Two Types of Heavy Construction Equipment Used for Land-Clearing Work
Here are two types of heavy construction equipment that are commonly used for land-clearing work.
Bulldozers
During most major land-clearing projects, bulldozers will be used. This machinery is large, powerful and is designed to quickly shovel, push and transport large amounts of materials. It has a sharp and wide blade that the equipment operator can raise, lower or even tilt to one side. As such, this machinery is perfect for clearing land; its blade can cut through tough, bulky vegetation and then immediately gather up this vegetation and move it to the site's rubbish container. Because of its stability and the high level of traction that its tracks provide, this equipment can be safely used to clear plots of land where the terrain is extremely uneven and rough.
Because bulldozers are so large and powerful, they can also be used to rapidly knock down trees. This can be extremely useful when someone is trying to clear land with a lot of trees, as the removal of trees with smaller, handheld equipment like chainsaws can be a slow and difficult process. Furthermore, bulldozers can also be used to fully remove tree stumps. The equipment operator usually does this by using the blade of the bulldozer to dig around the tree stump and pull both the stump and the roots out of the soil.
Excavators
Excavators are also often used for land-clearing work. This machinery has a long arm and boom, which makes it useful for those who need to clear vegetation from hard-to-access areas. For example, if there is a large structure directly in front of a plot of land with overgrown vegetation, an excavator can be used to reach around or over this structure, to access, dig up and remove the vegetation from that plot. Similarly, if a person needs to remove vegetation from a ditch that's at the bottom of a steep slope, they can position their excavator at the top of this slope and use its arm and boom to reach down to the ditch and pick up the vegetation. This would be a much safer approach than, for example, using another form of machinery, like a skid steer or bulldozer, to access this ditch and carry the vegetation up this slope.
Additionally, because an excavator's bucket is significantly narrower than a bulldozer's blade, it can be used in instances where a person needs to selectively clear pockets of vegetation from a piece of land. For example, they may need to remove a few smallish patches of vegetation that have grown between the shrubs they want to keep. An excavator could be used for this, as its bucket could be compact enough to allow the operator to fit it between the shrubs and only remove the unwanted vegetation.
Reach out to a land clearing service near you to learn more.