include pavement clearing, shoulder grading and pothole patching.
Emergency maintenance works to restore infrastructure to their normal operating conditions when they’re damaged by either natural causes or accidents that require immediate action. Examples include the removal of debris from natural causes or traffic accidents.
Periodic maintenance consists of detailed inspections at predetermined specific intervals such as yearly, monthly or seasonally.
The overarching goal of road maintenance is to keep road conditions safe, manage traffic and maintain upkeep. State and local governments tend to spend upwards of $186 billion annually on road maintenance and operations.
Equipment for Road Maintenance and Construction Trucks
Road maintenance and construction requires specialized heavy-duty trucks, or as Autocar likes to call them, tools:
Water Blasters: Hydroblaster and water blaster equipment directs high water pressure against a surface for cleaning or demolition purposes. The streams of water projected tend to exceed 10,000 psi. We recommend the Autocar ACX or ACMD for these projects.
Dump Trucks: A dump truck might move hot asphalt from a plant to a job site – often over difficult terrain. Construction and road maintenance dump trucks are used for transporting large volumes of fine materials such as sand, gravel, demolition waste and asphalt. The dump truck’s open bed makes it easy to load and haul larger items such as boulders and supplies. This kind of work calls for the Autocar DC-64D.
Paint Stripers: Paint stripers are usually the most frequently replaced equipment or vehicle by traffic departments. If you have a lot of lines to paint, you want a truck that can carry plenty of paint and draw smooth, straight, crisp and clean lines on the pavement; that’s where Autocar ACMD comes in.
Street Sweepers: Need your streets cleaned? Use a street sweeper. This type of road maintenance equipment cleans curbs, gutters and roads to remove dust, trash, debris and pollutants. Of course, no one wants to drive over a nail, loose gravel or glass, so you’ll want an Autocar ACMD to get the job done right the first time.
Snow Plows: When the leaves start falling for those of you living up north, be sure your snow plows are locked and loaded – or just ready to go as soon as the first snowflake falls. Thankfully, the Autocar DC-64D dump truck is equipped for snowplowing projects.
Concrete Trucks: Concrete trucks can be called cement mixers, mixer trucks or cement trucks, but the final product they help produce is concrete. The concrete is mixed in the rotating barrel attached to the truck chassis, which may require numerous axles to properly distribute the weight of the load to comply with various regulations. We recommend the Autocar DC-64M for mixers, of course.
Important Considerations for Road Maintenance Construction Trucks
When choosing a road maintenance construction truck, be sure to consider the environment the truck will operate in. For example, are there any weather considerations? What is the terrain the truck will be driving on? Does the truck need to be able to maneuver tight spots? For instance, Autocar trucks offer incredible 325-degree driver visibility to help operators complete the job safely. A tight turning radius allows vehicles operators to navigate busy worksites and narrow alleyways with ease.
Autocar believes that the customer should be involved from the very start. The customer should have a voice in how their truck is built – so that when the truck is engineered, the customer’s body of choice is seamlessly integrated without the need for extensive retrofitting at a body shop. Autocar's unique body integration processes ensures that every vocational vehicle is made to excel at the task it is intended for.
Finally, operator comfort is a significant consideration for any vocational vehicle owner and fleet operator. One of the things we hear over and over from operators is how much they enjoy the space of Autocar’s cabs as Autocar’s trucks have the biggest cabs that allow for easy ingress and egress and working long shifts.
North American infrastructure will always be a vital asset to us all, so choosing the right road maintenance construction trucks is critical. Autocar is the solution for your road maintenance construction needs.
