Wirtgen & Vögele Equipment Drive Successful Road Rehabilitation on Maui
Maui’s Haleakalā Highway is one of island’s major highways. It connects the densely populated valley with the surrounding rural areas. The team from Maui Paving completely removed and replaced the road surface over about 6.8 km. Two Wirtgen milling machines, a W 210 Fi and a W 200 Fi, were used on the project together with a SUPER 2000-3i paver from Vögele.
Fast and precise machines
The rehabilitation of the highway had been estimated to take 125 working days. The original plan was to remove the surface layer and the base layer with an excavator in two steps. By investing in the new machines, the team was able to remove both layers with a combined thickness of 20 cm in a single pass and then reuse the milled material.
The construction crew was impressed not only by the speed of the Wirtgen milling machines, but also by the precision of them and the SUPER 2000-3i Highway Class paver from Vögele. With an engine rated output of 186 kW (250 hp) and an efficient material conveying concept, the paver is ideally equipped for handling large-scale road construction projects like the one on Maui. In combination with the VF 600 paving screed, the SUPER 2000-3i also delivered outstanding paving quality across the entire working width. The VF 600 screed is equipped with extensions that can be tilted by up to 10% mounted in front of the basic screed and was designed specifically for the US market.
Local service from the Wirtgen Group played an important role
The deployment of this paver was a première on the Hawaiian island of Maui. To enable Maui Paving’s personnel to exploit the full potential of the machines, they all received appropriate training from Wirtgen America before the start of the project. The familiarisation of the crew with the machines went off without a hitch for everyone, from the mechanic to the operating personnel on the site. All three machines deployed on the project impressed the construction crew with powerful performance, precision, and low noise levels.
Originally, planning foresaw milling off a 10 cm thick concrete layer in a first pass with the milling machine and a second pass for the removal of the base layer. However, the large milling machine from Wirtgen managed to mill out the combined depth of 20 cm in a single pass. This made it possible to mill off an additional 60 to 90 m of the road surface on each shift.
The road construction crew was therefore able to complete 600 m per night in an 8 to 10-hour shift. ‘The transition to the Wirtgen milling machines has been so smooth and seamless, not only due to their efficiency, but also to the fast delivery of parts by Pape, (the local John Deere/Wirtgen Group dealer) and the training provided by the Wirtgen Group.’ reported Zack Gonzales, General Manager of Maui Paving.
