Skip to main content

Volvo trucks on the move at Lummen

Construction company Jan De Nul is using a fleet of Volvo machines for a key highway project in Belgium. The machines have been able to move 26,000m³/weekend on the project to upgrade a highway junction at Lummen, a small town 60km from Belgian capital Brussels. A fleet of 16 Volvo ADTs is being used for the work, to improve the intersection between the E313 and E314, which had become an accident blackspot. Designed some 50 years ago, the roads provide important links from Leuven, Antwerp and the port of Os
February 29, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Time constraints meant the productive Volvo machines fitted the bill for a Belgian highway project
Construction company 3150 Jan de Nul is using a fleet of 2394 Volvo machines for a key highway project in Belgium. The machines have been able to move 26,000m³/weekend on the project to upgrade a highway junction at Lummen, a small town 60km from Belgian capital Brussels.

A fleet of 16 Volvo ADTs is being used for the work, to improve the intersection between the E313 and E314, which had become an accident blackspot. Designed some 50 years ago, the roads provide important links from Leuven, Antwerp and the port of Ostend in the west, to the Netherlands in the north and Germany in the east.

One of the biggest challenges of the €10 million project has been cutting through the embankment supporting the E313 in two places, removing 14,000m³ of soil from the first point and 12,000m³ from the second, and building two concrete bridges.

The bridges, built on site, weigh 6,000tonnes each and stand 40m wide, 40m deep and almost 10m high. These have to be shunted into place using specialist hydraulic jacks before pavers relay the surfaces across the top. The contractor has had to ensure the entire first phase of the project could be completed within a single weekend so that the E313 could be re-opened in time for the Monday morning rush-hour.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Clever electric solution for embankment stabilisation
    August 28, 2013
    A highly innovative solution for road embankment stabilisation has helped save costs by up to 30% over conventional techniques. Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald has used electrical current to stabilise embankments on a busy UK dual carriageway, avoiding disruption to motorists, cutting carbon by 40% and costs by 30%, and producing zero waste When slope failure was detected on embankments carrying the popular A21 dual carriageway, Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald pioneered a novel technique to tackle the prob
  • All aboard the Wirtgen paving train on Germany’s A7 project
    February 21, 2019
    The A7 is being widened between Hamburg and Bordesholm from four lanes to six - in some places to eight - to ensure the motorway remains an efficient traffic artery. The aim is to create a pavement with a high degree of driving comfort but which withstands the loads of heavy-goods traffic. For widening the 60km stretch in the Schleswig-Holstein region, consortium Via Solutions Nord and joint venture ARGE A7 Hamburg-Bordesholm opted for steel reinforced concrete paving with an exposed aggregate concrete s
  • GPS machine control speeds dangerous road improvement
    April 11, 2012
    A Canadian contractor has carried out major roadworks to improve safety on a dangerous stretch of road, using technology to complete the work smoothly. Wiltech Developments, located in West Kelowna, British Columbia, has a great deal of experience. In the contracting sector. The firm works in most. of British Columbia and currently owns more than 40 pieces of heavy machinery, with the majority of these units featuring Trimble Grade Control equipment, a move that has improved its operations.
  • 48 hours re-opening
    July 6, 2012
    Using demolition tools from Atlas Copco helped to maximise productivity on a highly time-sensitive project in Germany. The A3 autobahn runs from the Dutch/German border through the western part of the Ruhr area, the Cologne area, the Rhine-Main area and Bavaria down to the Austrian border at Stuben. It is one of the most heavily used highways in Germany and because of increasing traffic volumes, widening the road to six lanes has become necessary.