Concrete barrier challenge

The 5700C-Max unit from 307 Power Curbers has now been used on a tricky shoulder widening job in New South Wales, Australia. The machine carried out the job close to Robertson in the Southern Highlands, about 1.5 hours drive to the south of Sydney.

The job required the construction of a 200m long section of barrier, built to the requirements of the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA). The contractor hand-formed the concrete shoulder as it was about 3m wide at the start and narrowed down to 1m at the end. The road featured a steep bank on the run up to a bridge, which was why the section had to be upgraded to boost safety. The shoulder was made wider and a barrier wall installed to provide protection as far as the bridge parapet. Construction involved the use of some unusual techniques and the shoulder was excavated and then filled up with high density polystyrene. The concrete shoulder was then poured on top of this, with dowl bars set in the concrete for the wall to attach to. Once the wall was completed, the RTA used shotcrete on the back of the wall to seal off the polystyrene and blend it into the bottom of the structure.