Understanding the Complete Road Laying Process
Building or rehabilitating a road is not a single operation — it is a precisely sequenced workflow involving multiple specialised machines, each responsible for a distinct phase. Get the sequence wrong, use the wrong machine, or skip a stage, and the finished surface will fail prematurely under traffic and thermal stress.
At Genavco, our engineers have supported road construction contracts across the UAE for over four decades, supplying and servicing Vogele road pavers, Wirtgen cold milling machines, and Benninghoven asphalt mixing plants on projects ranging from Dubai Expo infrastructure to Abu Dhabi highway widening schemes. This guide maps the full workflow and helps you identify which equipment belongs at each stage — and why.
The core stages of any asphalt road project are: subgrade preparation, asphalt mix production, milling of existing surfaces (rehabilitation projects), paving of new asphalt layers, and compaction. Each stage demands the right machine with the right specification, operated by trained personnel following approved mix and paving protocols.
Asphalt Mixing Plant: Producing Quality Bituminous Mix
Benninghoven Asphalt Plant: Batch & Drum Mix Options
Before a single tonne of asphalt can be laid, it must be produced to a precise recipe at an asphalt mixing plant. The plant heats and dries aggregate, doses bitumen and filler at exact proportions, and delivers homogeneous bituminous mix at temperatures between 150°C and 180°C for conventional hot mix asphalt.
Benninghoven — a Wirtgen Group brand distributed exclusively in the UAE by Genavco — manufactures two main plant types. Batch mix plants produce discrete batches of exact weight and composition, making them ideal for projects requiring frequent mix design changes or premium surface course production. Drum mix plants (continuous mix) produce asphalt in a single continuous process with lower capital cost and higher sustained output, suited to large highway projects where a single mix design runs for extended periods. Benninghoven TBA series batch plants range from 80 t/h to 400 t/h; the BA series drum plants offer outputs from 100 t/h to 320 t/h.
All Benninghoven plants feature RAP (Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement) integration, allowing up to 70% recycled material in the mix — a significant cost and sustainability advantage for UAE road authorities prioritising circular construction practices.
Asphalt Mix Design: What Affects Road Durability?
The durability of a finished road surface is determined primarily by mix design quality. Key variables include aggregate gradation and shape, bitumen grade and content, air void percentage in the compacted mat, and mixing temperature. In the UAE, where summer pavement temperatures routinely exceed 60°C, modified bitumen (PMB) with polymer additives is standard for surface course mixes to resist rutting and shoving under heavy slow-moving traffic.
Under-temperature mixing, incorrect bitumen content, or contaminated aggregate will produce a mix that strips, ravels, or deforms regardless of how well it is laid and compacted. Benninghoven’s digital plant control systems — with real-time aggregate moisture compensation and bitumen dosing accuracy of ±0.1% — eliminate the most common sources of mix quality variation.
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Asphalt Milling: Removing Old Road Surface Efficiently
Cold Milling Machine: How It Strips Old Asphalt
Cold milling (also called cold planing or scarifying) uses a rotating drum fitted with carbide-tipped cutting tools to remove existing asphalt or concrete pavement to a precise depth. The milled material — known as RAP (Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement) — is conveyed directly onto trucks running alongside the machine and transported to an asphalt plant for recycling.
Wirtgen cold milling machines — the global benchmark in this category, supplied in the UAE by Genavco — are available in three working widths: small half-lane mills (0.5–1.0 m) for localised patching and utility reinstatement, mid-size machines (1.0–2.0 m) for lane-by-lane rehabilitation, and large milling trains (up to 4.4 m working width) for full-carriageway removal on major highway contracts. Milling depth ranges from surface dressing removal (20 mm) down to full structural depth (330+ mm) in a single pass.
The Wirtgen LEVEL PRO automatic levelling system maintains milling depth accuracy to ±1 mm across the full working width, ensuring a consistent profile for the new overlay. This precision eliminates the thickness variation that causes reflective cracking in the new surface layer.
Road Recycling: Reusing Milled Material On-Site
In-place cold recycling takes road rehabilitation efficiency a step further. Rather than milling and hauling RAP to a central plant, Wirtgen cold recyclers — the largest of which process a full lane width in a single pass — break up existing pavement, blend it with foamed bitumen or bitumen emulsion and cement, and re-lay it as a stabilised base layer in a single machine pass. This eliminates truck movements for material removal and new base material delivery, cutting project duration and carbon footprint substantially.
For UAE road authorities managing large rehabilitation programmes, in-place recycling can reduce base course costs by 30–40% compared to conventional mill-and-replace methods, while delivering a base layer with improved structural performance.
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Planning a road rehabilitation or new construction project in the UAE? Genavco’s road equipment specialists will audit your project requirements and recommend the right Wirtgen, Vogele, or Benninghoven equipment package. Contact us today for a free consultation at genavco.com.
Laying Fresh Asphalt: Road Pavers in Action
Vogele Road Paver: Screed, Thickness & Speed
Once the base or binder course is prepared, the road paver takes centre stage. A Vogele asphalt paver receives hot mix from trucks, distributes it evenly across the paving width via an auger system, and strikes it off to the specified thickness and cross-fall using a heated, tamper-assisted screed. The screed pre-compacts the mat to approximately 85–90% final density before the roller train completes compaction.
Vogele (Wirtgen Group) road pavers available through Genavco span wheeled and tracked configurations from 2.5 m to 16 m paving width. The SUPER series — Genavco’s most popular range for UAE highway and urban road contracts — features the ErgoPlus 3 operator interface with automatic layer thickness control, longitudinal and transverse slope regulation, and WITOS paving data management for quality documentation.
Paving speed is governed by the rate of asphalt delivery and the required mat quality, not the paver’s maximum capability. Best practice on UAE projects is a continuous, uninterrupted paving operation at 3–6 m/min, eliminating stop marks (roller marks at the point where the paver pauses) which are a common cause of premature surface failure. Genavco’s applications team trains paver operators and site supervisors on paving logistics to achieve this standard.
Slipform Paver for Concrete Road Projects
Where concrete pavement is specified — typically for heavily loaded industrial roads, airport aprons, or port hardstandings — Wirtgen slipform pavers extrude kerb, channel, barrier wall, or full-width concrete slab in a continuous operation without fixed formwork. The SP 25i and SP 64 series cover pavement widths from 1.0 m to 16 m, with automatic string-line or 3D machine control guidance for sub-millimetre elevation accuracy. Genavco supplies and supports Wirtgen slipform equipment for UAE concrete pavement projects on enquiry.
Asphalt Plant + Milling Machine + Paver: The Full Workflow
Understanding how these three equipment categories interlock is essential for efficient project planning. A typical UAE asphalt resurfacing project follows this sequence:
- Milling: Wirtgen cold milling machine removes existing surface course (typically 40–60 mm) at 500–1,500 m²/hour depending on machine size and depth.
- Tack coat: Bitumen emulsion sprayer applies adhesion layer to milled surface at 0.2–0.4 l/m².
- Mix production: Benninghoven plant produces surface course mix to approved JMF; mix is loaded directly into trucks at the plant.
- Paving: Vogele paver lays new asphalt at specified thickness (typically 40–60 mm surface course), continuously supplied by truck.
- Compaction: Tandem and pneumatic tyre rollers achieve final density target (?97% Marshall or ?92% Theoretical Maximum Density).
- RAP recycling: Milled material collected during Step 1 is processed at the Benninghoven plant as recycled aggregate in subsequent mixes, reducing virgin material cost.
Coordinating milling output, plant production rate, truck fleet size, and paving speed is the critical logistics challenge. Genavco’s project support team assists contractors in matching equipment capacities to avoid costly downtime at any stage of the workflow.
Vogele, Wirtgen & Benninghoven at Genavco UAE
Genavco is the sole authorised dealer for Wirtgen Group road construction equipment in the UAE — covering Vogele pavers, Wirtgen milling machines and recyclers, Benninghoven asphalt plants, Hamm compaction rollers, and Kleemann crushing plants. This means UAE road contractors have a single point of contact for the complete road construction machine portfolio, with:
- UAE parts warehouse stocked with fast-moving consumables: cutting tools, screed plates, conveyor components, burner parts
- Factory-trained service engineers based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with rapid deployment across all seven Emirates
- Operator training programmes: paver operation, milling machine setup, plant quality control
- OEM warranty support and access to Wirtgen Group’s global technical helpdesk
Whether you are tendering for a new highway contract, rehabilitating an urban arterial road, or setting up a new asphalt production facility, Genavco’s road equipment specialists are ready to support from equipment selection through to project completion.
Speak to a Genavco road equipment specialist today. We’ll help you select the right Vogele, Wirtgen, or Benninghoven machine for your project, arrange a demonstration, and provide a competitive UAE quotation. Visit genavco.com or call our Dubai sales desk.
Frequently Asked Questions About Road Laying Equipment
What is the difference between a road paver and an asphalt milling machine?
A road paver lays new asphalt material onto a prepared surface, building up new road layers. An asphalt milling machine (cold planer) removes existing pavement to a controlled depth. The two machines perform opposite functions in a road rehabilitation project: the milling machine removes the old surface, and the paver installs the replacement.
How deep can a cold milling machine remove asphalt?
Wirtgen cold milling machines can remove asphalt or concrete to depths ranging from 5 mm (surface dressing removal) up to 350 mm (full structural depth) depending on the machine model. Most single-pass highway resurfacing jobs involve milling depths of 40–80 mm to remove the worn surface course while retaining the underlying binder and base courses.
What asphalt plant output do I need for a highway paving project?
A Vogele paver operating at 5 m/min on a 7.5 m carriageway at 60 mm thickness consumes approximately 130 tonnes per hour of asphalt mix. A Benninghoven plant producing 160 t/h allows continuous paving with a modest truck fleet as buffer. Genavco’s applications engineers calculate the correct plant-paver-truck balance for your specific project parameters at no charge.
Conclusion
Selecting the right road construction equipment — and understanding how each machine fits into the broader workflow — is the difference between a road that lasts its full design life and one that requires repeated maintenance intervention. The Wirtgen Group portfolio of Vogele pavers, Wirtgen milling machines, and Benninghoven asphalt plants represents the global standard in road construction technology, and Genavco delivers that technology to UAE road contractors with full local support.
From a single cold milling machine for an urban patching contract to a complete asphalt production and paving package for a major highway scheme, Genavco has the equipment, expertise, and after-sales infrastructure to keep your project on programme.
Ready to equip your road construction project? Contact Genavco for expert equipment advice, a UAE-competitive quotation, spare parts availability check, or an on-site demonstration. UAE’s authorised Wirtgen Group dealer.
