With the UAE’s first generation of macadam roads in desperate need of resurfacing a window of opportunity has opened for new technology. PMV is en-route to one particular solution that is being tested by Abu Dhabi’s transport authority.
Driving along the Al Faya Road – also known appropriately as Truck Road – that intersects great swathes of Abu Dhabi’s territory is a heavy vehicle driver’s dream.
It’s one long sun-blessed track straight down to the south east of the country that lets you blissfully miss out the snarled up twists of the UAE’s capital. Unfortunately it is also a victim of its own success.
While it is not as heavy as, say, the Sheikh Zayed Road to the west, the heavy truck and vehicle traffic is constant and the two lanes of the Truck Road are being asked to do the job of many.
It is estimated that governments and local authorities spend US$100 billion every year globally to keep roadways functional and safe.
Frequently road maintenance means patching up existing tarmac and waging a neverending war against potholes and cracks. But it has to be done. Uneven and pot-holed roads are not good for any vehicle, and can be downright dangerous when run over by trucks.
The wear and tear from the continual crushing burden of truck traffic and the scorching sun has clearly taken its toll on the macadam surface of Truck Road.
In places the tarmac appears perforated and in others the cracks are literally beginning to show. As a testing ground for Martec-Bund’s new hot-in-place road recycler (HIR), the AR2000 Super Recycler, then, the Truck Road couldn’t be better.
Already popular in both north and south America, Martec-Bund claim that the machine can slash repaving costs by more than a third, and over half the amount of time, without sacrificing road quality.
PMV got its first glimpse of the AR2000 when it arrived in September last year courtesy of Martec. No sooner was it presented on an elongated flat-bed, did the Canadian company, in conjunction with established local player Bund Contracting, hail a new era of hot-in-place road laying that could reduce, recycle and re-lay blacktop tarmac on the fly.
Furthermore, the UAE wouldn’t have to wait long for its first look at the technology in action, the new JV proclaimed, as Abu Dhabi had agreed to receive the technology for testing.
Given the capital’s efforts to be proactive in setting the green agenda in the region and the AR2000’s ability to almost alchemically conjure brand new tarmac from beneath its large yellow belly, it seemed like a match made in heaven.
And then there was nothing but noxious silence for six long months. However after months of quiet, the machine has, ahem, once again re-surfaced and been given its chance to prove itself to the Abu Dhabi authorities on the Truck Road.
PMV is due to see the machine in action on the second day of testing, but the magazine has just been told that the Abu Dhabi authority has requested that the operation is stopped for a week. Worse still, it is unclear whether any work will take place during our visit.
However there was still the chance to see the six machine leviathan out on the road in all its lengthy glory and that alone was worth the trip out into the desert.
Diligently following PMV’s contact’s directions (albeit the straight-forward ones of: end of Emirates Road turn left, go 15 kilometres) of Sayeed, the man in charge of marketing the machine in the GCC, the odometer on the dashboard soon passes 15 clicks and the mighty convey is nowhere to be seen.
There is a stretch of fresh-looking tarmac but no machines; could they have rolled out already? This machine is supposed to be mobile but NOT that mobile.
20 clicks, 30 clicks pass before finally we’re funnelled into a single lane and processed past a yellow/white train. We’ve found the AR2000. I’m greeted by the train’s operations manager, who gives me a warm welcome and some bad news.
The machines are going to be idle unless they receive the green light to start again. Despite the setback, the team of operators, technicians, engineers, conveyors all appear busy.
In fact the trail of machines, and the checking and calling that surrounds them, resembles the frantic scene at the start of a Grand Prix – albeit a very slow moving one. Assuming the green light does come.
Walking along the length of the AR2000 Super Recycler array is a machine lovers wet dream. The engines sit snarling in a chain that comprises a pre-heater, a preheater/miller, and a postheater/dryer/mixer. In between and ready on the wings are more conventional pavers and rollers.
You can see how, if desired, extra pre-heaters could be added to increase what Martec promises is extra operating speed and depth.
The core of the recycling machine is the AR2000 Super Recycler, which comprises of a pre-heater unit to melt the tarmac. The product is then milled on the machine while hot, and various admixtures are introduced as required.
From there, the mix goes through a post-heater and dryer (a patented post-heating, drying and mixing process ensures thorough heating of the RAP and added material and removes moisture) which ensures the mix is consistent, and has no excess water in it. From this point, the mix is relayed directly to a paver.
This is all done on the move and at the back of the train, seeing the ‘new’ road side-by-side with the old makes the technology at work here even more impressive.
Martec lists a series of features such as the vacuuming hot air for reheating and claims it consumes 40%-50% less fuel compared to HIR equipment with conventional infra-red heating systems, to drive home the point that this is a energy efficient system as it churns out pavement to a thickness of up to 75mm.
It’s smart, green and clever. The problem is the technology doesn’t come cheap. You can see why the company’s targeting the GCC, an area investing heavily in much needed upgrades and overhauls to its infrastructure.
But even a cash-rich municipality like Abu Dhabi needs convincing and Martec-Bund are funding the test themselves to show that the AR2000 Super Recycler is a worthy alternative to the myriad other options out there and with longer track records.
There’s a lot riding on the tests, then, but Sayeed is confident that, given the technology powering the AR2000 has already proven itself in both north and south America, that it can break through into the GCC market.
Kuwait has already been identified as a possible second destination for the machine.
While it still awaits its big showcase, there remains a great deal of interest in the technology, not least because the it can save 35 percent in costs and in half the time compared to conventional resurfacing methods. Indeed, if the test is successful a long-discussed reworking of a runway at the Abu Dhabi airport could begin.
Talking of beginnings, at the side of the road there’s a call, the signal from Abu Dhabi has come in and the green light has finally been given. The great machines begin to start up and the techs start scampering and
operators climb into place. There is still at least another week to go, but the day’s work can begin.
For once, it’s no bad thing that the road behind is much clearer than the road ahead.
ASTEC ASTHETIC
There’s one thing uppermost in Waeil Mandalouti’s mind when PMV drops into the House of Equipment offices.The company has finally secured the rights to market and distribute Astec’s so called Portable Six Pack, a mobile asphalt plant that he believes has arrived just in time to take advantage of the burst of infrastructure projects in the GCC.
The Astec Six Pack HMA facility, was first introduced in the early1980s and was the first truly portable facility available to hot mix asphalt producers and quickly became the world’s best selling portable asphalt facility.
The latest Six Pack portable HMA facility is now out in the GCC and comes with a double barrel drum mixer, cold feed, scalping screen with inclined conveyor, baghouse, surge bin, drag conveyor and control house.
The baghouse load also holds the inertial dust collector. Mandalouti says the maneuverable facilities include self-erecting features and a choice of tonnage capacities.
A 200 Six Pack facility, can produce 200 tons per hour, while the 300 tons per hour 300 Six Pack uses a Double Barrel drum mixer one size smaller than the 400 model. The largest capacity – the 400 Six Pack facility – produces 400 tons per hour.