Concrete milling, paving & compaction

In the US, a specialist contractor is making savings with new 3D technology for concrete paving. US contractor Gehring Construction is a specialist in concrete paving and is a long-time customer of GOMACO. Having bought its first GOMACO unit in 1973, Gehring has a good deal of experience in this segment. The company is now using some of the latest machine control technology, having bought a Topcon Millimetre GPS 3D stringless system, which has been used on a bypass project around the US city of Colombus. T

A new UK report suggests local authorities should think twice about automatically incorporating cycle lanes in road design. David Arminas reports Environmental and social arguments for getting more people onto bicycles are well known. The theory is the more people cycling, the less traffic congestion and less air pollution from cars. Well-defined cycle lanes can encourage people who might otherwise be too nervous to take to a bicycle. But just how effective are cycle lanes for increasing the safety of

A specially adapted Wirtgen SP25i concrete slipformer has been used on the M6 motorway near Cannock in the UK. The machine worked together with a Wirtgen ISF25i (independent side feeder) in order to pave a concrete slab under difficult conditions. With an overall length of 373km, the M6 is the longest and one of the most heavily congested motorways in the UK. The M6 connects the M1 motorway near Rugby with Carlisle near the Scottish border. But due to the steadily growing volume of traffic, the Highways

This month we learn about a new test which is helping to predict the performance of asphalt mixtures containing recycled materials and modifiers, and we showcase some of the new testing equipment recently launched - writes Kristina Smith Researchers in the US have come up with a new test to help owners and contractors better predict the performance of their roads. “The problem is that the current tests cannot determine the performance of new materials,” said Dr Haleh Azari, manager of the AASHTO Advanced P

Wirtgen is gearing up its operations in the concrete paving market - Mike Woof writes Concrete paving is a technology developed and pioneered in the US, so it is no surprise that US firms GOMACO, Guntert & Zimmerman, Power Curbers and Power Pavers, have had such a high profile in this market over the years. However one European firm, Wirtgen, is a serious competitor in the sector, the only non-US supplier to the market.

Nebraska Highway 92 in the US stretches from Nebraska’s western border with Wyoming to Omaha where the highway leaves Nebraska and enters Iowa, taking motorists through farmland and several towns and counties across the state. It’s also a major roadway that branches off from Interstate 80 and leads motorists through Polk County, Nebraska, where a recently completed road project is enhancing safety for motorists.

US contractor Robert Smith based in Chattanooga has long experience in the asphalt paving market but has recently added roller compacted concrete (RCC) to its paving portfolio. This heavy-duty cement mix can be poured as quickly as asphalt and the company has now developed its skills at laying large areas of RCC in just a few days for its industrial client base. Demand has grown and RCC work now accounts for over 90% of the firm’s workload, which it carries out using a Volvo CE paver.

Precision paving performance has been achieved on a major road project in Germany, using Wirtgen slipform pavers. The SP1500 and SP1500L models have been used to help upgrade a stretch of the BAB A9 Autobahn in Thuringia. The BAB A9 Autobahn is one of Germany’s most important roads, connecting the German cities of Berlin and Munich over a total distance of 529km. The route runs from Brandenburg through Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia and into Bavaria.

A sophisticated road surface friction monitoring system is now being offered by Telemotion. This advanced Surface Friction System can capture real-time data on road surfaces for winter roads maintenance and warnings for drivers. The system operates on asphalt, concrete or snow, and even accurately calculates the depth of snow on the surface, as well as temperatures.

New developments in concrete paving will increase working efficiency for contractors - Mike Woof writes The concrete paving market is a fiercely competitive segment of the off-highway construction machinery business. Although there are only a few key players in this niche market, the firms are constantly developing new systems, equipment and methods in a bid to help improve working efficiencies for contractors working in the sector. It is of note that the majority of the key players in the concrete pavin