Apparatus and method for continuously removing existing reinforced pavement and simultaneously replacing the same by a new pavement

摘要

A mobile pavement replacement system (MPRS) is provided for forcibly drawing a flexibly-supported, acute-angled wedge under an existing stretch of a predetermined width of reinforced pavement to initiate removal thereof from the ground below. Gravity-assisted impact hammers apply downward blows of a controlled magnitude and at a predetermined rate onto an upper surface of the reinforced pavement, to crack the same across the entire width thereof over the wedge being driven therebelow. The wedge is flexibly supported, with a predetermined amount of elasticity in the up-and-down direction, so that it essentially "floats" and facilitates absorption of the impact forces by the reinforced pavement to be cracked thereby. Cracked reinforced pavement is subjected to further blows by a hammer coacting with a set of bars transverse thereto, to forcibly render a bulk component of the reinforced pavement into small pieces separated from reinforcement material contained therein. The reinforcement material, is now separated from the bulk component, chopped up and delivered in a flow separate from that of the rendered bulk component. The rendered materials are selectively combined with other suitable materials and integrated into a replacement pavement continuously laid in the wake of the moving MPRS.