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With new roads to be built and existing ones to be maintained, one company is predicting a big increase in asphalt production Asphalt plant manufacturer Ammann says that four factors in particular will shape the future of the asphalt industry. The company, which has sold its first JustBlack asphalt mixing plant to Costa Rica through its Spanish distribution partner, EMSA, says that many more roads have yet to be built in the world. "Building the global road network will provide work for many generations to

Hyper-mobility is constantly demanded by customers who favour continuous plants, especially in France. However, compromises must always be sought in the high output equipment range, says Ermont (part of the FAYAT Group), and major progress has been made in the parallel flow field with the 500tonne/hr and 600tonne/hr TSM plants, whereas the Rétroflux type of the counterflow plants have lagged somewhat behind. This gap has now been closed with the development of the hyper-mobile RF 400, capable of producing 4

Hot-mix asphalt (HMA) is produced at specialised facilities where various mixtures of aggregate are heated and dried, combined with liquid asphalt cement (also known as bitumen), and either stored in insulated silos or loaded into trucks and transported to a job site. Aggregate heating and drying is accomplished with various types of dryers, depending on whether a batch or continuous process is used. The continuous mix process uses aggregate drum dryers, designed to heat and dry measured quantities of grave

Mike Woof discusses some novel developments relating to bitumen In the developed countries of Western Europe there is an increasing shift away from new highway construction to maintaining and rebuilding existing roads. In Germany alone, a network of asphalt roads extending more than 600,000km will have to be maintained or repaired. Highway maintenance techniques do vary between European countries but some commonalities exist. There are techniques that have been sidelined in the last few years but which now

Milling techniques remain one of the most widely used recycling methods Well-proven, cold milling techniques remain one of the most widely used methods for materials recycling in road construction. Milled road materials can be cleaned up and re-used in both asphalt and concrete highway construction. German firm Wirtgen has long dominated the market for road milling machines and has the largest share of the sector (as well as the broadest product range), although other firms based in Europe and the US are be

Articulated dumptrucks are highly versatile and new developments continue to extend productivity The ADT market has been one of the fastest growing product areas in recent years. In the past ADTs were niche products that sold particularly well in Northern Europe (and Scandinavia and the UK in particular) as well as South Africa for many years, but these have now become popular worldwide. The number of manufacturers in the market has grown too. Just 10-15 years ago the only serious ADT manufacturers building

Highway safety could yet improve using available technology more widely Safety barriers still offer huge opportunities to improve accident statistics worldwide. There is a wide array of products on the market to suit all types of installation and with a diverse range of solutions for each application. Highway authorities have been installing barriers for many years now and the technology continues to improve, however an analysis of accident statistics shows that barriers offer further potential. Details fr

The Eurasphalt & Eurobitume 2012 event in Turkey has attracted record attendance figures - Mike Woof reports A strong focus on sustainability has been the focus for the 5th Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress held in June 2012 at Turkey’s Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar Congress Centre. The conference had as its theme: Asphalt, the sustainable road to success and attracted the highest ever number of attendees for this four yearly event. In one of the opening presentations Turkey’s transport minister, Binali Yildirim, sp

Ian Fraser, Tensar International’s director of application technology, looks at the latest lessons learned from the flood-hit Workington Bridge project in Cumbria, North West England. Rarely has a disaster like the Cumbrian floods demonstrated with more clarity the benefit of designing working platforms and bridge abutments to tested performance standards, as opposed to slavishly following accepted, but often much less efficient, design norms.

Characteristics of traffic speed and flow in managed freeways - *Dr Adrian Withill. In order to maximise the benefits of existing infrastructure, in terms of reduced delays and increased safety, many governments have recently been introducing projects that measure traffic speed and flow and automatically introduce advisory or mandatory speed limits. Such schemes tend to offer relatively quick wins at relatively lower capital costs than traditional highway construction. In light of the current world economy,