CEMEX were tasked with delivering over 45,000 tonnes of material to a difficult to reach site at Bedale, under a particularly tight programme.

Now successfully completed, Bedale Bypass provides over 14,000 vehicles a day a new route around Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar, reducing congestion, environmental issues and road safety problems in the local community.

The project required the use of over 23,000 tonnes of Cement Bound Granular Material (CBGM) to be used a Base Course for the new bypass, and over 25,000 tonnes of Asphalt. Due to the type of material, and the laying programme being based over winter, this meant that the materials had to be laid within 3 hours of being mixed, and that CEMEX’s mobile batching plant must keep up with the demand for CBGM.

The laying programme was only 9 weeks long, so the use of CEMEX’s high output Rapidmix 400CW batching plant set up locally. Along with their local asphalt plant was the ideal solution required in order to hit the weekly output targets and meet the project deadline. Due to the large areas and low early trafficking strength of CBGM, specialized spray tankers were utilized to deliver swift installation of the tack coat curing membrane.

The location of the works and the construction method made it very difficult for trucks and plant to get in and out of the site and to the construction areas, posing several safety risks, with the road only being 7.3m wide. Through careful planning and the use of well trained personnel, all works were carried out with zero incidents and helped towards the timely completion of the contract.

In order to ensure the CBGM was laid within the required time frame, it would need to be mixed locally to the site in order to reduce the transport time. This was achieved by setting up the mobile plant at the local CEMEX quarry which also housed the asphalt plant.

CEMEX’s Operational Teams realised the challenge of laying such a vast quantity of material consistently over the whole 9 week laying programme. This resulted in the decision to operate more than one paver at a time, along with mechanised tack coat spraying to keep up with the laying process.

Getting trucks to the site was also an issue, so CEMEX’s logistics team needed to design routes specifically for the vehicles to allow them to get to site, and a site driving system employed to ensure the safety of the trucks and site personnel.

CEMEX were able to set up a RapidMix 400CW plant at their local Leyburn Quarry, located just 12 miles from the site. This location meant that transport times and costs were minimized, due to a reduction in the number of trucks required.

Laying outputs were achieved through echelon paving, effectively doubling the amount of material laid at any given time. In addition, a modified spray tanker was used for curing the CBGM rapidly, to ensure the asphalt binder and surface courses could be laid as soon as possible.

A specially designed route was created to reduce the amount of local villages their trucks had to pass through, and a system was created on site where trucks would drive to the far end of site then reverse back to the laying operations. Extra banksmen were included throughout to ensure site safety.