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Modern technology is making testing more efficient and reliable, increasing productivity and reducing costs, as Patrick Smith reports A few years ago, visual inspection of an 18-year-old bridge by ARRB in Australia identified considerable cracking in the precast, prestressed deck planks as well as in the cast in situ deck overlay. Laboratory examination indicated that the deck planks and the deck overlay were suffering from a strong case of alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR). Testing of concrete cores drilled

New technology broadens Sandvik's offering for crushing and screening. Mike Woof reports Sandvik is making a series of upgrades to its crushing and screening line in jaw and cone crushers as well as wear parts, and these should suit an array of applications ranging from small recycling operations up to large quarry sites. At the more versatile end of the range is the new CJ208 jaw crusher, the latest addition to the CJ200 series jaw crusher line-up. This crusher is the smallest of the CJ200 Series and offer

The drill and blast contractor Technical Drilling and Blasting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is standardising on Sandvik rock tools for its fleet of drill rigs. The firm operates across Fujeirah, providing quality gabbro aggregates for construction projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Recognised as one of the worlds hardest rocks, gabbro features a typical density in excess of 3tonnes/m, a crushing factor of 10 and a 61% silica content and demand remains strong for this quality construction material. Every

Turning aggregates production into a truly industrial process and providing customers with accurately fine-tuned aggregates mixes is the secret behind the success of Vezzola, a family-owned company with operations in Italy's Lake Garda region. Vezzola's fully-equipped stationary plant in Montichiari, probably the country's most modern facility of this type, can produce up to 500 different aggregates recipes. The plant is another successful delivery by Metso's Mining and Construction Technology. Processing s

Multi-award-winning bridge designer Michel Virlogeux was the keynote speaker at the recent Austroads Bridge conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, last month. He had a simple message: Bridge design is the realm of the engineer and should not be given to architects. "Bridge architecture, bridge aesthetics, bridge elegance is the problem of engineers. We must not leave this major part of our job to architects," he said. "I always work with an architect, but the architect is not selecting the structure. To

Imaginative formwork, often using modular components, is helping to shape some challenging bridges worldwide. Patrick Smith reports Traffic volumes in and around Prague have swollen massively in recent years, pushing the existing road network to the limits of its capacity. To permanently ease congestion in the Czech capital's centre, a multi-lane orbital motorway is under construction as a high capacity bypass for central Prague and to link up all the motorways and other major highways radiating from the ci

Modern products are making life easier for those who have to look after bridges in need of repair Aproject to repair a bridge in the American state of Tennessee has brought safety benefits and improved the ride quality for drivers using the crossing. The Chickasaw Bridge spans the Ellington Parkway and it has benefited from a rehabilitation job by contractor Jamieson Construction. The roadway on the bridge was in a poor state and required frequent patching, and to tackle the problem, the Tennessee DOT consi

Two technologies combined to give a heavily used bridge a new surface that should last for years The Avonmouth Bridge carries the M5 motorway over the River Avon, and is a vital part of the road infrastructure in south-west England, linking the counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the country. Completed in 1973, it carries commuters to the city of Bristol, and to South Wales, along with holidaymakers. The 1.4km long steel box girder bridge comprising a 16,000m2 steel decked central span a

Advances in bridge monitoring technology should help ensure structural safety Highly productive, Fugro Aperio's ground penetrating radar system offers accurate scanning of bridge condition Bridge engineers can now benefit from a new technology designed to pinpoint shallow targets, such as masonry fixings, reinforcement bars or delamination between thin layers. This uses the latest high resolution ground penetrating radar (GPR) antenna and has been developed by Cambridge-based Fugro Aperio in the UK. Operati

Cape Town's N2 is a strategic South African highway that connects the port city with the country's southwestern region. Due to increasingly heavy traffic on the highway, it was in need of an upgrade, and fast. So one of Cape Town's largest contractors, Vusela, was awarded the government contract to remove the asphalt layers and stabilise the sub-base to strengthen the road's load capacity in preparation for resurfacing.