JOB REPORT

Safety in a continuous paving operation.

Paving concrete in offset application

Steel crash barriers are frequently replaced by concrete barriers in particular on motorways, for concrete structures offer car drivers a high degree of passive safety both in the central reservation and as road boundaries.

Barriers with a height of approximately 1 m – typically built in the so-called New Jersey profile – are an increasingly important application for offset concrete pavers. That was also the case on the German A3 motorway, the main link between the metropolitan areas of Frankfurt and Cologne. In a first operation, a slipform paver SP 250 from Wirtgen paved the barrier’s base including mould gutter. A stringline pulled immediately next to the base was scanned by four transducing sensors to ensure accurate paving.

In a second step, the offset paving mould was replaced on the job site to enable the actual New Jersey profile to be paved. Replacing the mould needed a few swift moves only thanks to the paver’s quick-change design. In a final operation, joints were cut into the concrete profile at 5 m intervals to ensure controlled cracking. Once the concrete had hardened, a barrier had been produced that will even be capable of stopping heavy trucks.