Asphalt pavers. History of the asphalt paver.

Asphalt pavers are road-building machines designed specifically for the paving of asphalt surfaces, including the distribution and pre-compaction of the asphalt mixture on the underlying pavement.

Historical background on asphalt pavements:

In the early 18th century, asphalt rocks were discovered in Switzerland near Neuchâtel and later, in 1810, near Zeissel. These rocks, consisting of limestone and sandstone impregnated with bitumen, were originally used to create a mastic for waterproofing.

It was noticed that when the pieces of asphalt rock fell onto the roads during transport, they formed a continuous, homogeneous layer when compacted. This gave rise to the idea of asphalt pavements.

In 1829 a footpath was built in the town of Seysel, after which the first attempts at asphalt pavements were made in the 1830s.

A road builder by the name of Sosseni (Zozzepu) pioneered the creation of asphalt pavements by heating asphalt limestone in boilers at 150-170°C. This heated mixture was then combined with top-full water. This heated mixture was then combined with up to 60% dried river sand. The resulting plastic mixture was applied to the hard stone substrate and compacted by tamping.

World-famous pavements were laid in Paris on the Place de la Concorde and on the terrace of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

In the USA, the first asphalt pavement was laid in 1871 using imported materials from Europe. Later on, local asphalt was used, containing a higher percentage of bitumen, and rock flour and sand were added. Rollers were introduced to compact the hot mix.

Compacted and rolled asphalt pavements began to appear in major cities. For example, 800 metres of such pavements were laid in Paris in 1854, 8 kilometres in 1856, and 230 kilometres in 1860. In London the first pavements appeared in 1869, and in Berlin in 1877.

Systematic construction of improved pavements using "tamped asphalt" began, for which crushed stone from natural asphalt rocks was heated in boilers and compacted by tamping after being laid on a hard stone base.

In 1876 molten asphalt made from petroleum bitumen was introduced to the USA.

In 1892 the first concrete road structure with a width of 3 meters was industrially built in the USA. Twelve years later, a 29-kilometre road was built with a tar mill using free-flowing hot bitumen.

In 1913 the method of 'rolled asphalt', borrowed from the USA, was used for the first time in Europe. The resulting coatings were referred to as 'rolled asphalt'.

The evolution of pavers:

Initially, the construction of asphalt pavements relied predominantly on manual labour. Over time, however, to improve efficiency and productivity