2023-09-13 14:03:00
This is the largest ongoing road project in Wallonia. With a budget of 45 million euros, financed by Sofico, work to rehabilitate the E411 between Daussoulx and Aische-en-Refail, towards Brussels, began last March. They will finish around the end of 2024 after the equivalent project in the other direction, between Thorembais-Saint-Trond and Dhuy (Eghezée). The significant work impacts traffic in a large part of the region. The E411 is one of the major motorways which connects Brussels to Namur but also to Luxembourg. Users from the capital, Walloon Brabant and Namur regularly use this route. This is why Sofico and its partner, SPW Infrastructure, were keen to present the current project. This inaugurates a first in Wallonia, the use of a recycling and materials production platform, a sort of temporary factory which produces concrete and other highway coatings, while recycling the old ones. It is installed on the slope, towards Namur, of the Ostin area and saves journeys, the equivalent of 42 times the circumference of the Earth.
Concretely, on site, in Daussoulx near Brussels, workers from the company TRBA, associated with Wanty, are concreteing the central strip over 9 km to Aische-en-Refail, on the edge of Walloon Brabant. To summarize the current construction site, the metal framework of the road is placed throughout the route. A crane is responsible for placing concrete while a mobile platform spreads and smoothes the material, at a rate of one meter per minute. Behind, the workers continue the smoothing carried out by the platform and just behind, a protective film is placed to protect the concrete and keep it waterproof until it dries. This process is repeated throughout the 9 km of road… 24 hours a day, with the only interruption being the passage over the bridges. This continuous process makes it possible to reinforce the reinforced concrete which will be uniform and also limits the joints, fragile points on the roads.
Therefore, this part of the project will be completed during next week. All that remains is to develop the road. And by November, the right-hand and emergency lanes towards Brussels will be completely rebuilt. It will then be necessary to tackle the central and left lanes, those currently used by cars and trucks. The section towards Brussels will then be completed during the spring of 2024. For the second phase of the project, it will be in the other direction, from Thorembais-Saint-Trond towards Daussoulx, over 10 km. For traffic and works, the process will remain exactly the same, but reversed with two traffic lanes towards Brussels, and two lanes towards Namur, one on each side of the median. This second phase will therefore begin next spring and end by the end of 2024.
A construction site marked by recycling and travel savings
This E411 repair site hosts a unique installation for a motorway site in Wallonia. For the occasion, the Ostin area (Eghezée) near Namur is home to a “temporary factory” on five hectares. This “factory” includes a mobile asphalt plant, a concrete plant and a processing center for materials recovered from the demolition of the old road. Thus, 260,000 tonnes (of the 500,000 demolished) are recycled and reinjected into the new coating. More specifically, this represents 50% of the coated materials (asphalt), 100% of the concrete demolished and 50% of the unbound materials (sand, earth, etc.) which are reused.
Regarding the journeys, if the trucks had to travel to the nearest sorting center and collect the other materials, this would have represented nearly 2 million kilometers. Conversely, journeys to the Ostin site represent 262,000 km. Once the difference is made, the number of trips saved is equivalent to a truck traveling around the Earth 42 times.
This installation proposed by the temporary association between TRBA and Wanty played a role in the award of the market. The idea appealed to Sofico and SPW Infrastructure but also to the Walloon Minister of Mobility and Infrastructure, Philippe Henry (ECOLO), who was present for the visit to the site. Everyone hopes that this initiative will be emulated by other projects.
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