Skip to main content

Efficient road paving logistics with new technology

A pilot project in Stuttgart suggests how the road construction site of the future may look in Germany. Coming requirements will mean more advanced road paving methods will be utilised.
April 6, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Optimisation of the paving process can be achieved using the latest technology from Vögele

The local Ministry of Transport recently introduced the "Quality in Road Construction in Baden-Württemberg 4.0" (QSBW 4.0), which will be standard by 2021. The objective of QSBW 4.0 is a digitally controlled construction process that ensures paving quality and increases road surface life.

Invitations to tender based on QSBW 4.0 criteria will require technology associated with a digitally controlled and monitored job site. This comprises dynamic logistics and machine control, quality control and management, mobile networking, display options on smartphones, tablets or computers as well as the documentation of all data with access authorisation for clients.

Some solutions exist already, with one coming from Vögele in the shape of its advanced WITOS Paving Plus package. This integrated, software-based overall system for process optimisation and documentation comprises five connected modules for the parties involved, from the asphalt mixing plant and the truck driver to the construction manager.

With WITOS Paving Plus, contractors can meet requirements for pavers that will be specified in future in invitations to tender under QSBW 4.0.  

Temperature measurements are the focus of the quality control measures in QSBW 4.0. To ensure an optimum asphalt temperature, measurements are checked throughout the process. Meeting these requirements is easy with WITOS Paving Plus, since Vögele’s RoadScan temperature measurement solution can be integrated into the system. Using RoadScan, a high-precision infrared camera scans the specified area behind the screed of the paver, across a width of 10m.

In the project to rehabilitate a regional road, A Waggershauser Straßenbau was able to fulfil QSBW 4.0 by using the WITOS Paving Plus system. The QSBW 4.0 methodology was developed by the Ministry of Transport of Baden-Württemberg in collaboration with companies in the construction sector and summarised in a manual. 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Asphalt paving developments
    March 13, 2012
    US and European asphalt paving needs are different, but some firms are bridging that gap, reports Mike Woof. With a clear differentiation between the US and European asphalt paving markets, manufacturers from the latter are now developing machines aimed at the former. The US and European markets for paving machines have developed along very different lines. North American pavers are designed for high throughputs and high paving rates, having been designed to meet a need to build roads over long distances wi
  • Cost-saving benefits of dual layer asphalt paving
    February 14, 2012
    Sophisticated dual layer paving technologies currently on the market are said to offer major advantages to road builders. Roads built using twin layer, hot on hot paving techniques can last considerably longer than those constructed using conventional methods. Contractors and clients also stand to gain from savings on materials costs, through the elimination of the need for emulsion spraying between binder and wearing courses and with the use of thin layer wearing course designs. At present two paver man
  • New US pavers coming to market
    July 7, 2022
    New US asphalt pavers are now coming to market
  • High production paving
    February 28, 2012
    In Germany a high production paving operation has been achieved using the largest machine available on the market. This project is all the more notable as the operation has been carried out in a continuous process, without joints. The Vögele SUPER 3000-2 paver was able to advance continuously at a rate of almost 4m/min. The machine was preceded by a bustle of activity, for no fewer than 24 feed lorries were needed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of mix to the paver, which placed an even asphalt surfacing