Skip to main content

Smart asphalt paving technology in Morocco

SEFIANI Enterprises is staying competitive against rivals firms in the asphalt and paving construction market in Morocco. Construction Company SEFIANI Enterprises fitted one of its pavers with the Leica PaveSmart 3D machine control system at the end of October 2015. The aim of this was to improve project quality and to reduce operating costs for the 224km project for the LGV Ligne à Grande Vitesse Tanger–Kénitra. “It is the first system we sold for an asphalt paving application in Morocco,” explained
May 16, 2016 Read time: 4 mins
The system also allows accurate paving to be carried out at nigh
SEFIANI Enterprises is staying competitive against rivals firms in the asphalt and paving construction market in Morocco.

Construction Company SEFIANI Enterprises fitted one of its pavers with the 265 Leica PaveSmart 3D machine control system at the end of October 2015. The aim of this was to improve project quality and to reduce operating costs for the 224km project for the LGV Ligne à Grande Vitesse Tanger–Kénitra.

“It is the first system we sold for an asphalt paving application in Morocco,” explained Slim Meslameni, the North African sales manager for Leica Geosystems. He added that the customer was keen to deliver paving standards that were better than the specifications for the job and stay ahead of the local market.

A paving expert from Leica Geosystems, Mihalis Karizonis, trained the operating asphalt team of SEFIANI Enterprises during the complete week and focused on three important performance factors; quality, quantity and simplicity.

The practical training started with the explanation of the hardware components as well as mounting the tools on the firm’s asphalt paver. In this case, the paver was a 1194 Vögele Super 1800-2 which was adapted with the Mobamatic 1 Levelling System. The Leica PaveSmart 3D equipment was quickly connected to the asphalt paver. This fast linking between the Mobamatic and the Leica Geosystems machine control technology is standard for major paver brands including 172 BOMAG, 206 Dynapac, ABG and 1194 Vögele.
Because the system can be changed easily from one type of paver to another, this allows customers to achieve better utilisation within a mixed equipment fleet according to Rainer Bippen, business development manager at Leica Geosystems. He said, “The cost savings are tremendous for construction companies,” and added that project owners benefit for the life-cycle calculation due to the delivery of a higher quality performance with this 3D Machine Control System.

On the second day, the team was ready to pave using the stringless technology. While paving the first metres, the surveying experts from SEFIANI Enterprises made quickly as-build checks, to compare the paving results with the project design. The surveyors measured the overall deviation as being just 3mm, while the requirements of the contract demanded a maximum deviation of 15mm. It was clear that the PaveSmart 3D System system had delivered the improvement in quality the contractor was aiming to achieve.

“The daily performance of 8,000m² Asphalt Road and the improvement of 12mm thickness results in best case costs savings of around €15,000/day. Within a very short time, the investment is easily covered,” said Tarik Elasri sales manager at Leica Geosystems MARCOTEC. In addition, the stake-out and surveying costs for the stringline affect no longer the project. This amounts to a saving of around €1,000/km for the project and on the 32km stretch SEFIANI has been working on, it equates to a saving of an additional €32,000.
Mossaddek Hicham, head of SEFIANI Enterprises has an additional interest in the improved accuracy and cost performance the system delivers. He believes that in coming years, many infrastructure projects with high quality requirements will be put out to tender by Morocco’s Ministry of Infrastructure. These will include high-speed railways, airports, highways and harbour projects. The requirements of these projects will likely be for high accuracy parameters to optimise both performance and working life and to deliver the best value for the government investments.

Now that SEFIANI has experience with machine control technology, the firm believes it will have a stronger chance to win some of these future tenders.

During the training week, Leica Geosystems dealer MARCOTEC supported the PaveSmart Training. The firm has now supplied 11 machines with 3D systems sold in the last few months.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Airport's high demands on asphalt and concrete techniques
    July 11, 2012
    Airport runway, taxiway and parking areas make high demands on paving requirements, both with concrete and asphalt techniques. Mike Woof reports. High quality surface finishes are required in airport environments for runways, taxiways and aircraft parking areas. Because of the speed at which aircraft take off and land and the massive forces exerted due to the weight of the aircraft, particularly during landing, runway structures need to be incredibly strong. The surfaces also have to be constructed to very
  • Race circuit milling job with machine control
    June 20, 2017
    The Misano racetrack in Italy has benefited from the use of the latest milling technology to deliver a new surface. Contractor Pesaresi Giuseppe decided to take advantage of the cutting-edge technologies of Wirtgen and Trimble. In less than three weeks, all irregularities were removed from the track, leaving it ready for motor sports racing. When the call for tender was issued to modernise the track, the construction of two new track sections was also planned. These plans included measures to boost safety
  • GPS machine control paves the way for Turkish canal
    February 7, 2012
    GPS machine control for earthworks and concrete paving is helping to fast track construction of an irrigation canal in Turkey - Claire Symes reports. The Turkish economy is expected to flourish as a result of construction of a new irrigation channel currently underway in the east of the country. This canal is benefiting from the latest concrete paving and earthmoving technology and will bring with it prosperity to a deprived area of the country. But the project is already taking the lead in terms of Turkish
  • Innovative machine control systems for Canadian slipforming work
    November 29, 2013
    Advanced machine control technologies are speeding site layout and construction operations Canadian house building firm Mattamy Homes has brought in a contractor that has used sophisticated equipment to build the roads around its new development in Oakville, Ontario. The site is just 30 minutes drive from Toronto. Phase 1-A of the project is under construction and nearly every one of the 550 homes that will be built there has been sold already. Additional phases will bring the total number of homes to 1,800