An Osprey hydroblasting machine from Jetting Systems has recently had a key role to play in one of the UK’s largest road construction projects in recent years.
Specialist contractor, Foster Contracting Limited (FCL), was approached by AWPR Construction Joint Venture to provide a customised treatment to remove the latency from the slip-form concrete pavement that makes up the main carriageway of the £745million Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie-Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) project.
58km of slip form concrete pavement 4 lanes wide had to be prepared for an asphalt pavement. FCL ran trials in late 2016 to ensure this method would meet the adhesion requirements before spending nearly 12 months removing latency (loose aggregate, cement and dust) from the concrete surface without any unplanned downtime. The Osprey vehicle was operated at 800m2/hr using 22,000 psi and full vacuum recovery to treat the surface and recover 26,000 litres of water a day for specialist disposal.
Sean Gibb, Manager at FCL North, stated: “This project was on a different scale to anything that we have undertaken as a company before. Whilst we have significant experience of major civil engineering works, such as motorways and runways, the size and complexity of this project was on a different level”.
Find out more about Foster Contracting Ltd here.
