Repaving China's most famous street

Volvo road machinery has played a major part in resurfacing Chang'an Avenue, Beijing's giant 10-lane road that runs across Tiananmen Square.

The heart of Beijing underwent a complete makeover in time to host one of the biggest celebrations in China’s history. Late last year, the country marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with a national public holiday and a mass military parade through Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue.

An army of Volvo road machines hosted their own nocturnal parade on the 600-year-old cultural and political hub, which serves as Beijing’s main traffic route and runs across the world’s largest public piazza – Tiananmen Square. A 26km (16 mile) stretch of the 40m (131ft) wide, 40.4km (25 mile) long Chang’an Avenue was closed for repaving every night between 11pm and 6am for six months. Volvo Construction Equipment played an integral part in the 4 billion RMB ($585 million) road project, having been selected almost exclusively to provide the road machinery to complete the work.

Crowned ‘the first avenue in China’, Chang’an is one of the world’s longest and widest streets. The avenue, whose name can be literally translated as ‘eternal peace’, is rich in history, which can be traced back as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when it was paved for the imperial palace (being built at the time). It is flanked by two of China’s most famous landmarks – The Forbidden City and the vast Tiananmen Square. Measuring 440,000m² (0.17sq.miles) or about 63 football pitches, Tiananmen Square is visited by more than eight million people a year. This is the fourth time since 1978 that Chang’an Avenue has been repaved, but its most recent facelift is the most thorough and the renovations are set to add a more cultural and pedestrian-friendly appeal.

Planning for the Chang’an Avenue facelift started in 2007. Three contractors were commissioned to undertake the repaving: Beijing No.1 Urban Construction Company, Beijing Urban Construction Road & Bridge Company, and Beijing Xin Wang Road & Bridge Company.

Volvo were selected as the major road machinery supplier for the project because of their longstanding relationship with the contractors.

While the road was closed for seven hours each night during construction, the actual paving time was only three hours – between 1am and 4am. The first two hours were spent preparing the site and milling machines were used to prepare the surface of the existing worn road. Compaction work was performed during the last two hours. Often, three pavers would work simultaneously to resurface one side of the road in order to make the most of the time. Two new 40mm (1.5in) layers of asphalt were laid over the original surface to make it durable enough to withstand military tanks and heavy vehicles used during the national parade.

Two special asphalt materials were used for the lower layer – SBS-modified asphalt and PR asphalt – to provide a solid foundation, while stone mastic asphalt was used for the top layer.

During the paving and compaction process, 18 tracked pavers were used – three of which were Volvo’s new ABG 8820 models. And of the 33 compactors used, most bore the Volvo brand. One third of the machines were rented and two thirds were purchased from the local Volvo dealer. The oldest machine onsite was a six-year-old ABG paver.

For the lower layer of asphalt laid, the machines paved between 300m (984ft) and 400m (1,312ft) per day and for the wearing course, it was possible to pave between 500m (1,640ft) to 800m (2,625ft) per day in the three hours available. Volvo Construction Equipment dealer staff were onsite every night to service the machines in case there were any breakdowns.

Prior to construction starting, dealer technicians visited each contractor to check the pavers and compactors and conduct any necessary maintenance.