Highway rehabilitation in the Hocheifel region

Aerial photograph of a paving train consisting of a mobile feeder, a paver and rollers rehabilitating one lane of a highway embedded in a green landscape.

June 2026 | Reading time: 7 min

The ideal team for challenging infrastructure projects

A SUPER 2100-5 X paver with a 12-metre screed and a Hamm HX 90 tandem roller with Smart Compact Pro worked together on the rehabilitation project

On the A60 north of Bitburg, the surface layer and binder course of a section of the highway with a length of 3.5 km were badly in need of rehabilitation. The project was carried out with state-of-the-art machines from the Wirtgen Group. They enabled the contractor awarded the job to effortlessly fulfil the tight completion deadline specified by the highway authority and simultaneously assured the required paving precision. Thanks to smart technologies like Smart Compact Pro, this was an easy job and required no additional effort.

Map showing the location of the construction site.

In the heart of the Hocheifel region, not far from the Belgian border, the A60 winds through the countryside like a black, or perhaps, in the meantime more appropriately, patchy grey ribbon. Considerably more than a half of the daily 20,000 vehicles using this highway are HGVs, which are primarily responsible for the considerable wear and tear on the asphalt pavement over time. Over the years, only minor repairs had been carried out on the section between the Heisdorf viaduct and the Waxweiler interchange; however, the road surface on this section was now so badly damaged that a complete renewal of the surface layer and the bjnder course over a distance of around 3,5 km had become unavoidable.

After removal of the damaged asphalt pavement by milling, the task of paving the binder course was the first on the agenda for the paving crew from Kohl Bau. After four days, the crew would have paved 11,000 tonnes of fresh asphalt mix The paving contractor from Irrel relied on products from the Wirtgen Group to ensure absolute reliability and surface precision. For asphalt-construction manager Michael Hansen, quality is the top priority. ‘We always make every effort to deliver 105% perfection. The road will get bad enough afterwards on its own’, he says with a grin.

Improved user-friendliness and more comfort in the Dash 5 generation

The new Dash 5 generation of the SUPER 2100-5 X Highway Class paver makes it even easier to fulfil these self-imposed high standards. Numerous assistance systems reduce the workload of the paver and screed operators. With a theoretical laydown rate of up to 1,100 tonnes of asphalt mix per hour, it offers sufficient output for challenging large-scale projects like this. Alex Bolinger has worked in asphalt construction for the past 20 years. He spent the first five years on the screed and took his seat on the operator’s platform in 2010. From up here, he has the best possible overview of the construction site. Today is the first time he’s had the chance to work with the new paver. ‘On the face of it, the procedure is exactly the same: we have to get the mix onto the machine and then pave and compact it. But the comfort and ergonomics on the new machine are now even better.’

ErgoPlus 5

The ErgoPlus 5 operator's platform is clearly laid out, offers sufficient storage space and fulfils high accident prevention requirements.

Optimum seating position

The operator’s seat can be swung out for a better overview.

The paver operator’s console

The intuitive control concept enables trouble-free asphalt paving.

The Big MultiPlex Ski

The Big MultiPlex Ski compensates for unevenness even over long distances and, thanks to its clamping holder system, is particularly user-friendly. It can be fully installed and ready to use in only seven minutes without any special tools.

The paver operator looks down at the road during paving.
The paver from the front, the operator’s seat has been swung out and extends out over the road surface for a better overview.
Detail view of the paver operator’s console
Detail view of the grade and slope control system.

Seamless paving with the SB 300 TV

In order to easily achieve the evenness required by the highways authority, Autobahn GmbH, and produce a long-lasting pavement structure, the contractor decided to deploy a SUPER 2100-5 X paver fitted with a SB 300 TV screed with a width of 12 metres. This configuration enabled the paving of the entire width of the carriageway including the hard shoulder in a single pass. This also eliminated a potential weak point in the form of a central joint. The two screed extensions are hydraulically adjustable up to a total of 2.5 m and give the paving crew plenty of flexibility. Only in the area of the acceleration and deceleration lanes leading to the Prümer Land rest stop on the section is the roadway wider than the working width of the installed screed. This is where a second, smaller, SUPER 1300 paver came into play.

The SB 300 TV fixed width screed can be used for seamless paving up to a width of 16 m.

The outer ends of the screed can both be extended by 1.25 m.

The paving crew paved the access and exit roads of a rest stop with the SUPER 1300-3i.

The paved surface layer - in the background, the paver with its screed covering the full width of the highway.
Front view of the screed extension.
The SUPER 1300-3i paving the access and exit roads to a rest stop.
The mobile feeder transfers the mix to the paver.
Uninterrupted supply of asphalt mix thanks to a Benninghoven Retrofit and Vögele mobile feeders

Paving such an enormous width is particularly challenging for the site logistics process. The asphalt mix was sourced from two company-owned asphalt mixing plants. Kohl Bau had upgraded one of them to the latest standards with components from Benninghoven only a few years ago. The members of the paving crew all agree: ‘If we hadn’t have had our own mixing plants, we wouldn’t have been able to get the job done so smoothly.’ Twenty tipper trucks worked full-time getting the asphalt mix to the construction site. But the bottleneck was the site itself: ‘When the traffic comes to a standstill in the narrow bit, we have to stop what we’re doing, too. There’s no other way to get onto the construction site, even though the mixing plants are located in different directions.’

But on this day, there were no problems at all. Load after load was tipped into the material hopper of the Vögele MT 3000 mobile feeder that was responsible for ensuring a continuous flow of asphalt mix to the paver. This machine combination and an extra material hopper ensure an uninterrupted supply of asphalt mix for paving. Metre by metre, the machine train moves forward, closely followed by several rollers that ensure optimal compaction of the new asphalt pavement.

Tolles Produkt
Screen view of Smart Compact Pro

Smart Compact Pro

A roller consolidating the binder course.
Smart Compact Pro –Realtime Density Scan

The star player in the team: a brand new HX 90i VS-OS tandem roller from Hamm. What's so special about this machine? It’s one of the first rollers to be equipped with the newly developed Smart Compact Pro system. The system uses a new sensor –the Realtime Density Scan – to determine the density of the compacted asphalt in real-time and uses this value for automated control of the compaction force and modes in both drums. This development is a significant step forward in asphalt compaction, because: as all industry experts agree, the real-time density is the decisive parameter for the assessment of quality during compaction. Until the development of Smart Compact Pro, this value was always the missing piece of the puzzle in asphalt compaction. Vitalij Koch in the driver’s seat of the HX 90i. Today’s the first time he’s used the new assistance system, too. ‘Driving a roller always looks so easy. Nevertheless, you do have to pay attention to how you drive and count the number of passes you’ve done. You have to develop a feeling for the roller and the asphalt. The new system makes everything much easier for newcomers to the job. The vibration or oscillation is automatically activated with the required compaction force and deactivated again once the required density has been achieved. In my opinion, the system’s really good.’

Tolles Produkt
Smiling roller driver looking out of his machine.

‘I’m definitely going to tell my boss he should invest in this system!’

Vitalij Koch, machine operator at Kohl Bau

Better control and cost-efficiency on the construction site

Another major advantage of using Smart Compact Pro is particularly interesting for construction managers and contractors: The continuous measurement of the real-time density eliminates the need for extremely time-consuming and costly drilling and core sampling. Regulatory requirements are also strictly implemented, which significantly minimises the risk of financial penalties. The resulting density maps can also be documented and submitted to the client as proof of performance. Even inexperienced operators can achieve optimum compaction results with Smart Compact Pro without in-depth prior knowledge. This is a particularly valuable aid to construction companies in view of the increasing shortage of suitably qualified personnel.Smart Compact Pro makes a significant contribution to extending the service life of roads through automated compaction based on real-time density, which, in turn, reduces both short- and long-term construction and maintenance costs.

Details and further information can be found on our product pages.

Fixed-width screeds

Fixed-width screeds

Highway Class

Highway Class

HX series

HX series

A small monitor screen in the driver’s cab showing the user-interface of an assistance system.

Smart technologies