Skip to main content

Polish road strengthened by Tensar

Consultants have specified Tensar techology in the rebuilding of a deteriorating Polish highway in order to meet current standards. The use of Tensar geogrids enabled consultants Drotest and Dro-konsult Warsaw to create a stable asphalt pavement quicker and more economically than using conventional construction methods, says Tensar. The 40km long road, which connects Bartoszyce and Ketrzyhn, had exceeded its design life and clearly showed its structural weakness with bad rutting, extensive fatigue crackin
July 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Consultants have specified 340 Tensar techology in the rebuilding of a deteriorating Polish highway in order to meet current standards.

The use of Tensar geogrids enabled consultants 1438 Drotest and Dro-konsult Warsaw to create a stable asphalt pavement quicker and more economically than using conventional construction methods, says Tensar.

The 40km long road, which connects Bartoszyce and Ketrzyhn, had exceeded its design life and clearly showed its structural weakness with bad rutting, extensive fatigue cracking and surface deformation. The 6m wide carriageway was carried on a narrow fill embankment with minimum shoulders and flanked by deep ditches.

Conventional techniques of installing a thick pavement structure to improve the road bearing performance would have required widening the embankment to carry the additional construction. This was an expensive option and not economically possible.

Instead, the Tensar technical design team proposed the installation of a lean concrete base carrying Tensar geogrid composite reinforced asphalt layers. Over the concrete, the contractors PBDiM Minsk Mazowiecki laid a bituminous bond coat, and rolled out the Tensar ARG composite (geogrid bonded to a paving fabric) which was then brushed flat.

Over the concrete road base they laid a new binder course followed by wearing layers of asphalt. The function of the Tensar geogrid composite was to restrict any shrinkage cracking from the concrete layer from reflecting into the asphalt. In addition, its load bearing capability will provide fatigue resistance for the asphalt layers.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Ground penetrating radar used to investigate tunnel deterioration
    May 13, 2015
    Using ground penetrating radar to determine reason for serious pavement settling in Kentucky-Tennessee tunnel Just a few years after the opening of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, highway officials noticed moderate to severe settling of the continuously reinforced concrete pavement. The mountain tunnel provides an important link between Kentucky and Tennessee along US25E and the problem looked serious, with many voids discovered beneath the pavement surface. To investigate the problems, the Kentucky Transpor
  • Norway's bridge meets tough environmental targets
    May 2, 2012
    One of the world's longest bridges is being built in Norway – for traffic volumes of just 2,000 cars/day reports Adrian Greeman. The stunning landscape of the long sea fjords in Norway is one of its glories, attracting thousands of tourists every summer. But the high mountains and deep sea inlets are also one of the great obstacles to transport and development.
  • Norway's bridge meets tough environmental targets
    February 27, 2012
    One of the world's longest bridges is being built in Norway – for traffic volumes of just 2,000 cars/day reports Adrian Greeman. The stunning landscape of the long sea fjords in Norway is one of its glories, attracting thousands of tourists every summer. But the high mountains and deep sea inlets are also one of the great obstacles to transport and development.
  • Get under the surface of asphalt specification, says Keith Harvey
    July 26, 2018
    Specifiers must do more than just scratch the surface of asphalt specification, urges Keith Harvey* Improving the UK’s road network is a serious business. Amid an escalating population, 2016 saw a colossal 916,000 new vehicles registered in the country. The was a leap of 5% on the year before, bringing the total number of vehicles on our roads to 36.7 million, according to UK government figures. What is perhaps even more concerning, however, is the surge in commercial vehicle use of the network. As he