Road Widener’s Offset Vibratory Roller is helping operators to access unreachable areas of road surfaces during road and trench compaction work. Road Widener’s team explains how the attachment is helping to increase safety.
Safety in construction continues to be an aspect in the roads and infrastructure sectors that’s in need of dire improvement.
According to NSC Injury Facts, the construction industry experienced the most workplace deaths in 2021. As such, technological development continues to improve current processes in what is one of the world’s most dangerous industries.
Road rehabilitation and compaction works, in particular, pose risks, including factors such as unpredictable terrain or civilian traffic.
Lynn Marsh, President of Road Widener, says identifying these risks was the factor that led to the development of the company’s answer to compaction works in trying applications.
“Tandem compaction rollers are common in the industry, and while they serve a purpose, with Road Widener’s background in the paving industry, we saw a need for a safer option,” Marsh says.
“Too often, we hear of contractors who experience close calls with ride-on rollers or situations where tipping occurs. We didn’t want to accept this safety risk at face value, but instead took what we know about the industry and compaction and designed the Offset Vibratory Roller.”
Road Widener’s Offset Vibratory Roller is a patented attachment that allows operators to complete road and trench compaction works on a flat surface.
The attachment is a remote-controlled offset arm, which can reach the outside of the road shoulder slope due to a pivot position of up to 30 degrees and a reach distance of 30 inches below the mounting point.
“As a former COO for a paving company, I often heard of what we would call ‘silent rollovers,’ when operators would jump to safety as the tandem roller they were using was tipping,” Marsh says.
“We have heard of this happening when compacting a steep road shoulder or ditch, as well as in trench compaction. The Offset Vibratory Roller eliminates this risk.”
Operators can place their compact track loader, wheel loader, skid steer or grader safely on flat ground. The attachment can then reach the furthest, steepest edge of sloping road shoulders, ditches, trenches and other hard-to-reach areas.
“Other compaction attachments that are not offset pose the same risks as tandem rollers, because the host machine still ends up driving at an angle and is front-weighted,” Marsh says.
“The safety provided by allowing the host machine to drive on flat ground while compacting sloped shoulders and ditches is something unachievable by a ride-on roller or other compaction attachments on the market.”
Increased efficiency
On top of meaningful safety benefits, the roller also provides efficiency bonuses. These productivity yields are already being recognised by operators on site.
Matt McDonald, Project Supervisor of Cox Construction, a 40-year-old construction company based in Canada, says the attachment has helped to maintain consistency and reliability.
“The Offset Vibratory Roller has been a game changer for our company. Not only does it improve safety, but it also offers increased efficiency,” McDonald says. “We do a lot of resurfacing roads, and these projects often involve very narrow shoulders with dangerously steep drop-offs into the ditch.”
“Ride-on rollers put the operator at risk of tipping and injury. The Offset Vibratory Roller attaches to the skid steer already in our fleet, allowing our crew to drive on the level road with the offset roller compacting on the shoulder. The risk of rollover and injury to my operators is eliminated.”
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To further improve the versatility and efficiency of the roller, Road Widener also developed an optional spray bar accessory to prevent excess dust on the worksite when compacting ‘clumpy’ materials.
On top of suppressing dust particles, the optional water spray bar system can also improve the compaction performance of materials such as hot mix asphalt.
Compaction, all year round
During the development of the roller, Road Widener identified the need to ensure that the attachment could endure varying weather conditions. This focus also extended to minimising downtime due to unpredictable weather.
“Road Widener equipment can be used in both wet and dry environments,” Marsh says. “In addition to the Offset Vibratory Roller, Road Widener offers a material placement attachment, the FH-R, that has a range of applications including road shoulder work and utility trench backfilling.”
“Both the FH-R material placement attachment and the Offset Vibratory Roller are compatible with a wide range of materials. The FH-R is designed to handle wet and dry aggregates, allowing contractors to remain productive and on schedule when rain is a factor.”
During the colder months, users can also have peace of mind when it comes to the maintenance of these attachments. Marsh says the roller requires 90 per cent less maintenance than self-propelled machinery.
“Where winter months may be more of a down season with traditional compaction and paving equipment, attachments may only require their regular greasing and day-to-day simple maintenance,” Marsh says.
“As long as the weather is conducive to the work, Road Widener’s attachments can be used.”
Maintenance is also supported due to long-term after sales support from Road Widener’s team.
“We have a dedicated team that supports customers from the point of contact and the initial sale through the equipment’s life cycle. In addition to our internal team, we have a growing dealer presence and are continuing to add more dealers that provide excellent customer service,” Marsh says.
Importance of compaction safety
Marsh says road compaction safety remains to be a key focus – both here in Australia – as well as Road Widener’s home, the USA.
“As many countries move toward safe systems approaches, Australia among them, there is a growing focus on enhancing safety in all aspects of the highway infrastructure in a country,” she says.
“The equipment used to build those highway systems should be at the very core of this movement – and that is what we had in mind when developing the Offset Vibratory Roller.”
Marsh says equipment such as the Offset Vibratory Roller is helping to lead the charge.
“Safety is the highest priority in construction, but it remains a prominent challenge to achieve, especially when it comes to compaction safety. Compaction equipment that requires an operator to be at imminent risk of rollover is a prime example of a potentially problematic design” she says.
“These types of attachments are a more compact equipment option than traditional ride-on rollers. This results in a lower impact to traffic, reducing congestion on roads and benefitting safety in terms of traffic flow.”
Contractors can learn more about Road Widener’s products and services by visiting: www.roadwidenerllc.com
This article was originally published in the July edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.