Comfort and safety are the main criteria of a good road.
In order to achieve the best characteristics of the road surface, industry specialists continuously conduct research, develop new compositions and methods of highway construction. About what advanced technologies are used on roads under the jurisdiction of
Avtodor Group of Companies, in particular on the M-12 Moscow – Kazan highway under construction, said Konstantin Mogilny, General Director of Avtodor-Engineering LLC
at the conference "PRO Bitumen and PBB", which was held in St. Petersburg on March 31 and
April 1st. For more information, see the DorInfo article.
At the beginning of his speech, Konstantin Mogilny recalled the topics that have been discussed over the past 10 years at the annual conference "PRO Bitumen and PBB". So, in 2014, the adaptation of the "Superpave" methodology, PNST 1-2012 and STO 2.1-2011 were discussed,
as a result, a working group was created to develop a new instruction for the design of road clothes. In 2015, the issue of including additional indicators for BND (petroleum bitumen road), which came from a new set of standards, was raised - as a result, the indicator "dynamic viscosity" appeared. In 2019 they talked about import substitution: according to Konstantin Mogilny, even then the company was ready to abandon imported components - polymer additives. In 2020, the construction of experimental sites was actively discussed both in the Federal Road Agency and in Avtodor.
"And what, in fact, we have according to the results for 2022. In my opinion, from the point of view of regulations, we have all the national standards that allow us to deal with the most advanced technologies that we are talking about here. Of course, this requires further development and updating, but in any case, you can see here that there is not a single preliminary standard, everything is closed by state standards, which allows us to continue to deal with the next stage - pricing, calculations," said the CEO of Avtodor-Engineering.
Specific tasks of Avtodor on the example of the M-12 highway
On the example of the M-12 expressway under construction "Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod – Kazan"
and its continuation to Yekaterinburg, Konstantin Mogilny told about the specific tasks that the State-owned Company faces.
"Sections of highway construction M-12 and Kazan – Yekaterinburg extensions, as well as other promising facilities that have been approved in the company's activities for the near future until 2024 (about 3 thousand km) are new directions that now need to be evaluated: their effectiveness and prospects within the framework of a feasibility study. So that's what we have a specific task. The fact is that the state-owned company, after putting the M-12 highway into operation, will have funds for maintenance only by collecting fees. That is, the norms of monetary costs, this is the 658 resolution (ed. - Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 05/20/2017
No. 658) does not apply in this case. What does this mean? It means that we will not have any standard, and we will work from the actual budget, while the transport and operational condition must be ensured for the period of repayment of funds, because the money is borrowed from the state. And all other facilities of the state-owned company will be operated in this mode," he said.
The speaker added that, in this regard, the question arises: what methods to use for calculating the construction of the pavement, what criteria to use estimates of what to put in travel clothes.
"For us, the overhaul period of 12-24 years is no longer the same coordinate system. Maybe it will be other inter-repair terms, because, perhaps, the state will not have money for a subsidy at the moment when they are needed, and the state will definitely look into the contract and say: "All the money from the fee collection." Therefore, the situation is very interesting. In fact, this is a search for the optimal solution in conditions of limited funding. This raises a lot of questions - technical and engineering," Konstantin Mogilny stressed.
The speaker added that in the near future, within the framework of research and construction of experimental sites, Avtodor specialists will look for solutions that may not correspond to the methodology for calculating the construction of the pavement that exists now. Perhaps there will be some special technical conditions or a new regulatory document.
"The contractor's warranty period is four years, and then the customer remains in these conditions. At the same time, the M-12 road is paid, so the user will definitely expect the best consumer properties, that is, there should not be ruts and dimples, everything should be very good there. Moreover, this is a high-speed highway, and the state's expenditures are so purposeful only in order to provide this new transport framework of high-speed roads. Therefore, what materials will be used is, strictly speaking, an engineering question. And it seems that these search works on their final tasks will probably go beyond the regulatory framework that we currently have," Konstantin Mogilny said.
The Moscow–Kazan expressway will be built using modern Superpave technology. The thickness of the three layers will be 23-29 cm, depending on the intensity. "Everything is clear here, but it is worth paying attention to the layers of the base - gravel-sand mixtures, that is, they are not connected. We can say that this is a traditional approach to the construction of road clothing. But what to do next at the new facilities?
In this case, we can look at the concept of "eternal" roads, which is now accepted in China. In principle, there is nothing unusual in this from the point of view of our approach and our SNIP system, where it is written that it is best to build foundations from reinforced materials, not from connected ones," he said General Director of Avtodor-Engineering LLC.
Based on experience and observations, GC specialists came to the following conclusion: it is difficult to look for great advantages in new and expensive materials, structures and equipment if there is no proper foundation, and where there is a good foundation, there are no problems for decades.
"Now, within the framework of a very serious restriction on rail transport, there is a big issue – this is a shortage of local durable materials that have traditionally been used. I want to say that in order to make a gravel-sand mixture, bring it to the M-12 road, provided that there is a rush demand, everything is clogged, the river system
it is not coping, heroic efforts will be required, but we have no other way out," the speaker stressed.
Advanced technologies for comfortable and safe driving
During his speech, Konstantin Mogilny drew the attention of colleagues to the regulatory framework in terms of operational characteristics, which are indicated in the documents for the set of statistics.
"In my opinion, we do not have a system that allows us to collect this information and confirm the feasibility. I 'll bring you example: in the framework of work where we have such mixtures, the customer does not require the provision of these data, because they are optional for a set of statistics. That is, in my opinion, we are losing the lucky opportunity that would allow us to collect this data," the speaker noted.
He added that Avtodor, at its own expense, is testing mixtures that go to facilities under construction. For this purpose, a contractor was selected that performs tests of materials for four-point bending. Within the framework of the concluded agreement between Avtodor Group of Companies and RN-Bitumen LLC, an action plan was drawn up for the implementation of experimental plots arranged using asphalt concrete mixtures based on various bitumen binders. Now this work is continuing, and a report will be ready in the near future.
"As for the different additives. Our general approach is this: the State-owned Company has removed all restrictions for the use of any additives that are offered by the market. The only thing we offer for everyone is the general rules of the game. That is, we need to understand what the use of these materials affects, what performance indicators. It is also important to have certain documents that set the rules of the game: packaging, transportation, methods of acceptance, control, and so on," Konstantin Mogilny said.
According to the speaker, this year the State-owned Company, together with the FAA ROSDORNII, plans to conduct the first series of accelerated tests on experimental sections of the M-12 highway using the Cyclos installation. This is the first installation in Russia for conducting accelerated tests of road structures, developed as part of the implementation of the national project "Safe High-quality Roads". "Cyclos" allows you to determine the stability of the entire road structure or a package of asphalt concrete layers to the effects of real full-scale loads.
In addition, Avtodor plans to launch radioisotope density meters in 2022. Their main advantages are: obtaining the "true value" within a short time and minimal error; determining the density of structural layers formed from various road-building materials (soil, sand, asphalt concrete); measuring depth up to 30 cm due to the built-in gamma radiation source, as well as the ability to measure humidity with the surface of the material to a depth of up to 21.5 cm due to the built-in neutron sensor.
"We intend to launch the work of radioisotope density meters this year and propose as an initiative to fix this control method in the GUEST for acceptance, which will allow us to seriously increase productivity, accuracy and remove a lot of unnecessary work. At the moment, all the documents have been received," Konstantin Mogilny noted.
Another issue that the speaker drew attention to is the verification of the quality system that is in production. "For example, we are told: what difference does it make to you with what frequency we change the grid at the factory? We have a difference. We are very interested in whether this installation works correctly, whether people understand correctly that it needs to be serviced technically on time? Do they know that it is necessary to change consumables in time? What about the calibrations? Are there people with education? A large block of questions. We have it now organized in terms of seasonal inspections: this is a very sensitive story for manufacturers. But I think it would be right to present some industry requirements for the system that should be provided at the plant. I'm not saying we're a factory we must manage — this is only the history of the manufacturer, but we must and must be sure that everything works correctly there," Konstantin Mogilny summed up.
It should be added that the M-12 expressway construction project includes nine stages with a total length of over 800 km. The highway will pass through the Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod regions, the Republics of Chuvashia and Tatarstan. Currently, active construction is underway at all stages.
The new road will shorten the journey from Moscow to Kazan by two times - up to 6.5 hours. The entire road should be opened in 2024, however, as Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chairman of the Board of Avtodor Group of Companies, said at the conference "PRO Bitumen and PBV", the work is planned to be completed earlier - in 2023. At the same time, the movement of cars on certain sections of the road under construction is planned to start even earlier. So, this year they plan to open a working movement along sections of the highway in the Moscow and Vladimir regions.
In addition, the M-12 motorway will be extended to Yekaterinburg, and it is planned to open this high-speed route in 2024. The project provides for the reconstruction of existing sections of federal highways M-7 "Volga" and R-242 "Perm – Yekaterinburg", as well as new construction on the Dyurtyuli - Achit section.