Road construction equipment: books - history and technology

Roadbuilding Construction Equipment at Work: Building the early interstate highways through New England's Green Mountains

This photo essay details the construction of the original Interstate Highway System in Vermont's picturesque and largely rural mountainous region through the late 1950s to late '70s. During this short time, contractor driven construction equipment innovation was remarkable: 2-1/2 cubic yard shovels were replaced with 4-8 yard shovels and then by massive wheel loaders up to 17 cubic yards; 15-22 ton rock trucks were upped to 50 tons; rudimentary spreading methods - with dump trucks using tailgate chains - were replaced with CMI Autogrades; and many contractors devised and built ingenious contraptions to increase production.

The work attracted many large established road building firms from other States - Lane, Perini, Palazzi, L. G. Defelice, Green Construction from Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Cartier Construction, a division of McNamara from Montreal - seen here clearing and grubbing, pioneering, rock drilling, mucking peat bogs, and excavation sequences including trucks and shovels, loaders, pan scrapers, and a wheel excavator.
The manufacturers of construction equipment constitute a virtual directory of the period; Caterpillar, Euclid, Allis-Chalmers, International, Dart, P&H, Bucyrus-Erie, Northwest, Lorain, Lima, Gradall, Barber-Greene, Blaw Knox, CMI, and more.

Road Rollers

In the nineteenth century, it became obvious that the UK's road system needed to be improved. Smoother roads were required to allow people to travel faster and more safely, and the engineers went to work to make this possible. In this book, author Anthony Coulls looks at one of the best known ways of doing this: the road roller.

The first road rollers were horse-drawn and these were followed in 1865 by the steam-powered road roller, which was seen on British roads for more than a century. Aveling & Porter of Rochester was the firm that dominated the steam roller market, although several other manufacturers made plenty. As technology improved, rollers began to get lighter and new forms of propulsion came in - petrol and diesel engines.

Even though a road roller today will be one of these more modern types, the term 'steam roller' is a firm part of the public's imagination. The appeal of the steam roller means that hundreds survive to this day in the hands of enthusiasts, who take them to steam rallies up and down the country, and petrol and diesel rollers have great appeal too.

From the earliest steam rollers to classic diesel and petrol rollers, this book presents the history of these popular road-making machines and their accessories. This volume is part of the Britain's Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain's past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with road rollers in all their variety.

Classic American Steamrollers 1871-1935

Thrilling photos of the great steam-powered machines that shaped America's highways and other paved spaces. For the first time, read about all 30 recognized makes of steamrollers built in North America. Fans of Baker, Birdsall, Buffalo-Pitts, Case, Enright, Geiser, Gorton, Heilman, Huber, Kelly, Leader, Port Huron, Robert Bell, Russell, & Waterous farm engines will find them among the road rollers shown.

See the development of North American rollers from Abbot Q Ross' first 3-wheel roller of 1871 through the last Buffalo-Springfield steamroller of 1935. You'll be fascinated by the depth of information.