28
CONSTRUCTION EUROPE
SEPTEMBER 2014
NORDIC REGION
T
he E6 road, at over 3,000km, runs
from the very south of Sweden, along
the west coast of the country, across
Norway and then following the west coast of
Norway to the north of the country – an area
known as Finnmark – until it ends not far from
the Russian border.
It is the main road in Norway running north-
south, and work has been going on for several
years on the 22km stretch to the north of the
capital, Oslo.
In fact, the work has been divided into three
sections – work on the first and third are being
handled by Hæhre Entreprenør, while the
middle section was awarded to a consortium
of Veidekke and Hochtief. The first section,
closest to Oslo, was originally in the hands of
Alpine, the Austrian subsidiary of FCC which
went into voluntary insolvency in 2013.
The projects involve road and rail works,
including tunnels, and according to Roar
Aaserud of Hæhre, one of the challenges has
been to keep the traffic moving throughout
the work – 25,000 cars a day use the existing
road. This has involvedmaking new temporary
roads and bridges, moving the road traffic
onto these so that work can be undertaken on
the final, enlarged four-lane road.
Asserud said that progress depended on
blasting through hard rock. Hæhre is working
closely with local Caterpillar dealer Pon
Equipment, and a Cat 988 wheeled loader
with a 7.1m3 bucket is used following a blast
to shift the debris.
“On a good day,” said Asserud, “we can do
four or five blasts of 350 to 400m
2
each. On a
bad day, we only blast once. The rock decides
how good production is!”
He praised the specialised role of the
wheeled loader drivers, especially in the
tunnels, using a side dump technique, and
operating with only minimal clearance. The
scale of the project can be illustrated by the
fact that 1.8 million m
3
of rock and earth have
been moved on the third section alone, and
this will rise to around 2.1 million m
3
by the
completion of this section.
For some of the drill and blast operation –
which Asserud described as the traditional
way of doing it – Hæhre has been using a Cat
336D LRE with its long reach proving useful
as it reaches easily up to the drill sites in the
rock above. It can then move along to the next
point without having to navigate the steep
slopes. Also, the machine has an unusual extra
function especially developed by Hæhre – it
can be operated by remote control.
For the two Hæhre stretches, there was no
need to purchase rock. All aggregate came
from the project, and for the first section, the
rock was crushed in the line. For the third
section, it was crushed a fewmiles to the north
at Kolomoen, where rock will be provided for a
further stage of the E6, for which tenders will
be sought some time next year.
This recycling of rock also means a shorter
travel time for deliveries.
Hæhre has a large fleet of machines. Pon’s
commercial director, Erik Sollerud, said that
it had embedded two members of its staff
to service and maintain the Cat machines.
Working 12 hour shifts on a 14-days-on/14-
days-off routine, the Pon engineers match the
working pattern of the Hæhre team.
Sollerud said, “The do planned maintenance
and they are on call. As they are on the same
pattern, it works well.”
This method of working with dedicated
service engineers stemmed from a decision
by Pon in 2003 to change its strategy and
become a “solutions provider”.
“We changed the way we behaved,” said
Sollerud.
He said that Pon was sole Cat agent in
Norway, and added, “We accept that Cat is not
the cheapest, but we have seen our market
share grow from 12 or 13%. It is now 21% in
Norway, so that is feedback from the market.
“We can adapt if the customer needs
something. It is about what customers want
and are willing to pay for. There’s no free lunch
but we can work together to develop both
businesses.”
Much of the E6 work currently underway is
due for completion this year. Hæhre’s railway
work is now ready for the line to be laid, and
the tunnels are currently undergoing 60 days
of official tests before they can open.
ce
A major Norwegian
road and rail project
is almost complete.
Sandy Guthrie
visited
the site and found
an innovative link
between dealer and
contractor
Blasting for
road and rail
Running beside the largest
lake in Norway, the widened
E6 is almost ready
Hæhre is using remote control for its drilling
