Vögele│Efficient shoulder refurbishment with the MINI 500

The Smallest Vögele Paver Replaces Manual Labor

The representative of the Mini Class proved its worth in the paving of the shoulder on a road in the Swiss canton of Valais: the project foresaw the resurfacing and widening of the shoulder at the side of the T9 cantonal road. With the smallest paver model from Vögele, the paving crew was able to realize the project without interruption and in outstanding quality despite some particularly tight spaces.

The municipality of Raron lies in the picturesque Alpine canton of Valais in southern Switzerland. The T9 cantonal road links the town to the A9 highway and serves as the connection to larger towns and villages in the region. As the shoulder was contaminated with mercury, the whole area at the side of the road had to be rehabilitated over a distance of 2.3 km. In the course of this, the lead contractor was also commissioned to widen the shoulder to enable the placement of crash barriers in the asphalt.

MINI 500 for Municipal Road Construction

Contractor Pius Schmid AG from Visp was awarded the contract for this work and deployed the MINI 500, the smallest road paver from Vögele, on the project. “We often take on municipal road construction projects. Especially in cases where we have limited space and narrow pave widths, the realization with the MINI 500 is significantly faster and delivers higher quality results than conventional manual paving with wheelbarrows, shovels, and a plate compactor,” says Michael Schmid, Member of the Executive Board at Pius Schmid AG.

Machine paving on Smallest Areas

With the MINI 500, construction contractors can realize particularly small area projects by machine paving. The paver is extremely compact and agile and offers a base pave width of 0.9 m and working widths from only 0.25 m to 1.8 m. Its rubber-tracked undercarriage ensures optimum traction on loose ground and enables outstanding maneuverability in the tightest spaces.

Uninterrupted Paving Despite Limited Space

The paving crew used a further Mini Class paver from Vögele, a SUPER 800i, for paving the base layer and the surface course of the shoulder at the side of the T9. On the 500 m section, the crew encountered numerous tight spots that forced them to pave at varying widths of between 0.9 and 1.35 m. In the past, the paving crew would have had to pave these parts in a particularly time-consuming and labor-intensive manual paving process. In contrast, the MINI 500 and the AB 135 extending screed enabled the crew to pave the entire section by machine in outstanding quality and without any interruptions.

Easy Feeding and Easy Transportation

The paver’s large material hopper with a capacity of up to 1.5 t also contributed to the efficiency of the workflow on the construction site. The wide, funnel-shaped opening enables uncomplicated feeding of the paving mix to the compact paver with a wheel loader. The compact machine has another big advantage: it weighs only 1.6 t, and can be transported easily and cost-efficiently from place to place. “We can easily transport the MINI 500 to a new project site with a minimum of logistical effort on the back of a truck and, if we need to, can lift it on to elevated working areas with a wheel loader, which is usually available for feeding mix to the paver on most construction sites, anyway,” says Schmid.

Dedicated System for Automated Grade and Slope Control

The new shoulder had to be paved with a cross slope of 2% to ensure sufficient drainage. The crew therefore relied on an automated grade and slope control system specially designed for use with the MINI 500 for height control of the screed’s position. It compares target values with actual values, corrects them if necessary and has a particularly simple and intuitive operating concept. “With the MINI 500, we were able to realize the job easily and efficiently and deliver very precise, high quality results,” says Schmid.