The construction equipment is difficult to avoid. As soon as you back out of the driveway at your house, the construction equipment throughout the neighborhood becomes an obstacle to avoid. Between the heavy equipment that is used in the parking lot at the park and the hydraulic dump mixer that is being used to help pour footings for one of the newest lots, the equipment has become a standard part of the subdivision.
In many places around the country, it is evident why the U.S. construction market is the second largest in the entire whole world. In fact, the American share of the world construction market has reached 10%. The combination of new home sites, new businesses, and new roads, mean that the need for heavy construction equipment in America will continue for many years to come.
Heavy Equipment Parts and Services Are an Integral Part of the Nation’s Economy
As many as 7. 8 million production workers in America are part of the construction industry. In almost all of these jobs, the heavy equipment that they use on a daily basis is an important part of a day’s work. And even though this equipment is made for heavy duty work, it still suffers from the daily use of tasks like busting concrete, moving dirt, and other construction tasks. As a result, an entire industry exists to repair and service these large machines.
Did you know, for instance, that by the end of 2015, the global construction equipment market reached $145.5 billion. And while the new construction equipment sales is a major part of this industry, even the resale of used equipment contributes to the construction equipment economy. Refurbished parts, rebuild engines, and repurposing of equipment all work together to feed an industry that helps keep many areas of the world operating.
A Variety of Fields and Industries Depend on Heavy Construction Equipment
From the second you leave your home until you return at night, you are surrounded by a variety of entities that rely on construction equipment. Consider how heavy construction equipment contributes to some of these fields:
- Transportation The roads that we travel in town as well as the interstates that cross the country depend on heavy construction equipment. Even the railroad tracks require the use of heavy equipment. Transportation construction, in fact, is so pervasive that in many parts of the country it is a constant process. And while as many as 80% of drivers indicate they prefer that road maintenance to be performed during off-peak traffic hours, this is not always possible. Even when crews plan to work through the night and very early morning hours and get the biggest equipment out of traffic by rush hour, road construction is so needed that many jobs have to be scheduled around the clock to have any chance at completion.
- Education One of the major challenges that school districts and college campuses face outside of the classroom is meeting the continuing need for new buildings, as well as older building repairs. Construction equipment is used to help place metal beams as well as to dig elevator shafts. In fact, a major part of any school construction project is the successful and accurate scheduling of the heavy equipment that is needed.
- Residential and Commercial Building Even in areas where it is not possible to pour a basement, large earth moving machines are needed to dig whole for foundations and to pour support footings. Contract managers, in fact, often spend as much time and money on heavy equipment rental, use, and maintenance, as they do building supplies.
From sweep trucks that come in at the end of a job for clean up purposes, to hydraulic dump mixers that are used for pouring foundations and footings, heavy construction equipment is an essential part of America’s economy. While the construction trucks that crowd your neighborhood as you back out of the driveway on your way to work may at first seem annoying, these machines are at the heart of any successful community. New homes, new roads, new schools, and new businesses are all things that keep America heading in the right direction. A direction that would be impossible without the use of heavy machine construction equipment.