EXCLUSIV VIDEO | Trace has started technological tests at the asphalt production plant needed for Lot 2 of the Ploiesti-Buzău Motorway

There is intense activity on the lot where the Bulgarian builder Trace is carrying out its segment of the Ploiesti – Buzau motorway, part of the motorway of Moldova (A7), specifically between Mizil and Buzau (Pietroasele). Apart from the work on the actual route of the high-speed road, the production facilities are very important. The state-of-the-art asphalt plant is expected to be producing at full capacity in the spring of 2024. Earlier this week, technological trials began at the plant to establish the recipes and the speed of asphalt mix production.

The hustle and bustle at the site organization started early this morning. In addition to the daily activity, the technological tests at the asphalt production plant have also begun. The first stage – heating the materials to establish the exact flow rate through the installation which will lead to the establishment of the recipe according to which the asphalt will be subsequently manufactured.

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„The most important thing is to prepare the asphalt production plant to be ready after winter, to start the huge asphalt production after the cold season next year”, explained Georgy Ivanov, Trace Romania project manager.

This asphalt plant will practically become the heart of the activity on the motorway site. That’s why all the settings, recipes, mixing times that will be coordinated by a computer must be predetermined.

„It is important because we have to lay huge amounts of asphalt”, Ivanov continued.

The technological process was presented to us by a specialist with more than three decades of experience on building sites in the country and on various continents.

“ The minerals are taken from these paddocks, they go into the pre-dispensers, each pre-dispenser has its own grain size, and here we have four grain sizes, 0-4, 4-8, 8-16 and 16-32, they go onto a collecting belt that takes them to a dryer, a dryer that has a burner, which dries and heats the stone to a certain temperature, a temperature that is set by the laboratory. Subsequently, through the mixing tower or the material elevator, they go up a sieve that sifts and makes the selection towards the asphalt station pockets. From these pockets, according to the recipe, you determine the amount of material that goes into the asphalt shingle. At two tons sand goes, we have fractions of 0-4, 4-8, 8-16 and 16-32”, so began the explanation of the asphalt station chief, Yuri Sidletschi.

In the first tests, bitumen was not added. However, this material will not be missing from the mix that will be transported by trucks on the motorway.

„At the same time there is a filler silo and bitumen tanks. In the same way, passing through the gravimetric weighing method, these materials are also dosed, put into a mixer that has some arms with some hoes which come and mix. They mix for an interval of 18 to 25 seconds, depending on the type of material being manufactured, which is then left in the asphalt bunkers, then loaded onto trucks and taken to the site,” Sidletschi added.

When we get to the paving stages, the production will be huge.

„The plant is calibrated at 180 tons per hour,” says the station manager.

If all the asphalt that will end up on the highway route were to be put together, a small mountain would rise in the middle of the plain.

We need to produce around 300,000 tons. We need to produce between 1,500 tons and 2,000 tons per day.
Georgy Ivanov, project manager Trace Romania

And the purpose of these activities is as clear as can be, as there is a deadline.

„We will finish in October, at the end of October next year,” as Trace’s Romanian project manager says.

The Bulgarian company Trace has 25 years of experience in building transport infrastructure in the Balkans and internationally. It has been listed on the Sofia Stock Exchange since 2007. Trace was awarded the contract for Lot 2 of the Ploiesti-Buzău motorway, part of the Moldova Motorway, joining the Romanians from Coni. On 7 June 2022 the contract was signed and the work order was issued on 11 August.