Infrastructure is anything that links together cities, town, villages and other locations. Everything from flood defences to railroads are a part of infrastructure – and from that alone, you can tell how important the plant hire industry is to infrastructure.
Before any infrastructure project can start, a large amount of design and planning takes place. During this, plant hire companies and construction companies will be contacted for quotes on the machinery needed to complete the infrastructure project. Plant hire makes infrastructure projects easier because not one construction company needs to own all of the machinery needed to complete the project, instead, they can hire them from a plant hire company. The plant hire company won’t only offer the machinery, they’ll also be able to give expert advice, as well as safety training.
Before anything like a road, tunnel or bridge can be built, the ground has to be tested to make sure it can support it the new structure. This typically involves employing people with specialised knowledge and machinery. Most of these people will work in construction, engineering, and plant hire. If the sub or super structure is not right or made of the right material, the project will not work. Experts in related industries are called in for their opinion on the project.
To prepare the surface for the new infrastructure that is going to be built on top of it, earthwork machinery will be hired from plant hire companies. Large materials – such as rocks and heavy soil have to be removed to make space for the new structure being built. Excavators can dig the earth to create the space for foundations, while loaders start transporting debris off-site and bring building materials on-site. Dozers can then flatten and even the surface ready for the next phase of planning and building.
It is important that any new infrastructure being built does not cause flooding or damage to the surrounding area. Sometimes new drainage is needed to prevent this, which means that it’s built alongside the new infrastructure project. Utilities like gas, electricity, water and network communications are often carried under roads and over bridges across the country.
Once the foundations have been built there will be a need for lifting machinery such as tower cranes that can lift heavy materials. This is especially important for highways, because tower cranes can offer more flexibility than over lifting machinery. Roadwork machinery should be hired from plant hire specialists to remove any unwanted layers of materials, and then paving machinery can begin spreading asphalt and concrete layers and compactors used to prepare the surface for finish (where necessary).
Finishing the infrastructure project is all about making sure that the area around the project is made to look nice and that any infrastructure fits pleasingly into the local area and environment. Once built, infrastructure will need regular maintenance to keep it in good working order, and it may need repairing or extending in the future; in either case, plant hire companies would be contacted again for their specialist machinery.