ACCESS 1 - Temporary Aluminium Heavy Duty Roadway Access
Although research continues, to our knowledge none of the suggested alternatives to aluminium temporary roadway can offer the bridging capability and the solid footprint necessary for heavy loads. The specifications and test results give proof to the fact that if there is any doubt about ground conditions assurance only comes from using Access 1.
ACCESS 1 - Background
The test reported here is to determine the load deflection characteristics of ACCESS 1. Since it is not possible to define the "duty cycle" for the panels directly because of the range of support conditions experienced, the test was designed to employ a "worst-case" loading.
What the results graph below shows is the catastrophic failure of the two steel products tested and the continued holding of the ACCESS 1 panel up to loads over 100kN.
Test Setup
Two panels were tested: one longitudinally and one transverse to the direction of the extrusions. The panels were both trimmed to a width of 510mm for testing and were simply supported with a span of 800mm. They were loaded via a 200mm square plate and a rubber pad. The span was chosen arbitrarily but is intended to represent a "worst-case" support. The loading arrangement was designed to represent a lorry tyre. The test setup is shown in the diagram below.
