Construction Equipment Guide takes a look back at some of the earliest paving equipment.
A horsedrawn drum roller on the job in Crescent City, Calif., circa 1900.
(HCEA Archives photo)
All the workings of this 8-ton Erie Machine Shops steam tandem roller are on display. Note the double staggered step rim gear on the drum. This gear, the relatively tiny steering roller and other features were quite similar to one of the first American steam tandem rollers — the Anders Lindelof roller of 1873.
(HCEA Archives photo)
The Koehring rotary grader from the late 1920s stripped macadam pavement and screened the material for reuse.
(HCEA Archives photo)
The earliest dry batch pavers were simple mixers like this Foote 5A traction paving mixer, working on the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway on Long Island. It receives dry materials at one end of its chassis, or truck, and discharges concrete to the other. Note the fixed, non-tilting drum; it is of Foote’s unique double-cone design. A laborer at left appears to be repositioning a plank for the paver to travel on, and the “finisher” is a simple screed.
(HCEA Archives photo)
An Adnun Black Topper asphalt paver and Galion three-wheel roller at work on the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, for Murdock Construction Company in the early 1950s. Along with Barber-Greene, Adnun Engineering & Manufacturing Company developed the first self-propelled, free-traveling asphalt pavers; however, their designs differed significantly.
(HCEA Archives photo)
A CMI PR225 Roto-Mill pavement profiler in 1977.
(HCEA Archives photo)