Road construction includes so may works during construction. Construction of retaining structures, side drain, cross drainage structures, protection structures, road pavement etc. requires labour as well as machines. The works which are fully based on the physical works of labour without applying machinery equipment are called labour intensive works. And the works which are fully based on the machinery equipment are called machine intensive works.
In general, road construction works are relating to both labour and machines. Most of the low-cost roads are labour intensive and higher-class roads are both labour and machinery intensives. Now a days, road construction activities are related both on labour work and machinery work. For the operation of machines, labour are required and for the construction of various structures, both labour and machines are required. For example, for the construction of masonry walls, stone dressing, mortar preparation, stone laying with mortar, etc. requires labour work and breaking of stones at quarry, collection and transportation of stones requires machines and is said machine works. For the construction structures, material collection, transportation etc. requires the machine work and laying and applying of materials to build structures requires labour work.
The role of labour vs machinery in road construction can be summarized as follow:
| Labour | Machinery |
| Labor needs more time to complete work | Machinery needs very much lesser time to complete the same work. |
| Efficiency of work is less | Efficiency of work is more |
| Labour are mandatory in structural works | Machinery are mandatory in excavation, transportation, filling and compaction works. |
| Days output is less | Days output is more. |
| Earthwork becomes expensive by using Earthwork machinery labour | Earthwork becomes cheap by using machinery. |
| Collection, transportation and placing of materials is very lengthy and tough process and almost impossible. | Collection, transportation and placing of construction materials is short process as compared to labour. |
| Overall project time increases | Overall project time decreases considerably |
| Less chances of environmental degradation during construction process. | Higher chances of environment degradation during construction process. |
| Higher risk of security during construction. | Less risk of security during construction. |
| Suitable only for very small labour intensive projects. | Suitable for small to large projects |
| Use of labour increases employment in society | Use of machinery increases unemployment in society. |
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