Durban (South Africa): one of the busiest ports in Africa. From here, containers and goods from all over the world connect via road networks to industrial centres throughout the southern region. One of the main transport arteries is the Solomon Mahlangu Highway. This highway was designed for a load of one million vehicles per year in each direction. Due to continuous heavy traffic, the surface began to crack and deteriorate. Voids were found 800 mm below the concrete surface. In addition, the bitumen layer between the original road slab and the later concrete slab was deteriorating due to water ingress.

Tasks
Uretek was asked to strengthen and stabilise approximately 49,000 square metres of concrete slabs in the westbound direction. The restoration work had to be completed within five months.

Technologies applied:
A combination of Uretek Slab Lifting and Deep Injection technologies was used from the beginning to the end of the project. As a result of the work, voids 800 mm below the surface were filled, and at the same time the deteriorated bitumen layer between the two concrete slabs was strengthened.

After repeated tests, it was established that the Uretek project had been successfully implemented. The service life of the existing road slabs was significantly extended, avoiding the need to reconstruct the entire section of concrete road with large‑scale traffic closures, despite the continuing deterioration of the structures. In just 77 working days, 48,568 square metres of road slabs were stabilised. Due to cost savings, the customer decided to also use Uretek to stabilise the concrete road slabs on the nearby Inanda Road after completion of the initial contract and to continue in the eastbound direction on the Solomon Mahlangu Highway in the near future.