When reconstructing a 5km stretch of the A 61 motorway in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a SUPER 2100-2 paved two new lanes including hard shoulder in full-road width. After all, the motorway will have to carry a high volume of traffic, especially in terms of heavy goods vehicles. This is why the team of contractor Wilhelm Faber GmbH & Co. Bauunternehmung KG opted for a SB 250 Fixed-Width Screed in TP1 version to tackle the 12m paving job. The screed is capable of achieving a high precompaction even when working in full-road width, due to the unique VÖGELE High Compaction Technology.

The A 61 is Southern Germany's westernmost motorway connection with The Netherlands and Belgium. The motorway begins at the Hockenheim junction, home to the Formula 1 circuit of the same name, and continues in The Netherlands as the A 74. This international motorway link caters to a high volume of heavy goods traffic. Tenders for reconstruction were invited for several sections of the A 61, among them the one beginning near the Bornheim junction in the Alzey-Worms district and extending over 5km. The job involved paving 18 to 34cm base course (0/32) and 8.5cm binder course (0/16). Faber was awarded the contract for pavement reconstruction in the northbound direction of Koblenz.

Paving in full-road width without joints

In order to achieve maximum pavement quality, the two new lanes of the A 61 and the hard shoulder were to be paved without joints. In view of the large pave width of 12m, the preferred candidate to do the job was SUPER 2100-2 combined with an SB 250 Fixed-Width Screed. Featuring a basic width of 2.5m, this screed builds up to its maximum pave width of 13m with fixed bolt-on extensions and hydraulic bolt-on extensions. Even in this maximum configuration, excellent stability of the screed is always guaranteed. And on the job site, the screed fully displayed the key advantage resulting from this stability – outstanding evenness in a transverse direction also when paving in large widths. A further, valuable benefit of the SB 250 is its high compactive effort. This, too, was crucial for reconstruction work on the A 61 motorway in order to guarantee that the new lanes would stand up to the high traffic load. Therefore, Faber used the screed in TP1 version which, in addition to the tamper, is equipped with 1 pressure bar.

VÖGELE High Compaction Technology

The pressure bar operated by pulsed-flow hydraulics is a special feature of VÖGELE Screed Technology, allowing to achieve highest precompaction. While paving, the pressure bar forces the mix down until it cannot be compressed, i.e. compacted any more. In other words, until an equilibrium is reached between the force exerted by the pressure bar and the counterforce by the compacted mix. This not only yields a maximum of truth to line and level and evenness, but also means to pave very economically.

Paving team much impressed by the Fixed-Width Screed

“We’d already worked with a VÖGELE Fixed-Width Screed once before”, says Michael Weirich, Operations Manager at Faber. “So we knew how well everything works. The truth to line and level and compaction performance were great right from the start. Paving without joints, across this large width, was a very relaxed job, indeed.”

SUPER 2100-2 operates in ECO-Mode

Despite the large pave width, the tracked paver could work in ECO Mode most of the time. In this operating mode, the liquid-cooled 6-cylinder diesel engine revs down and reduces its power output from 182kW to 169kW at the press of a button on the paver operator’s ErgoPlus® console. In ECO Mode, noise levels are particularly low. That, on this wide job site, working in ECO Mode was possible at all furnishes proof of the SUPER 2100-2’s powerful design. The power installed in this cutting-edge paver allows to handle even large-scale jobs with ease and cost efficiency. Conceived for a maximum pave width of 13m, it is the ideal machine for paving asphalt without joints on motorways, airports or other large traffic areas.

Paving on top of the old concrete pavement

On part of the motorway section, the new asphalt layers were placed onto the existing concrete pavement. On the rest of the stretch, water-bound base was built. The SUPER 2100-2 placed base course with a varying layer thickness of 18 to 34cm, which required 26,000 tonnes of mix. The VÖGELE machine made good progress at an average speed of 4m/min. Then 8.5cm binder course were paved. The SUPER 2100-2 placed 12,000 tonnes of binder course mix operating at a speed of 5.5m/min. For grade and slope control, the paving team used two multi-cell sonic sensors referencing from a tensioned wire and transmitting their measurements to NIVELTRONIC Plus®, the VÖGELE System for Automatic Grade and Slope Control. Finally, wearing course of mastic asphalt was paved on the 5km stretch of motorway.

A fleet of HAMM rollers for compaction

A fleet of HAMM rollers were on the scene for final compaction. The heavyweight models DV 90, DV 85, HD 90 and HD+ 140 as well as rubber-tyred rollers compacted the asphalt pavement to the specified density. Especially the HD+ 140 roller, HAMM’s new 14-tonne flagship, was the star: “This roller does the work of two!” said Operations Manager Michael Weirich.