Road maintenance machinery

Road maintenance helps keep roads in their originally-constructed condition, protects resources and user safety and facilitates smooth and convenient travel. Proper road maintenance can result in reliable transport at reduced cost, as there is a direct connection between road condition and vehicle operating cost. An improperly maintained road can result in more accidents. In addition, drainage systems should be maintained so they are free from obstructions.

A range of activities are necessary to maintain roads:

• Routine works can be categorised as reactive and cyclic work.
• Cyclic work is undertaken on environmental effects rather than on traffic levels.
• Reactive works are undertaken when maintenance is required. For instance patching, carried out in response to the appearance of cracks.
• Periodic works are undertaken at intervals of several years to maintain the structural integrity of the road.
• Special works are undertaken during emergencies such as landslides and washouts.
• Development works are undertaken to construct highways and for the paving of unpaved roads in villages.

In order to carry out these activities, different road maintenance machinery is required, including:

• Pavers.
• Graders.
• Road rollers.
• Asphalt mixing plant
• Asphalt pavement plant.

Road maintenance machinery is divided into three categories:

• Daily maintenance equipment (slurry seal machines, road composite maintenance vehicles and sewing equipment)
• Special road maintenance equipment (sweepers, road milling machines and road pavers).
• Others, including; cleaning equipment and bridge maintenance equipment.

In terms of geography, North America and Europe dominate the global road maintenance machinery market. The U.S. represents the largest market for road maintenance machinery followed by Canada in North America. In Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. holds major share of road maintenance machinery market. However, Asia Pacific is expected to show high growth rates in the next five years due to the construction of new roads. Additionally, the increasing range of old roads that have come to the end of their service lives boosts the market for road maintenance machinery.

Some of the major companies operating in the road maintenance machinery market are; Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science&Technology Co., Ltd., XCMG Group, Volvo, Xiamen XGMA Machinery Co., Ltd., Caterpillar, SANY Group Co.,Ltd. and Dingsheng Tiangong.