Road test

Rollers and pavers work in convoy with the machines.

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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.

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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.