Skip to main content

Paving on Algeria's mega highway

A fleet of 53 Dynapac machines is being used by a Chinese consortium to build the central and western sections of the 1,216km Algerian East-West Expressway. The consortium comprises CITIC and CRCC and was awarded the contract for the 169km central and 359km western sections of highway.
March 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Craig Walker with staff from the Jiangsu Transportation Research Institute (JSTRI) after training on Cooper Technology equipment at the central testing lab in Oran, Algeria
A fleet of 53 206 Dynapac machines is being used by a Chinese consortium to build the central and western sections of the 1,216km Algerian East-West Expressway.

The consortium comprises CITIC and CRCC and was awarded the contract for the 169km central and 359km western sections of highway.

To help meet the tight schedule, tough conditions and remote locations, CITIC-CRCC opted to buy equipment from Dynapac. The new Dynapac fleet comprises 20 F141C pavers; a F182CS paver; 18 CC624HFs and 14 CC622HF tandem rollers. The machines are being used to pave and compact the base course, binder course and wearing course.

French asphalt mixtures and testing procedures have been specified, and the testing laboratories were equipped with large wheel trackers, automatic large roller compactors, trapezoidal bending machines and Duriez testing machines. Among those supplying equipment is UK company 5941 Cooper Technology.

"The French asphalt mixture design method is an advanced, performance-based asphalt mixture design method. French asphalts such as EME2 are expensive due to a bitumen content which is around 1% higher than in conventional mixes, but prove cost effective in terms of life cycle cost analysis," said Mr Jia Yu, Vice Chief Engineer at the Jiangsu Transportation Research Institute in China.

For high modulus asphalt concrete mixture, there are two categories: EME is used in base course and BBME is used in binder and surface course. The two materials are both used in the Algeria East-West Expressway with a wearing course of BBMA.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Strabag on the edge with a Dynapac DF145CS paver from Atlas Copco
    June 10, 2015
    When asphalting the inside of the newly raised edge of a water dam, Austrian road construction company Strabag faced a challenge. The paver had to be operated at an angle of between 34-41 degrees with material fed into the hopper from a ledge just 2.8m wide on the edge of the dam. The Waldeck 2 kidney-shaped hydroelectric station is located on a mountaintop about 500m above sea level on Lake Eder in central Germany. The dam, owned by global energy group E.ON, has a perimeter of about 3km. An important pa
  • Technology helps earth moving and paving
    August 18, 2014
    Located in Meeker, Colorado and serving the area for air transportation is Meeker Airport, a C-II general aviation airport. The FAA designation of C-II means the airport can accommodate aircraft with wingspan of less than 24m. Runway 3-21 at the Rio Blanco county-owned Meeker Airport had reached a point of wear and deterioration that required full reconstruction and upgrades to remain compliant with the FAA’s C-II requirements.
  • XCMG brings paver and other heavy equipment to US, Europe
    March 17, 2023
    XCMG is using small rollers to build trust – and ultimately to lead to sales of bigger equipment down the road.
  • Delay for key section of Algeria highway
    August 19, 2016
    Delays are afflicting the official opening of a stretch of the East-West highway in Algeria. This 84km section of the highway connects Dréan in the east of Algerian to the border with neighbouring Tunisia. A Japanese contractor was in charge of the project to construct the 400km eastern stretch of the East-West highway. However financial problems surrounding the need for additional work led to construction of the final stretch being curtailed. There is concern that should the work be left unfinished any lon