Road construction is one of the most promising and innovative applications for cast-in-situ foam concrete. At the moment SOVBI Holding is developing the Standard for use of foam concrete in road construction. Use of SOVBI foam concrete is particularly advisable in regions based on soils with low bearing capacity. Such soils tend to swell in winter, being in dampened state, and subside in spring. Heaving is also caused by high ground water level, outcropping of ground water on slopes, and sudden air temperature drops. As for the city mains, the problem of unfavorable soils is worsened by the extensive utility network that has a negative impact on the water-and-thermal processes in water subgrades.

  

   Apart from the adequate strength, road construction requires appropriate frost resistance of the road dressing and the earth bed. This leads to the increase in road dressing thickness and consequently, to higher construction costs.

 

   SOVBI technologies are meant to solve the above-mentioned problems.

 

   SOVBI mobile plants allow to produce foam concrete of various densities even in winter with temperatures up to -25 ⁰С, may be operated by 1-2 semiskilled workmen and occupy no more than 8 m² of construction site.

 

SOVBI technologies enable the following:

 

- to avoid using chip stone, which is particularly important in regions with unfavorable conditions for its delivery to the construction site;

 

- to enhance frost resistance and bearing capacity of the sub-base by forming a plate and through absorption of horizontal stresses occurring in the base, which provides for reduction in the thickness of the sub-base;

 

- to form a monolithic SOVBI plate with required bending strength;

 

- to uniformly distribute the load and reduce the destructive effect on the surface courses and sub-courses of the road dressing earth bed;

 

- to prevent depression of loose materials through the soft rock or water-logged base;

 

- contrary to conventional loose materials for the road base, there is no need for heavy vibration and compaction equipment;

 

- to restrict or fully prevent frigidness of the earth bed sub-base;

 

- to reduce materials consumption for road dressing through the use of non-conventional structures and, therefore, to reduce expenses on conventional construction materials: sand, chip stone, gravel;

 

- to reduce delivery transportation costs;

 

- to reduce labor costs for road construction;

 

- to reduce maintenance and routine repair costs;

 

- to use local soils and road-construction materials;

 

- to use environmentally safe and noncombustible material;

 

- to exclude excavation and replacement of heaving soil;

 

- to exclude working of gravel pits and costs of their recultivation;

 

- to considerably enhance operational reliability and service life of road surfaces;

 

- to drastically reduce the labor content and the amount of road machinery involved;

- to considerably reduce construction costs and construction time;

 

- to fill in the space between soil and tunnel members for construction of underground tunnels;

 

- to pour in the cavities resulting from road repair works;

 

- to enhance production standards and achieve higher levels of construction workmanship.

 

   In collaboration with government experts it was suggested that chip stone used in the road dressing structure shall be substituted with fiber foam concrete. The proposal for use of SOVBI technology in the test field was approved at technical interchange meeting held at the Road Committee of the Leningrad Region, Russia.

 

   Municipal authorities have adopted the use of foam concrete under SOVBI technology in the project for reconstruction of one of St. Petersburg streets.

 

   The issue of ash foam concrete use for heat shielding of roads and trunk pipelines has been currently under consideration within the framework of the agreement with a major Russian energy company.

 

   SOVBI technology is applicable for construction of both trunk roads and local approach roads, parking areas, garden paths, etc.

 

   Apart from sale of equipment, we provide training in operation of the same. The equipment package includes standard drawings manual, guidelines for specific work types, certificates, test reports and other kinds of technical documentation.