Like many African countries, Algeria is experiencing a deep process of growth. Along with the capital Algiers, other important cities overlooking the Mediterranean Sea are developing their territory, thanks also to their ports. One of these is Mostaganem, a city with about 245,000 inhabitants, an average annual temperature around 18°C (with summer peaks of even 40°C) and approximatively 350mm of annual rainfall. Its port is the most important in western Algeria for the export of wheat, fruit and vegetables to Spain and France.
Algerian road infrastructures are also experiencing a phase of considerable development. In fact, the so-called “penetrant roads”, which connect the coast to the National Road RN1, are becoming more and more important. The Troçon de la Wilaya de Mostaganem is one of these road sections: it is about 60km long and it was built using Iterchimica’s solutions.
It is a road with two lanes for each direction of travel and respective emergency lanes. As provided by the Algerian Technical Specifications for several years, high modulus bituminous mixtures have been produced with PMA technology (Polymer Modified Asphalt), specifically with the use of neat bitumen and modification polymer (Superplast) added directly into the mixer during the production. The pavement is composed as follows: Wearing course BBME 0/14 = 6cm; Base course = total 24cm, divided into three layers of 9cm, 8cm and 7cm.
Considering the particular climatic conditions and the loads to which the pavements are subjected, the bituminous mixtures must have high mechanical performances. The tests carried out have shown that these requirements are widely satisfied, with even fatigue resistance equal to twice the necessary values. In order to ensure such performances, all materials undergo multiple verifications before, during and after production/laying:
Laboratory pre-qualification and mix-design study;
Trial section;
Verification of raw materials - aggregates’ characteristics every 2.000t (granulometry, LA, MDE, CPA, etc.) or every 500t (density, flattening, water content, sand equivalent, etc.), neat bitumen control every 30t (penetration, softening, etc.);
Verifications related to the asphalt concrete (constant control of the temperatures, daily regulation of the dosing systems, daily analysis of the aggregates’ moisture after the rotary dryer, daily sampling for the performance control of the asphalt concrete).
In Algeria, the use of “new PMA technologies” has been consolidated for more than 10 years. Despite the adverse climatic conditions (from very hot to sub-zero temperatures) and the high loads, the pavements made with this technology achieve high performances and do not show signs of breakdown or deterioration.
