Road N614, Herstappe, Belgium

Project type:

  • Road

Application: 

  • Asphalt pavement (38.000 m²)

Partners: 

  • Contractor: Aswebo – Willemen Groep, Willemen Infra –Willemen Groep
  • Owner: AWV 

About 2.7 km of the N614 in Herstappe, Limburg was severely damaged by reflective cracking. Because of budgetary reasons, owner AWV decided to renovate the road using Fortifix® crack-preventing asphalt reinforcement in lieu of replacing it completely.

Jan Van Gestel, project leader and advisor with AWV talks about the challenges of the project, his experience working with Bekaert and his impressions of Fortifix®.

The challenge

“The biggest challenge for this project was to choose a reinforcement solution that adheres perfectly to the milled surface of the road, but which can still be easily removed and recycled when the time finally comes that the road needs to be completely renewed. In this case, in about ten years.”

The solution

"The interlayer performs best when laying perfectly smooth. While synthetic meshes can shift, Fortifix® rolls out evenly onto the road surface and adheres perfectly to the elastomer emulsion. The magnetic properties of the steel enables separation from the asphalt, making the materials 100% recyclable.

“What gave us the reassurance to try out Fortifix® is the fact the product had already been added to standard specification documents. Fortifix® has been thoroughly investigated during the R&D phase and also the OCW (the Research Center for Road Construction) had given its approval.”