Skip to main content

Removing runway rubber

When Dubai Airport contacted Waterblasting Technologies it faced a number of challenges. One was finding a waterblasting system that would operate successfully in the 42º-52ºC daylight heat of the summer and also to find the fastest and most productive waterblasting system because of very limited runway closure time. Chemicals, shotblasting and other waterblasting equipment had been tried on the runways, but eventually engineers and management chose the Stripe Hog SH8000T manufactured by Waterblasting Tech
April 4, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

When Dubai Airport contacted Waterblasting Technologies it faced a number of challenges.

One was finding a waterblasting system that would operate successfully in the 42º-52ºC daylight heat of the summer and also to find the fastest and most productive waterblasting system because of very limited runway closure time.

Chemicals, shotblasting and other waterblasting equipment had been tried on the runways, but eventually engineers and management chose the Stripe Hog SH8000T manufactured by 362 Waterblasting Technologies.

The system, which can be built on a variety of truck chassis, uses needle sharp water jets to quickly remove all types of roadway and airfield marking paint as well as runway rubber deposit build-up.

According to the company the Dubai airport runways is probably the most challenging rubber removal environment in the world with an average of 800-plus movements a day with summer-time peaks of 1,100/day and an average of only 5-10 days of rain each year.

"With the ability to remove runway rubber deposits on average of 1,672m²/hour and the ability to operate in the extreme heat without breaking down, the SH8000T became the product of choice for the Dubai airport," says Waterblasting Technologies, which also offers the SH8000T or the new SH8000R with optional, on-board water recycling.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • It's all about profit, people and the planet
    February 18, 2025
    Sit in on our latest roundtable discussion on sustainability in the construction and aggregates industries, brought to you by Global Highways and Aggregates Business. AB editor Guy Woodford has been talking to two world-class experts: Jeremy Harsin from Cummins and Michael Gomes from Topcon. Make your planning, your workflows, your contract tenders, and your sites as sustainable as possible. “Sustainability is really about profit, people and the planet,” say our experts. “Being able to drive that is the work that matters.”
  • Seal of approval
    August 2, 2012
    Timely maintenance using proven cost-effective methods can extend the life of a highway by many years as Patrick smith reports Highways are expensive assets to construct, and the wear and tear of modern traffic means that regular maintenance will delay costly repairs or in extreme cases reconstruction. There are a number of methods of carrying out such maintenance, and these include the use of slurry seals and micro-surfacing, which are cold mixed asphalt which is a mixture of graded aggregate, asphalt emul
  • Urban resurfacing on tracks with Caterpillar Paving
    July 9, 2024
    A UK contractor is making good use of its latest Caterpillar’s Cat Mobil-Trac paver for urban resurfacing works – Mike Woof reports
  • Road recycling with Ammann in China
    February 27, 2019
    A Chinese road builder is planning to add recycling capabilities to its existing asphalt-mixing plants to meet new environmental guidelines. Another benefit of this approach is that the firm will also be able to substantially reduce its costs CSCEC Road & Bridge is a highly successful business in China and utilises Ammann Uniglobe Asphalt-Mixing Plants for its operations. The firm says that the results have been impressive and during one key road expansion project, one of its Uniglobe plants produced 700