Motorway job site with fixed-width screed technology

France | Dijon

Motorway job sites in France must meet very stringent requirements on evenness, as was the case on the A36 near Dijon, the surface course of which was rehabilitated and, in some areas, reinforced. To meet these requirements, the company Roger Martin Entreprise elected to use leading VÖGELE technology: an SB 250 TV Fixed-Width Screed which paved across a width of 7.5m. It is of extremely stable design and ensures outstanding evenness in the transverse direction. To ensure evenness in the longitudinal direction, the paving work must proceed without any interruptions, because every time the paver stops, the material in front of the screed cools down, making it more difficult to compact effectively, thereby risking the formation of humps when resuming work after the stop. To prevent this from happening, the lorries transported the mix to the material feeder: the MT 3000-2i Standard PowerFeeder reliably supplied the SUPER 1900-3i paver with material along the entire length of 22.5km. “The paving work proceeded without a hitch, thanks to the PowerFeeder; the paver did not have to stop at all,” confirmed Site Manager Charles Mercey.

“The SUPER 1900-3i with its SB 250 TV Fixed-Width Screed was an important investment for us. We have never had a machine of this calibre before,” says Vincent Barbieux, Operations Manager at Roger Martin Entreprise. “We opted for this paver because it is very versatile. After all, we don‘t just work on motorway job sites.” Although the SUPER 1900-3i falls into VÖGELE’s Highway Class, it covers a wide range of tasks. In view of the demands specified for motorway job sites, the construction company ultimately decided on an SB 250 TV Fixed-Width Screed.

The SB 250 Fixed-Width Screed from VÖGELE really comes into its own wherever large pave widths of up to 13m need to be achieved true to line and level: on the job site in Dijon, for example, the screed had to remain within a tolerance range of ± 5mm, measured along the total distance of 22.5km. But in fact, it worked within an even tighter ± 3mm tolerance range. “The SB 250 TV perfectly meets our needs. We will be using it on motorway job sites, whether they involve new construction or pavement rehabilitation,” says Site Manager Charles Mercey of Roger Martin Entreprise.

Apart from the machine technology, quality in road construction also depends on process reliability. This is one of the main reasons why hardly any motorways are built without a material feeder these days. “We expected our MT 3000-2i Standard PowerFeeder to help us achieve uninterrupted paving, increasing the evenness of the carriageway. And that is exactly what it delivered. The feed with mix is continuous, meaning the paver need not stop, and that’s a crucial factor for good results,” explains Site Manager Charles Mercey. Operations Manager Vincent Barbieux agrees: “The VÖGELE technology fulfils our goals in terms of quality and performance.”

Surface rehabilitation on the A36 motorway near Dijon, France