Maintenance

The D-Kerb, a new machine that cuts granite kerbs to 45° without removing them, has just completed several road projects in London. Local authorities and highways maintenance crew no longer have the cost or inconvenience of replacing them completely, said Julie White, managing director of the company D-Drill and also a co-inventor of the D-Kerb machine. During a highways project in Offord Road, North London, technicians from D-Drill carried out the 45° cut of kerbs around the 45m circumference of a central

Despite the proven importance of identifying metal targets and electrical lines before cutting into concrete, every day there are stories about mishaps that happen when the necessary reconnaissance is not done. In this article, a few firms that provide concrete scanning services weigh in on the critical importance of locating embedded and or buried obstructions by scanning for these features using ground penetrating radar (GPR). Also offered are tips for selecting the best GPR equipment and best practices f

Limited highways maintenance budgets can deliver more with a planned asset management approach - *Will Baron. In recent years, a growing number of local and highways authorities have found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of reactive road repairs. Several bad winters, floods and years of under-investment have taken their toll on road networks. This has led to political and public pressure to patch up potholes and make emergency repairs, ultimately diverting funds away from planned highways maintenance.

Utility machines are designed to be highly versatile and able to handle a wide range of duties but using attachments can further broaden the array of capabilities - Mike Woof writes The utility equipment market is a diverse sector of the construction machinery business. These versatile machines can be used in a vast array of duties and are very popular in the rental equipment market. Skid steer loaders, compact tracked loaders, compact wheeled loaders, mini excavators, zero tailswing excavators, wheeled

A novel system is now available that allows a smartphone to be used to measure road defects. Developed by Grimmer Software, the RoadBump Android application can be used to measure the roughness of a road. This tool can provide estimates of International Roughness Index (IRI) in metric or standard units, without requiring high-cost laser profilers.

Yotta has developed sophisticated tools for winter highway maintenance. This technology can help local authorities to make better use of the Horizons visualised asset management software to assess potential winter maintenance works. The system provides a proactive approach that allows highways departments to address assets that are at risk from rain, snow and ice. The firm claims that this can help highways departments to deal with wet and icy conditions. Winter road damage is a great concern to Coun

Rammer is updating its compact breaker models with new versions suited to carriers in the 0.8-1.8tonne class. The 90kg Rammer 155 uses the proven power cell design with pressure release system PRS). The tools are the same as for the smaller Rammer 111. The unit is offered with a sealed side-plate housing construction that suits it to rental fleet operations. The 850kg Rammer 1322 is based on a well-accepted power cell design and housing construction and is suitable for carriers in the 9-15tonne ra