The Airbus A380 will land at Amsterdam’s International Airport Schiphol on a regular basis very soon. Between touchdown and takeoff, the world’s largest passenger aircraft will taxi and park on brand new concrete pavements in front of the terminal. Dutch contractor Reef Infra B.V. built the new, suitably large and stable parking and traffic areas in summer 2006 and spring 2007, using a Wirtgen slipform paver SP 1600. A special characteristic: Reef Infra B.V. did not use stringlines for levelling, but relied instead on the numerous benefits offered by wireless control.

Daily production exceeds 2,000 cubic metres

Altogether, the SP 1600 placed a total of 31,500 m³ of B 55 grade concrete for the new parking areas. During the second construction phase in spring 2007, a total surface of 27,000 m² was built in just 5 days: 6 sections of 450 m length, 10 m width and 42 cm thickness each, corresponding to a paving volume of some 2,000 m³ per day. “We were able to achieve such high daily production rates because the Wirtgen slipform paver worked non-stop and with maximum precision”, explains Site Manager Tom Steenhagen.

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