Wolfswinkel Cleaning prepares A10 for new sustainable asphalt

Last summer, construction company BAM Infra Nederland carried out major maintenance on the Zeeburger bridges on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat. This involved replacing the joints and renewing the asphalt. An essential part of the work was cleaning before and after asphalting. For this, the sweepers and road surface cleaners of Wolfswinkel Reiniging came into action.

To put new asphalt on the road surface of the Zeeburg bridges, the old asphalt must first be removed. And that means a lot of demolition and milling work. Once the old layer is removed, debris must be cleared. And once the new layer of asphalt is in place, it is cleaned before any traffic can drive over it at all. Precisely the moments when Wolfswinkel Reiniging's roller broom trucks and road surface cleaners with water trucks come into action. "We do infrastructure cleaning in the broadest sense of the word. Thanks to our versatile and extensive machinery, we can carry out large infrastructure projects completely under our own management," said director-owner Wim van Wolfswinkel. The major maintenance of the Zeeburg bridges is a striking example of this. "Looking at the work on the A10, we used our sweeping machines with roller broom to sweep everything after asphalt milling. In fact, several lanes were milled side by side where the waste is rolled over, so to speak, and we only had to vacuum up the waste on the last lane. We removed the last layer of dust with our road surface cleaner. When applying the asphalt, you also always have a bit of run-off from the asphalt at the beginning and end. We removed and cleaned this as well. When necessary, we dry the new asphalt so that the new lines can be applied."

Reuse of water

Cleaning asphalt uses a lot of water. But at Wolfswinkel, they've given this a lot of thought. "Yes, our machines use a lot of water. For this water, however, we use rainwater that we collect in a special buffer cellar at our Maarsbergen location. And the wastewater and sweeping waste we take in our machines from projects, we process on our own site for reuse."

Collaboration as partnership

Wolfswinkel Reiniging works closely with BAM on various projects. In addition to the major maintenance of the Zeeburg bridges, they work together within the Integral Major Maintenance East project and the Integral Daily Management and Maintenance (DBO) North and South Holland contract, among others. "Previously, most of the work took place at night and weekends. Given the amount of road work, the pressure is high and more work needs to be done during the week. We are also working towards this together, partly for the sake of the safety of the people working on the road. Therefore, we are also striving to work more systematically with all parties involved to make this possible more often." Wim is very pleased with the cooperation with BAM. "Whereas previously the emphasis was mainly on just executing the job, today we are increasingly working together as partners where we look together at how to do our work well and safely."