Journal "Road Power", No. 118/2023 (July 2023)
CONSTRUCTION OF TEMPORARY ROADS FOR CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
During construction work at industrial facilities, it is often necessary to build temporary access roads or storage and process sites. The use of log corduroy roads or reinforced-concrete road slabs is associated, on the one hand, with considerable labour requirements and, on the other, entails subsequent dismantling and land reclamation.
However, there is a simpler and more effective solution. The TECHPOLYMER Group of Companies produces quickly assembled, polymer impact-resistant slabs connected to one another by locking devices — Mobile Road Coverings (MRC).
The products are specifically designed to create sites of various configurations and sizes, as well as temporary roads on weak subgrades for the passage of heavy equipment, without damaging the soil and vegetation layer.
The advantages of the “MDP TECHPOLYMER-2” slabs include the possibility of repeated reuse, including in the Far North, as well as simple and fast installation and dismantling.
“MDP TECHPOLYMER” slabs, TU 22.21.30-009-56910145-2016, have been in use for several years by major organisations such as PJSC “NK “ROSNEFT”, PJSC “FSK “UES”, PJSC “GAZPROM” and others.
The main operating principle of the TECHPOLYMER Group of Companies is continuous innovative development, enabling it to produce world-class geosynthetic materials for more than 20 years. Thus, in 2022, the company produced a modernised batch of mobile road coverings with increased flexural rigidity per unit length.
In November 2022, twenty slabs made of the new material were sent to the construction site of Irkutsk Polymer Plant LLC for pilot industrial operation as part of cooperation with Irkutsk Oil Company.
The slabs were operated under the following conditions: an unprepared dirt road and sharp changes in ambient temperature from 0ºC to - 35ºC. The results of the pilot industrial operation showed:
■ installation of a 4 m-wide, 1,000 m-long road surface — no more than 1 day;
■ resistance of the slabs to high loads: passage of a 40-tonne tracked pipe layer, and round-the-clock passage of tracked and wheeled dump trucks weighing from 20 to 40 tonnes, with 30–40 units per day;
■ successful completion of the “crossing an obstacle” test: a three-axle dump truck loaded with crushed stone, with a total weight of 37 tonnes, and a tracked excavator weighing 20 tonnes passed over a 20 cm-diameter log laid across the road beneath the centre of two connected slabs;
■ no cracks or other damage were found on the slabs; the slabs are suitable for further operation.
Based on the test results, the “MDP TECHPOLYMER-2” slabs are recommended for:
■ construction of temporary crossings over utility lines;
■ organisation of temporary access routes for wheeled and tracked equipment at facilities with weak subgrades;
■ construction of building, storage and process sites;
■ organisation of access routes to accident sites in the event of emergencies, as an emergency reserve
