As completion of berth 9 at the Port of Felixstowe (the UK’s largest container port) nears completion, the Roadgrip team have been on site at the yard extension managing the joint sealing, saw cutting and line marking.
Berth 9 was one of the first in the UK to cater for the latest class of high storage blocks and container vessels, adding 18,000 TEU of storage capacity to the existing 130,000 TEU.
Since May 2018, we’ve been completing works for the expansion Berth 9 using our floor saws to remove the 120,000 sqm of block paving at the yard that had become unstable.
The port needed to update the running lanes for the trucks and set a new solid base for the storage containers and heavy, automated cranes. After removing the paving, we replaced the surface with pavement quality (PQ) concrete to handle the increased traffic and heavy loads at the port.
To prevent the concrete cracking as it cured, the Roadgrip team moved fast to saw-cut the 5ml induction cuts within 24 hours of laying the concrete. In total, 100,000 linear meters of saw cutting was carried out using Roadgrip’s specialist machinery.
We made 40,000 linear meters of induction cuts, 55,000 linear meters of 13ml widening cuts and 5000 linear meters of 25ml expansion cuts to allow for the expansion and contraction of the bays.
After saw cutting was complete, we used our joint sealing machines to seal all the joints in the concrete using hot-applied joint sealant.
At the final stage, our pavement marking team painted over 54,000 meters of white and yellow lines and digits to 1000 numbered parking bays.
The weather was against us in the early part of 2019, but our crew has continually worked around the clock, 7-days a week to cut, seal and paint the concrete against rain, wind and cold temperatures whenever the port was open. At least the rain kept the dust at bay!
Well done team!
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