'Shuttle buggy' speeds delivery of road surfacing

Extra smooth running lanes are now in place on the A1 through Newton on the Moor in Northumberland after use of a new piece of road surfacing plant.  

Extra smooth running lanes are now in place on the A1 through Newton on the Moor in Northumberland after use of a new piece of road surfacing plant.

The 'Shuttle Buggy' is an asphalt feeder introduced by Colas North to receive material in bulk from truck deliveries and continuously feed it into pavers.

A-one Integrated Highway Services - a joint venture between Colas and Halcrow - used the new feeder in the Highways Agency's Area 14 covering trunk roads and motorways in the North East.

"We were looking for ways of producing a smoother running surface that could be laid quickly to minimise traffic disruption," says A-one consultant Stuart Allanson.

The JV settled on the Vögele MT1000-1 Shuttle Buggy, an offset mobile asphalt feeder. It runs on crawler tracks and provides a continuous feed into an asphalt paver via an hydraulically controlled conveyor arm. At a little over 9m in length and just under 3m in width, it can be easily accommodated in the width of an average single running lane.

"I had read reports from previous work carried out using this or similar machines and it appeared to have some very positive benefits," says the Highways Agency project sponsor for MAC Area 14 Shaun Cullumbine. "It was decided that this was a good innovation to bring forward and introduce on this project."

Even temperature

The machine ensures an even temperature through the asphalt mix preventing any weak spots making their way into the finished road surface.

"Asphalt laying is made a very rapid process with the Shuttle Buggy. At Newton on the Moor we were laying between 1,200t and 1,300t of asphalt per shift," explains Colas North's senior surfacing agent David Colvine

In total, 7,300t of asphalt was laid on the A1 in four days to resurface both of the northbound lanes of the dual carriageway over a distance of 2.5km. Extensive traffic management was put in place to maintain a contraflow to keep traffic moving throughout the works, which also included the renewal of 4,000m of central reserve safety barrier.

"By using the Shuttle Buggy, we still used the same quantity of material and the same number of asphalt deliveries came to site, but more frequently and over a shorter period of time," says Allanson. "The machine also proved its worth in the better ride quality given to the finished surface."