Dezhou City gets new ring road

Two newly delivered Dynapac SD2550CS asphalt pavers are being used as part of a new fleet of equipment by contractor Shandong Lutai in eastern China.

CHINESE CONTRACTOR Shandong Lutai Co is using two of the newly launched Dynapac SD2550CS large tracked pavers to lay asphalt on a section of the new ring road being built around Dezhou City, in Shandong Province, Eastern China.

The SD2550CS pavers are amongst the first to have rolled off the assembly line at Dynapac’s Chinese manufacturing plant in Tianjin, which began to assemble this model soon after it went into production at Dynapac’s German factory late last year.

Featuring a basic width of 3m, the SD2500CS offers a maximum paving width of 10 m and a placement thickness of 320 mm. It offers a theoretical placement capacity of 800 t / hour and a paving speed of up to 28 m/minute.

Shandong Lutai is also using two newly-delivered CC624HF 12-tonne double-drum vibratory rollers, one of the heaviest machines in the Dynapac roller range, and two CC900 compact double-drum rollers, which are designed for small-scale compaction work and close-up finishing.

The CC900 features a drum width of 900 mm and with its large drum diameter makes compaction easier, even in soft tricky asphalt mixes. Articulated steering with maintenance-free hitch and steering cylinder reduces maintenance.

Shandong Lutai’s equipment manager, Zhang Bau Fu, says that the Dezhou ring road is the first project for the new Dynapac equipment, which had arrived on site at the start of the company’s contract.

Zhang Bau Fu, Equipment Manager, Shandong Lutai.

“We have used Dynapac equipment before, but it was always on a rental basis,” he says. “There is a large amount of infrastructural work underway and planned in Shandong, and so we decided to invest in the equipment as a strategic expansion of our own fleet.”

Dezhou is a fast-growing city that bases much of its economy on the development and manufacture of cleanenergy technology and products. One of its main activities is the development of solar energy equipment, and Dezhou raised its international profile in this sector when it hosted the International Solar City Congress in 2010.

Mr Zhang says that the ring road has been split into several different packages, and that Shandong Lutai is responsible for the asphalt laying on a 10 km stretch, with two carriageways, each of 14.75 m width.

The asphalt layer consists of two courses, a base course that is 8 cm thick, and a wearing course of 6 cm.

Both SD2550CS pavers are being used side-by-side on the carriageway, each working at a width of about 7 m - so that between them with one sweep they cover the entire width up to the concrete barriers on either side of the road.

“We have a tight deadline of just two months to complete this project,” says Mr Zhang. “Working the pavers side by side, and following up directly with the compactors allows us to maintain a tight site and proceed at a uniform pace.

“There is also the fact that this time of year sees a great deal of rain, and if we work to a pattern like this, where a section of the road is totally completed at one shift, then we are helping our logistics and planning even if our work cycle is broken because of a downpour.”

Mr Zhang says that with the machines having only just begun on site, it is not yet possible to provide an accurate figure on progress but that 1000 m per machine per day would be a realistic average for this time of the year.

He says that the base course requires two passes of the CC624HF compactors, followed by a further two passes on the wearing course, with the same number of passes by two small CC900 compactors, with one working on either side of the carriageway and compacting hard up against the concrete kerb.