Road padding

[jegstad]

I have a qusetion that has been bugging me for a long time. Maybe someone with heavy construction experience can answer it.
I saw this picture today digger
and it reminded me of the NASA bearing problem with the Vehicle Assembly Transporter. When tested with a full load before the first Apollo flight, the transporter bearings seized because the road to the pad was concrete, putting an uneven load on the bearings due to small variations. The solution was to overlay the concrete with a gravel roadbed that would give as necessary to spread the load. It is still that way today. The roadbed (and most likely the bearings) in the attached link are being protected by the same method.

So my question is "Did NASA invent this method or was this some long-standing practice in the heavy equipment industry?

 

[mgallinaro]

Jim,

That machine is a bucket wheel excavator used for mining coal seems. I believe that machine is in Germany. As for the dirt pad, they are used to save the pavement, not the machine. Most times they are easier to build and remove than the section of highway asphalt that will be destroyed when that beast rolls over it!

 

[jegstad]

Michael G,

I know what the machine is and why the road pad is used to save the road. So your saying NASA invented a new use for an old method? They certainly weren't trying to save the road - they were trying to save their a$$.