Recent Minnesota figures have shown increasing construction expenditure right across the state, with projects as diverse as high-speed railroads to major new hotels breaking ground in almost every state as well. For heavy equipment operators, this means more opportunities, more demand, and a healthy career, with the industry growing steadily.

One large construction initiative has just launched in Minnesota, where a massive program of road improvement, under the ‘Corridors of Commerce’ initiative, has been given $400 million of funding for work this year. That makes it one of the larger road projects in the country, and it sees four individual projects break ground to deliver improved traffic flow and reduce congestion right across the state.

Minnesota Road Projects Include

Converting Highway 169 into a freeway, the addition of MnPASS lanes on Highway 494, expanding I-94 from four to six lanes, and construction of a new turbine interchange between northbound I-35W to westbound I-494 traffic. Projects were chosen from numerous options based on the modeled effect on traffic congestion and throughput, with these four offerings having the broadest effect on the traffic problems that Minnesota has been struggling with for a while.

Of course, with such a significant amount of road construction, heavy equipment operators will be in high demand throughout the state, with a variety of machinery in use across these projects, including motor graders. Rollers, excavators, wheel loaders, and cranes. It represents a terrific opportunity for skilled operators, however, it is not restricted to Minnesota road building. While this project is a fitting example of the effects of the country focusing on improving infrastructure, this is just one project.

Decisions to invest in new infrastructure, or to improve existing provisions such as this one are being taken in every state, and funding is being given to such projects almost every week. This road project at $400 million is a large one, but there are new construction projects starting up all over the country in a similar way. Some are larger, some smaller, some are building roads, some railroad lines, and others are transforming derelict land into affordable places to live, but all require the skills of heavy machinery operators, crane operators, and other construction professionals.

All over the country, as infrastructure is being recognized for its importance, investment is growing, and for skilled construction workers, opportunities for well-paid, satisfying careers are growing with them. As the country sets itself to rebuild, it is the construction workers who will the backbone of those efforts.

If you’re interested in a career as a truck driver then your first move has to be to acquire a commercial drivers license or CDL. Without this license, you cannot legally drive a truck on a public road. Your next question is probably, “How long and how many hours of truck driving do I need”. The answer may well surprise you.

For those diligent and able to grasp driving concepts quickly, you can complete your truck driver training program in as little as three weeks. Through ATS Truck Driving School we provide you with both the hands-on behind-the-wheel training as well as the classroom training in road rules and other relevant material. Once you have completed your training, you will be ready to pass your CDL tests and be qualified to drive trucks on the open roads.

We don’t miss anything with our training. Reversing in articulated vehicles can be difficult but we spend time training you on how to do it and then give you time to practice the maneuver. You also get time driving on the open road so you get a feel for what it is like having traffic around you. Driving tips like safe breaking are also part of your training.

At ATS we have a long a proud record for training truck drivers. Our drivers work in a wide range of industries including construction, excavation, road building, sand and gravel and the mining industry. In fact, if you can think of a truck driving job, I am sure there will be an ATS graduate somewhere driving a truck in that job. If you’re interested in a career as a truck driver, contact us for more information on how you can complete a truck driver training program in as little as three week.

Becoming a skilled bulldozer operator is a career within itself. For the more adventurous, there is a lot on offer beyond the construction and road building industries. It all starts with heavy equipment operator training. Once you have the basic set of core skills, you can find employment. This gives you the opportunity to hone those skills and become a highly skilled operator. From there, the world is your oyster, as the saying goes.

As I mentioned, careers exist for skilled bulldozer operators outside simple construction and road building. A military career is one option – bulldozer operator recruits are often in high demand in the military and after basic training, you could find yourself anywhere in the world operating bulldozers.

The mining industry is possibly the third largest employer of skilled bulldozer operators. In some areas around the world, bulldozers are used under ground as well as on top of the ground. Bulldozer operators are also ideal for training for some of the more specialized equipment used in mining. Bulldozer operators are also employed for 8-9 month contracts on bases on Antarctica. Don’t get your hopes too high, these positions are few and far between and very competitive – but then, you never know what the future holds.

Other industries that use bulldozer operators include forestry, farming and some manufacturing sectors. There are also opportunities in other areas of the world, particularly third world countries. International operators are often called in to help with special projects whilst helping to train local operators.

The role of a bulldozer operator is not restricted to just local construction and road building. There is a broad range of opportunities for skilled operators – you just need a little research to uncover some of the opportunities. It all starts with your bulldozer operator training and as the nation’s oldest heavy equipment training organization, ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools is there to get you started. Are you ready to start?

That is the call I am seeing these days – not experienced bulldozer operators – no, they are asking for reliable bulldozer operators. One of the problems many construction crews are now finding is a general approach of apathy when it come to travel. With a lot of highway construction being undertaken now, there are times when operators need to travel 40-50 minutes to get to the construction site.

Because of this apathy to travel, employers are looking for operators that are reliable. If the job is forty miles down the highway and work starts at 6am, you’re there, on time, every day that you’re required. Are you reliable or do you fit into the ‘apathy’ class? If you’re reliable, there is work available and it’s increasing by the day.

Some argue that the cost of gas is making this sort of work uneconomical. However, smart crews are car pooling to share expenses. There are employers around that provide transport to and from these sites, it’s just a matter of being at the construction yard on time to take advantage of that transport.

If you fit into the reliable class but don’t have any bulldozer operator training, that’s easily fixed. Heavy equipment training programs can have you in the workplace operating a bulldozer within a month of starting the training program. Read that carefully, within a month of starting, not within a month of completing.

The opportunities are there. If you’re reliable, keen to learn and willing to undertake a few weeks of intense training, both in a classroom and behind the wheel, then you can take advantage of these opportunities. The work is there – will you be?

Excavators of course do one job extremely well, they excavate. However, that term can be applied quite loosely. For example, mining is one area where excavators perform quite well yet we may not consider it excavating. The same could be said for quarrying and a range of other tasks. Technically, any job that entails digging is excavating – so why not use an excavator?

With that in mind, it is a good thing that this excavator has such a long reach. As the photo shows, the excavator is reaching into the middle of the river. Excavators are used a lot around waterways. They help to keep the bottom clean of debris, silt and rocks, allowing the river to flow cleanly. Some excavators are employed full time, working from one point on a river to another. Once it gets to the end point, it is time to go back to the start again.

There are some areas around the world where excavators are used to ‘mine’ river beds. The floor of the river is dug up and any minerals, particularly gold, are removed before being placed back into the river.

Other rivers use excavators as land based dredges. they can be quite effective in removing silt deposits from the floor of the river. This is often necessary to ensure boats and leisure craft are able to negotiate the river freely.

Working as a heavy equipment operator is not always going to be in a traditional area like construction or road building. There are a lot of unusual or different uses for heavy equipment – some more demanding on skills than others. If you’re looking for a demanding job in heavy equipment, you may want to consider excavator training. You could be working at a mine, in a quarry, on a building site or perhaps in a river – you just never no.

Heavy equipment can be divided into two distinct fields; machinery that can multi-task and machinery that is designed to do a specific task. Bulldozers, backhoes and loaders can all multi-task. Graders fit into the role of dedicated machinery and so too does a scraper.

Scrapers are cumbersome-looking machines but their ability to their dedicated job is by no means cumbersome. They only have the one task – to scrape the surface of the earth in preparation for a building project. The majority of these projects are road work related.

The scraper slices across the top of the earth like a knife across butter. Once the scraper has completed the task of leveling out the surface, a grader is then applied to do the fine tuning of the construction bed. Without the scraper, a construction crew would need to rely on a bulldozer or similar to scrape away the surface.

Most heavy equipment machinery like bulldozers do more than just scrape the earth. They can tear big gashes in the work area, gashes that need more work to repair before the site is considered ready to work on.

As you can see from the photo, scrapers are reasonably large and certainly look cumbersome. Learning to operate a scraper is not that difficult and is often included as part of a heavy equipment training program. If you are able to undertake scraper operator training then I suggest you do. With the millions of miles of roads and highways being built as part of the economic stimulus package, gaining a qualification that includes scrapers makes a lot of sense.

Motor graders, or just graders, depending on your terminology, do more than just smooth over the surface. Graders are actually precision tools designed to do a range of tasks.

For their size, graders are able to carve a road to an exact thickness and, more importantly, a precise grade; hence the name ‘grader’. When we talk about grade we are referring to a very slight angle or slope that all roads have.

Roads, particularly those designed to take fast traffic, have a number of problems to counter. The first is fairly obvious if you think about – water deposited by rainfall. If roads didn’t have a slope the water would pool causing many problems for motorists traveling at speed, the toughest being a cars tendency to aquaplane, or go into an all wheel slide, when encountering sheets of water. The slope of the road helps that water to run off instead of collecting in sheets.

The second problem that cars face occurs on bends, particularly long sweeping bends. For most cars, handling a bend at speed could cause the vehicle to roll. What prevents this roll is the angle, or camber of the finished surface. This angle forces the car to remain upright with all four wheels on the road.

Without the use of graders these slopes and cambers would be almost impossible to produce. An experienced grader operator can complete a portion of road base to the exact requirements of the planers. The next time you’re driving at speed on a highway, feel the increased g-force as you drive around a bend; then think of the grader that made that bend safer.

To become a grader operator you need training followed by hands on experience. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools deliver high quality training. They may even be able to help you find your first job working as a motor grader operator.

Have you ever thought about the amount of work that goes into building our roads. Sure, there are little country roads. But what about the highways, multi-lanes, turnpikes, off ramps, on ramps, I could go on. Roads take a lot of careful planning and just as much careful work. Despite the complexity, the big rough and tough heavy equipment machinery that we use really do make light work of it all and it’s done accurately.

In today’s engineering environment, you can start a large six or eight lane highway in two parts, each 100 miles apart. By the time the highways meet, the will connect perfectly with hardly an inch of leeway – that is what I call accuracy. Yet we drive these roads without giving any thought to the complexities of creating them. It’s the engineers, the laborers and the heavy equipment operators that know how complex these roads are.

Road gangs rely on excavators, bulldozers and graders to get the base right. There are specialized heavy equipment that is then called in to lay the gravel and hot asphalt. Heavy multi wheeled vehicles help to cure the road. Pile drivers and cranes are often called in to construct the turnpikes, off ramps and on ramps.

The life of a heavy equipment operator is never boring when it comes to road building. Every day is different and every day brings new challenges. Working on these road crews requires training in the right equipment. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools provides relevant hands on training across multiple heavy equipment rigs. Check out our site and you may find yourself helping to build the roads of our nation.

I am often amazed at ingenuity of the human race. Heavy equipment like bulldozers, backhoes and graders can move huge amounts of dirt, yet they can do it with such precision. If you ever see a bulldozer in action, stop an watch. They can level an area of ground in no time at all, and I mean level.

Bulldozers can take the roughest surface and turn it into a clean flat top. Backhoes can dig a trench to an exact depth and in a perfectly straight line. Motor graders can take a rough surface and not only turn it into a smooth surface, it will have perfect camber to allow for water run-off.

These are just examples of what heavy equipment can do – and does do each and every day. Think about it though, how many workers over what period of time armed simply with shovels, mattocks, or rakes could achieve the same results? Would they achieve the same accuracy?

Heavy equipment gets a job done quickly, painlessly and accurately. Whilst they look like big toys, they are serious work horses. If you fancy working as a heavy equipment operator then check out your options at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools – it could2 the start of a great career. The alternative, watch them in action and dream!

There are a lot places where you wouldn’t expect to find a bulldozer. Bulldozers come a variety of shapes and sizes and range from giants that work in the mining industry to babies that work in factories.

These little bulldozers are also put to work in the holds of ships and are often used to scrape up the remnants of whatever material has been carried in the holds. This can range from coal, stone or gravel through to wheat and other grains. This is one job where you wouldn’t want to be claustrophobic.

It’s not just shipping. There are many factories that use bulldozers to push the raw material around. Sugar refineries use a bulldozer to push raw sugar into small hills. They are also used around wood chip and sand and gravel enterprises.

Bulldozers are a part of many commercial enterprises today. Whilst the big boys may live and work on construction sites, mines or road building; their little cousins are equally hard at work. They may move less material compared to their larger relative, but they work twice as fast to make up for it.

Despite the size, the training required to handle a small bulldozer is not that different to what is required to operate a full size bulldozer. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools deliver training that will have you well equipped to handle any size bulldozer.