Durban: one of Africa’s busiest ports. From here containers and goods from around the globe join the highway system to South Africa’s industrial interior. One of the major road transport artery is the Solomon Mahlangu Highway. This highway was designed to carry one million vehicles per year in each direction. Due to the heavy continuous flow of traffic the surface started to crack and deteriorate. Voids were discovered in the layer works 800mm below the concrete surface. In addition the bitumen layer between the original road slab and the more recent surface concrete slab was disintegrating due to water action.
Objectives:
Uretek was approached to strengthen and stabilize approximately 42000 square metres of concrete slabs in the Western direction. The rehabilitation work needed to be completed in five months.
Technology Applied:
A combination of the Uretek Slab Lifting and Deep Injection technologies have been applied simultaneously, thereby filling voids at a depth of 800mm below the surface and at the same time consolidating the deteriorated bitumen layer between the two concrete slabs.
Outcome:
It has been determined that the Uretek process has been successfully implemented in extending the life span of the existing road slabs, thereby avoiding having to reconstruct the entire section of the concrete highway which was rapidly deteriorating.
In total 48564 square metres of road slabs were stabilized in 77 working days.
Due to the cost savings experienced in the Western direction of the highway, the client has decided to use Uretek to stabilize the concrete road slabs in the nearby Inanda Road Highway upon completion of the initial contract and to continue in the Eastern direction of Solomon Mahlangu Highway in the near future.
