Skip to main content

Newly constructed low-noise asphalt surface fails

Questions are being asked over the construction of a new section of the A1 autobahn in Germany. The highway stretch is being scrutinised due to surface failures and lies close to the city of Bremen but has been open for less than three months.
May 15, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Questions are being asked over the construction of a new section of the A1 autobahn in Germany.

The highway stretch is being scrutinised due to surface failures and lies close to the city of Bremen but has been open for less than three months.

The road carries around 70,000 vehicles/day and its construction was intended to reduce congestion between the port cities of Hamburg and Bremen. Numerous potholes are reported to have appeared in the surface of the highway. Given the recent severe weather, failures of older road surfaces are expected but these problems should not occur on links that have been so recently completed.

The investigations will focus on how water penetration into joints could have already caused the freeze-thaw process to break up the running surface or whether other problems such as material segregation or incorrect mix design could have been factors. The low-noise asphalt surface is crumbling at various points along the 73km section recently opened.

Related Content

  • Music on the go
    January 7, 2019
    Our Skidmarks page is highly rated by readers. Your input could help make this page even more entertaining. If you come across any amusing road-related stories or pictures email me at [email protected] MUSIC ON THE GO Video footage shot in Spain recently reveals the driver of a car playing guitar while at the wheel. The passenger in a car driving past shot the video clip as the vehicles travelled along a major highway route. The strumming driver was presumed to be steering with his knees at the time. Qui
  • CECE Summit – is Europe ready for a digital construction worksite?
    November 20, 2015
    The CECE has voiced his concern over government regulations that could strangle innovation for the digitalisation of construction machinery. China’s imploding economy was another topic at the recent conference in Brussels, reports David Arminas. The CECE has urged the European Parliament and European Commission to enact legislation that promotes rather than hinders the construction sector’s transition to a digitalised way of working. “We need a smart regulatory framework that helps to unlock the full poten
  • G&Z pave the way as East meets West
    March 28, 2014
    The Silk Route is one of the oldest trading links between Europe and Asia and is being upgraded with some of the newest equipment. The nation of Georgia is located on what is known as the ‘crossroads’ between Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It lies to the east of the Black Sea and is on one of the shortest routes between western China and Europe. Since the Middle Ages this strategically important country has played host to one of the network of roads collectively known as the Silk Route. For much of the 20
  • Effective stabilisation
    February 24, 2012
    Contractor BAM Nuttall and specialist piling sub contractor Aarsleff Piling, have been working closely to develop a cost-effective solution to a tricky piling problem. The two firms have developed an alternative and versatile technique to reduce the risk of delays installing 2,150 precast concrete piles along part of the route of an innovative guided busway in Cambridgeshire in the UK.