Wirtgen SP 1600 slipform paver sets four world records during concrete paving on the major Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway project

During the construction of a motorway between Vadodara and Mumbai, Wirtgen SP 1600 demonstrated its impressive performance and set four world records. The major Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway project is part of the 1,350 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway linking India’s capital city New Delhi and Mumbai. The construction project is part of the country’s National Highways Development Project; it passes through six states and, due to its size, has been divided into more than 50 individual sub-projects awarded by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).


Initially, the roadway will be widened to eight lanes, with four lanes in each direction. What’s more, sufficient space has been set aside in the middle of the road to allow four more lanes to be added in the future. The motorway (often referred to as the backbone of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor), cuts travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from 24 to 12 hours and shortens the travel distance between the two cities due to the direct connection. This reduces fuel consumption and thereby the exhaust emissions, and, in no small measure, the costs incurred on the route. The NHAI expects an average daily traffic volume of 100,000 PCE (passenger car equivalent units).


A project of this size calls for maximum concrete paving performance, both in terms of output and quality. New roads made of concrete will significantly increase the efficiency of Indian freight traffic.

Construction project
• Expansion of Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway
• Length of entire construction project: 1,350 km
• Planned completion of entire project: January 2023
• Length of construction section (km 292 – km 323): 31 km
• Measured distance for world record: 2.56 km (1.28 km in both directions).

Parameters
• Window of time for world record: 24 hours
• Paving width: 18.75 m
• Paving thickness: 300 mm
• Paving of pavement quality concrete (PQC)
• Machine-integrated, fully automatic insertion of dowel bars and tie bars

Machines used
• SP 1600 (modified for paving width of 18.75 m)
• TCM 180 (modified for paving width of 18.75 m)

Construction company
• Patel Infrastructure

Concrete paving records
At temperatures around 28 degrees Celsius (winter in this region), the record attempt started on 1 February 2021 at 8:00 a.m. and ended 24 hours later. Using the modified Wirtgen SP 1600, Patel Infrastructure succeeded in completing a four-lane motorway, including hard shoulder, with a working width of 18.75 m over a distance of 2.56 km, within 24 hours – a new world record. In fact, a total of four world records were entered into the India Book of Records and the Golden Book of World Records in connection with the project.

• Largest quantity of PQC paved in 24 hours – 14,613.30 m³
• Largest volume of PQC produced in 24 hours – 14,370 m³
• Longest continuous section with a width of 18.75 m paved with PQC in 24 hours – 1,280 m
• Largest area of a motorway paved with PQC in 24 hours – 48,711 m²

Flexibility and innovativeness help create customised solutions and achieve maximum productivity
The SP 1600 slipform paver, cost-effectively and with unparalleled precision, paves concrete surfaces for traffic areas, roadways, industrial areas, and surfaces at airports, such as runways/taxiways, with a working width of up to 16 meters. SP 1600 can be used (for example) to pave full-width motorways in a single pass. But, sometimes, even that isn’t enough. Thus, the team from Wirtgen R&D department worked closely with Patel Infrastructure to develop a customized/special solution for the company.


The machine and, in particular, its concrete unit, was extended to a working width of 18.75 meters. This involved additional extension elements for each component, including the extremely complex dowel bar inserter. Also, the machine had to be able to compensate for the enormous amount of additional weight, and still be capable of high-precision levelling. The TCM 180 texture curing machine was also adapted to the working width of 18.75 meters in order to apply a dispersion to the concrete surface behind the slipform paver as protection against evaporation.

“We are ecstatic to have achieved this colossal task and be a part of the history books of the Indian road construction industry. The nature of constructing a civil project involves many factors which have to be aligned. We endeavoured not only to set new benchmarks in road and highway construction, but we also aimed at doing so in a responsible manner.”
Arvind Patel, Managing Director, Patel Infrastructure

Global support from Wirtgen Group service team
To ensure that the customized machine always ran smoothly, the construction project was supported by four Wirtgen technicians. Every hour, a total of 45 transport vehicles delivered concrete to the construction site to provide the slipform paver with sufficient material. In order to be able to process this enormous quantity of concrete in such a short time, the paving process had to be carried out at an average speed of 1.8 m/min. Approximately 30,000 dowel bars and tie bars were inserted using the built-in automatic dowel bar inserter (DBI) and the central tie bar inserters (CTBI), providing the structure with the necessary stability and ensuring that the slabs were bonded together properly to withstand traffic loads for years to come.


SP 1600 inset paving train on road to success
The world records speak for themselves. With its specifications, the SP 1600 displays unparalleled concrete paving performance. However, long-term reliability also plays a critical role in a successfully completed project. As such, the SP 1600 slipform paver was not only able to complete work on the section measured for the world record, but also the entire stage of construction.

The slipform paver team from Patel Infrastructure has many more miles to go in this major project, for which it continues to rely on the Wirtgen SP 1600 paving train.