Construction Equipment in a Disaster

[caregiver222]

The use of bulldozers, backhoes, and other heavy construction equipment to prepare for and recover from a disaster such as an earthquake is well established.  Removing debri to facilitate rescue efforts, clearing hurricane blocked roads, or preventing mudslides.  Learning about the capabilities of heavy equipment, how to operate it, and how to use assets efficiently is knowledge hard-won.

Fortunately, there is a book (a favorite of mine) that tells you absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about using heavy equipment, from bulldozers to cranes to graders. How to drive them, how to maintain them, and what you need to know if renting or leasing them.  How to move earth, how to stabilize earth,  and how to do so in the shortest period of time. Furthermore this book is written in a folksy easy-to-read style, and includes man-hour estimates, tricks on rebuilding a dirt road, repairing flood damage, operation of pumps to drain excavations...all sorts of good stuff! If you have never operated a bulldozer or a dumptruck this volume tells you about every switch and control.

It tells you how to supervise dump truck operators hauling fill, and includes hand signals, handy tips, how to compact earth, and how to build drainage culverts, ditches, berms, dykes and canals.

The book is titled "Moving the Earth".

It was originally written by a civil engineer named Herbert Nichols. The later editions are written by Nichols and Day.

It is now in the fifth printing and very expensive when new ($360.00), but used older versions are available for much less.  It is worth every penny. This volume is absolutely indispensible to anyone involved in supervising or planning for rescue or road rebuilding or contracting for use of heavy equipment following a disaster.