Since mid-2006, Skanska-NDI, a Swedish-Polish joint venture, has been undertaking construction of the first 90km stretch of a motorway that will traverse the whole of Poland in just a couple of years. This is the largest road construction project currently underway in Europe. The A1 motorway is part of a north-south route through Europe known as the trans-European corridor. The new two-lane dual motorway links the Baltic port of Danzig via the Czech city of Brno and Slovakia's capital Bratislava to Vienna, and thus also with southern Europe. The WIRTGEN Group participates in this project with more than 60 road construction machines making a contribution, in a wider sense, to European integration.

The number of heavy goods vehicles on the Polish A1 will be tremendous. The new route is going to channel road haulage traffic for which so far only a network of highroads, more or less developed, was available. Construction of the new motorway includes a remarkably high number of bridge structures, totalling 86, among them several viaducts, innumerable underpasses and green bridges for wildlife to cross.

9 SUPER pavers play leading role

Mariusz Gielniewski supervises and organizes the machinery on the large-scale job from a location near Danzig. He is responsible for acquisition and operation of the equipment used by Skanska-NDI for building the Polish A1 motorway. Gielniewski has control over 242 machines listed on a large, densely printed plan, including some 180 excavators, dumpers and graders, as well as more than 60 soil stabilizers, pavers and rollers from the WIRTGEN Group. “For this challenging project we have chosen the best equipment available in the market”, Gielniewski says. And they did not find it hard to select pavers made by VÖGELE, as these machines are in command of all those technologies needed for the job, thus perfectly matching the profile of requirements. “Furthermore, professional service is available on site headed by a service co-ordinator, so that we get any support we may need, at any time”, Gielniewski added.

International construction teams trained to reach common level

Before construction started, a training event organized and conducted by WIRTGEN Polska dealt with all questions the paving teams had on the SUPER pavers. “Our Swedish and Polish colleagues who never before worked with VÖGELE machines were much impressed by the new pavers from the very outset”, reports Lutz Regel, Managing Director of WIRTGEN Polska. The Skanska-NDI team found ErgoPlus fantastic, the new concept for paver handling, and praised the pavers’ ease of access to all areas for maintenance and machine set-up.

VÖGELE machines get the paving job done, from crushed-stone base through to surface course

All paving work for the A1 motorway will be done by new generation VÖGELE pavers. Three SUPER 1900-2 models with AB 600 Extending Screeds in TP2 version are on the scene to lay the foundations for the asphalt courses. These three SUPER pavers place crushed-stone base, 20cm thick and 9m wide. The particularity: all three pavers compact the coarse material with their TP2 High Compaction Screeds equipped with tamper and two pressure bars. This way, a high precompaction is achieved already at the stage of crushed-stone base so that final compaction with the HAMM rollers will be an easy job.

Measurements confirm the excellent results achieved with High Compaction Technology

The material used for crushed-stone base is a mix of melaphyre, a kind of basalt mined in Poland, and granite imported from Scotland. The material features high bearing capacity and the grain size on this job is 0/31.5. According to reports from the paving teams, the placing of the coarse material does not pose any problems at all. The teams also easily get to grips with set-up and control of the high compaction systems installed in their SUPER pavers. Measurements continuously made by the contractor’s engineers and the supervising laboratory confirm the paving crews’ impressions in terms of road base quality. On this project financed to a large extent by privat funds, utmost importance is attached to impeccable results.

SUPER pavers place a giant 1,600,000 tonnes of asphalt mix

Asphalt paving has already started at some points. For asphalt operations, too, several VÖGELE machines are on the scene. Two tracked SUPER 2100-2 pavers with SB 250 Fixed-Width Screeds in TV version and two tracked SUPER 1900-2 models with AB 600 Extending Screeds, also with tamper and vibrators, form a strong team. They pave the carriageway in two strips “hot to hot”, across a width of 11.5m. A further two wheeled SUPER 1803-1 pavers with AB 500 Extending Screeds in TV version get jobs done in all those areas where high mobility and frequent moves of the machines on site are required, such as access and exit points. The wheeled pavers operate at constant widths of 8m. The pavement design for the A1 motorway reflects the giant traffic loads the new north-south route in the centre of Europe will have to cope with: two asphalt base courses, 8cm each, are followed by a 8cm binder course and a 3.5cm surface course. In other words, a great deal of work remains to be done by the machines made in Mannheim, Germany, as an estimated total of 1,600,000 tonnes of asphalt are to be paved on the A1 motorway until its completion. For preparation of the mix, two asphalt mixing plants are being in operation along the first stretch of the new route.

WIRTGEN Polska provides a first-class service

To ensure top pavement quality for the A1 motorway and completion according to schedule without delays, Skanska-NDI makes high demands on availability and productivity of all equiment involved in the project. In order to meet these demands Lutz Regel, Managing Director of WIRTGEN Polska, made ample provision and is on the safe side: “Several service technicians are on site all the time. They are in charge of servicing the machines and carrying out repairs, which may become necessary every now and then on a large job like this. In addition, a service co-ordinator organizes the activities of our teams and sees to it that spares and wearing parts are always available. Thanks to our first-class service everything is running optimally on site to Skanska-NDI’s entire satisfaction.” The team from Posen does an excellent job, so that after one year of operations on site Mariusz Gielniewski is “very satisfied with WIRTGEN Polska’s performance and the machines of the WIRTGEN Group”. Given such a smooth flow of work, contractor Skanska-NDI is optimistic to be also awarded the contract for the A1’s second section running to the border with Austria.

For further information please contact:

JOSEPH VÖGELE AG

Roland Schug / Martin Hilken

Neckarauer Str. 168 - 228

68146 Mannheim

Germany

Telephone: +49 (0) 621 8105 232

Fax: +49 (0) 621 8105 469

Email: Roland.Schug@voegele-ag.de

Email: Martin.Hilken@voegele-ag.de

Internet: www.voegele-ag.de