Background:
The client, Sacyr, is a diversified group whose goals are innovation and international expansion in the building and management of infrastructures, industrial projects and services. Sacyr has led the construction of the Panama Canal expansion and operates in more than twenty countries on the five continents through all of our subsidiaries.
The challenge:
Both the asphalting of surfaces in new roads and the repaving of existing ones (see attached video) require special humidity and temperature conditions to ensure a good quality of the surface, which will also have a impact on other final characteristics like the durability.
As standard parameters, the temperatures during the paving process range from 150ºC and 115ºC, and the compaction time is 10 minutes. However, these parameters can change depending on the type of asphalt and the weather conditions.
Under extreme rain conditions, as it happens in tropical countries, blowing tests have been undertaken to evacuate the accumulated water. Nevertheless, the remaining humidity and dripping water lower down the recently set asphalt’s temperature too fast. As a result, the quality of the asphalt is not optimal and sometimes the operations need to be halted.
Here are two attached documents with the required conditions of the paving process and the specs:
- Annex 1-Paving_works.pdf
- Annex 2-Paving_under_the_rain.pdf
A few potential market solutions have been taken into account (see annex 3), but they solve the problem only partially, and so the effectiveness and the result are not truly satisfactory for the client.
For instance, asphalt heaters can be effective for wet asphalt, but it will not work under the rain.
However, these solutions can be part of the proposed solution if need be.
What the client is looking for:
A process/asphalt mix that enables the paving under extreme rain conditions. It needs to ensure the necessary quality conditions so that the final product is similar to the asphalt paved under dry weather.
In order to achieve that, you are encouraged to use any equipment, machinery or additives deemed necessary.
The proposed solutions can be either commercial ones or new designs.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Similar asphalt characteristics to the asphalt paved under dry weather.
- The process needs to be easily adapted to current asphalting process and equipment.
- Business case
This is a 1-round tournament with the following submissions:
A PDF document including:
- Proposed process and/or additive.
- Expected mechanical characteristics and feasibility evidence.
- Approximate investment and cost of the process (hours, workers…)
Timeline:
This is a 1 round tournament:
1st round – 6 weeks+ 2 weeks for evaluation
