Road restoration after fiber optic laying works. A case history from Sardinia.
After trenching for laying fiber optic cables, pipes or underground utilities, a temporary restoration with cement mortar is always envisaged to allow circulation to resume as soon as possible and thus avoid total closure of the roadway. The definitive restoration, fundamental to recover any alteration and differences in level that the previous excavation has generated, is often carried out with many months of delay in the work plan or, in the worst-case scenario, is not done at all, leaving the road in conditions of progressive subsidence: the asphalt crumbles into
alligator cracking, to the point of generating
unevenness and large potholes that are dangerous for traffic.
By drawing on the tried and tested
self-levelling milling technique of PL cold planers,
Simex developed a technology that can be used for the restoration of road surfaces precisely to deal with branched cracks, bumps and ripples, potholes and detachments, also connected to temporary and ineffective repairs after the mini-trenching for the installation of underground utilities. We are talking about
ART 1000, technology for the cold and on-site regeneration of road distress.
A cutting-edge technology that does not require milled material to be removed or virgin HMA (Hot Mix Asphalt) to be added, but that
uses only existing material available on site. A technology that does not disrupt traffic flow and that
ensures immediate road drivability after its restoration. It also ensures it will last for a reasonable amount of time, to allow local authorities to plan road maintenance, with significant benefits in terms of road user safety.
In Sardinia, Italy, dealer
Sami made the ART 1000 available to the road company Ligas (on behalf of Siat Installations) for the restoration, at a depth of 30 mm, of two road sections of 20 meters each, affected by the recent installation of fiber optic cables.
Mini-trenching was also carried out with Simex attachment, namely
RW 500 wheel saw, equipped with a 100 mm wide sector wheel. After filling with cement mortar, rather than traditional scarifying and resurfacing,
the companies involved preferred to make use of the innovative cold solution, without removing materials or introducing virgin mixes, proposed by Simex through the ART 1000 technology.
In the work phase
ART 1000 combines the following processes:
- Milling of the damaged road section
- Controlled injection of rejuvenators proportional to the working depth and the advancement speed of the operating machine
- Reduction of milled material to the correct grain size
- Final mixing to create the recycled conglomerate ready for reconstitution of the road surface
After being regenerated, the conglomerate is deposited directly inside the milling track and is ready to be leveled and compacted with a roller or vibrating plate.
It should also be specified that, as in the case of the Sardinian construction site mentioned above, the presence of cement mortars in proportions up to 15-20% compared to the total volume of milled asphalt does not in any way compromise the success of the final restoration.
There are
other advantages of no less importance:
- Cost savings for the supply and transport of new mixes and virgin aggregates
- No impact: pre-existing materials are reused, recycling and rehabilitating the existing asphalt
- Restoration of road surface distress, quickly and with long-lasting results, which allows for adequate road maintenance planning, at sustainable costs.