A27 Concrete Bay Replacements

LMS Highways deliver Concrete Bay Replacements to A27

LMS Highways were recently requested to deliver 12 Concrete Bay Replacements to A27 Westbound Carriageway over a single weekend closure, this was achieved by our efficient removal process and using a rapid set concrete.

Starting on Friday night our crews began by marking out the damaged bays ready for the saw cutting crew to follow behind and diamond saw the bays. Once the bays are cut the breakout and removal process can begin, for this project our team used a combination of a pecker and bespoke lifting bucket, which compared to traditional equipment are capable of lifting and removing large sections of concrete without the need for breaking down in advance.

The bays are then prepped with a polythene waterproofing membrane and steel dowels, the dowes are drilled into place using our EZ-Drill AKA slab riding rig to along both the transverse and longitudinal edges. Dowel bars are short steel bars that are installed into the surrounding concrete slabs to provide a mechanical connection that doesn’t restrict joint movement and are designed to increase load transfer efficiency which is vital to long performance.

Bays are then recast using a fast curing concrete, this rapid set mix along with conventional heating methods of tents and space heaters insures the concrete hardens to a trafficable state within as little as 4 hours as opposed to other traditional concrete mixes which can take upto 7 days.

This impressive curing period allows LMS to keep to the time restricted schedules and reduce overall road closure time, making it highly desirable to our clients. Lastly the team will then diamond saw cut the joints before applying primer and seal with a hot applied N1 sealant, this step prevents water ingress which in turn extends the service life of the new concrete bays.