Collaboration Of Method And Technology In Heavy Equipment Operation
“Damages of asphalt roads are classic problems throughout Indonesia that repeatedly occur over the years. The country needs a collaboration of method and technology in heavy-duty equipment to overcome the problems.”
We have to cope with the existing condition that the number of heavy-duty vehicles travelling on our highways sharply increases concurrently with the improving economy in Indonesia. Such excessive use of the facilities easily damages our asphalt roads. Besides that, we often find road infrastructures that have no drainage systems; or if they exist, they do not function properly. When the rainwater forms puddles, the road damages get worse.
At the moment, this condition is solved merely by “digging a hole in one place to fill up another hole in another place”. In many circumstances, new road damages reoccur when the repairs of the old ones are still in progress. Such maintenance is really costly. Inadequate road maintenance will not solve the problems, and lead to worsening road damages. How long do we have to deal with this condition? What should we do? It is about time to change our mindset in dealing with road constructions.
Such phenomenon inspires PT United Tractors Tbk (UT) to seek solutions by introducing the latest technology to its customers through series of BOMAG products to overcome the problems related to the constructions and rehabilitations of asphalt road facilities in Indonesia. This measure will ease up the works, reduce the construction cost, and speed up the completion of the road projects.
The technology innovations in road constructions are utilized through BOMAG Economizer, Vario Control, and Asphalt Manager. The technology in this type of vehicles manages to monitor the density of the soil layers or asphalt roads through the monitor panel in the operator’s cabin. With the technology, the operator is able to accurately read the conditions of the soil layers or compressed asphalt, so the compressing activity can be effectively and efficiently conducted. The operator can immediately stop the activity when the road has reached the required level of density. Besides that, the technology is able to provide vibration effects with specific frequency and amplitude values of each road, so the end result of the compressing activity can be more uniformed.
In repairing damaged roads, the use of specific heavy-duty equipment such as BOMAG Cold Milling BM2000/60, BOMAG Stabilizer/Recycler MPH 122-2 or MPH 125, and BOMAG Asphalt Finisher BF300P are required. These vehicles are utilized to repair road facilities using a method widely used in developed countries throughout Europe and America, namely Cold In-place Recycling method.
The Cold In-place Recycling method fixes damages by peeling the damaged material (asphalt layers) off the road and replace it with new layers made of smelted asphalt of the old road.
The repair process starts by cutting or peeling off the road surface using BOMAG Cold Milling BM2000/60. This equipment can peel off asphalt layers in a width of 200 cm and a depth of down to 32 cm. It can peel off up to 40 m road surface per minute.
After the peeling off process using the cold milling vehicle is completed, the peeled off material is crushed, mixed, and leveled out on the road to a certain depth to form a new, more stable and stronger layer using BOMAG Stabilizer/Recycler MPH 122-2 or MPH 125.
A BOMAG Stabilizer/Recycler is used to repair the unstable, road-base layer. The damaged layers are changed into smaller, uniformed size particles, which can be mixed with a new binding agent. The additive materials which are often used in the mix of unstable soil material are cement and lime. The binding agent is sprinkled on the road base in a specified amount as needed, based on the lab test, using a truck equipped with a cement spreader. The cement material is easily found throughout Indonesia, and it is used in road repair projects in many other countries. The use of such material cuts construction cost between 30 and 60 percent compared to using the conventional method.
Meanwhile, hot asphalt mix can be poured right on top of a relatively stable road-layer using BOMAG Asphalt Finisher BF300P. This vehicle can spread out hot asphalt mix on a space with a width between 1.70 m and 4 m, in a maximum capacity of 300 tons per hour.
