Skip to main content

Equipment used in hydropower construction

Short answer

Hydropower equipment includes bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks, drill jumbos, TBM, shotcrete machines, crushers, batching plants, transit mixers, concrete pumps, tower cranes, cableways, vibratory rollers, pumps and grouting plant. A drill jumbo carries multiple hydraulic booms to drill blast holes rapidly in tunnels. Cableways and tower cranes place concrete and lift materials at dams and powerhouses.

List out construction equipment used in hydropower and explain any two of them with sketches.

Construction equipment used in hydropower projects

  • Earthmoving: bulldozers, excavators, loaders, dump trucks, scrapers.
  • Rock and tunnelling: drill jumbos, jackhammers, rock bolters, shotcrete machines, tunnel boring machines, rocker shovels, ventilation fans.
  • Concrete: aggregate crushers, batching plants, transit mixers, concrete pumps, tower cranes, cableways, vibrators, and formwork travellers.
  • Lifting: mobile and crawler cranes, gantry cranes for powerhouse and gates.
  • Compaction: vibratory rollers (earth/rockfill dams).
  • Dewatering: pumps, well points; grouting plant for curtain grouting.
  • Transport: tippers, trailers, ropeways.

1. Drill jumbo

       boom1  boom2  boom3
        \    |    /
  [cab]  drifters at the face
  [==rubber tyre or rail carriage==]

A truck-mounted frame with two or three hydraulic booms, each carrying a rock drill (drifter). The operator positions the drills in the blast pattern. It drills the holes for the explosives rapidly in headrace tunnels, adits and caverns. Advantage: speed, accuracy of holes and safety.

2. Tower crane or cableway for concrete placing

   head tower ======cable======= tail tower
                    |bucket|
                 (concrete bucket over the dam block)

A cableway carries concrete buckets across the dam site, from the batching plant to the blocks, over a long span. A tower crane serves the powerhouse and intake structures for lifting formwork, reinforcement and concrete.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

Related questions

All Construction Management chapter 4 questions →