Skip to main content

Massenza getting good mileage out of its combined bitumen plant

Environmental issues are now more than ever shaping decisions that governments make when it comes to road building which means contactors have to prove their credentials. For that reason alone sales of the combined polymer and crumb rubber onsite bitumen plant the Italian family business Massenza have been doing well in Europe, said Diego Massenza, who has been in the business for 15 years and is now general manager. The plant was developed by Massenza, a 70-year-old company based in Bologna, around 2010, a
February 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Environmental issues have to be addressed during road construction
Environmental issues are now more than ever shaping decisions that governments make when it comes to road building which means contactors have to prove their credentials.

For that reason alone sales of the combined polymer and crumb rubber onsite bitumen plant the Italian family business 6805 Massenza have been doing well in Europe, said Diego Massenza, who has been in the business for 15 years and is now general manager.

The plant was developed by Massenza, a 70-year-old company based in Bologna, around 2010, and it appears to have come along at the right time, Massenza told World Highways during a break at the Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit in Paris.

Many governments are under siege to come up with policies to help the environment and Massenza’s combined plant is a direct user of old tyres in the form of crumb rubber, so it’s a visible solution to an environmental problem, he said.

The Spanish and Greek markets have been increasingly important for the plant, but also the Middle East is coming up fast.

Massenza, who also outlined the plant to delegates during his presentation in the morning Innovation Session at PPRS, noted that the clients are also looking for increasing flexibility. The fact that the plant can easily switch from crumb rubber to polymer means there is a cost saving – only one plant is needed for the two processes. It also is set up on site within a day.

North America, which has some of the most stringent environmental rules and regulations, is still a market not explored be the family business, explained Massenza. The demand may be there but it’s a tough market to crack, he said, because of extensive machine licencing and permits required at all levels of government.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • WiM eases bridge health worries
    July 31, 2024
    Ageing road bridges are leading road authorities to consider the case for using weigh-in-motion - WiM - solutions to monitor the health of such infrastructure, writes Adam Hill.
  • Make the move to warm mix
    May 15, 2020
    Warm mix asphalt accounts for just 4% of asphalt production in the UK.
  • Building the diamond road in Lesotho
    April 6, 2016
    A job site in the Southern African nation of Lesotho represents one of the most extreme and challenging projects to some key Italian firms of the last 10 years. The project was certainly different from the norm It involves building a road in the Lesotho Mountains, some 200km from the capital Maseru, with the work being carried out by the Cooperative of Building and Cement workers from Ravenna (CMC). CMC, which has ranked among Marini's clients for many years now, is involved in the construction of a
  • Advances in rubber tyre machine market
    February 19, 2013
    One market segment where there have been notable developments has been for rubber tyred asphalt rollers. Several models have been introduced, and the Chinese market has played a key role in this respect, with both international and indigenous companies introducing machines. BOMAG’s Chinese factory is not simply building models developed in Europe. This recently expanded facility has its own research and development teams and is developing machines for China, and also for the international market. Emission r