Sandvik Mining and Construction supply key equipment for the Salalah bypass

Construction work has been undertaken for the last twelve months on a RO 19.5million high way development in Salalah, which is aimed at significantly strengthening road communications in this part of the Oman, in the United Arab Emirates. Thirty two kilometres in length, the Salalah bypass will span the entire length of Salalah City as it runs from Raysut in the east, towards Ayn Razat in the west.

The four lane bypass, which has been built to international all weather standards, possesses important benefits in ensuring the smooth flow of traffic through Salalah city onto the Salalah-Thamrait-Nizwa highway system. Foremost amongst these benefits will be its role in allowing heavy goods vehicles better road facilities that are more suitable for their requirements. This is needed as large volumes of freight traffic are expected to be generated as new investment in the port, free trade zone and industrial estate generate greater industrial capacity in the coming years. Thus, when fully operational in 2011, the bypass will be capable of handling all heavy freight in and out of the port together with the industrial zone at Raysut, thereby easing traffic along the existing Raysut-Salalah road.

Due to the vital importance of the development the construction of the Salalah bypass has been placed on a fast-track footing by the Supreme Committee for Town Planning - an organ of Oman's Ministry of National EconomyMinistry of National Economy . The contract for the RO 19.5 million project was recently awarded to the local construction firm, Oman Building and Contracting Company, with the well known Omani engineering consultancy, National Engineering Office (NEO), being the design consultant for the project.

The Oman Building and Contracting Company LLC are fast becoming a leading light in Omani construction. Since their formation in 2005 they have gone from strength to strength, with now over 110 well trained and professional staff employed. Their success has been based on excellence in all their activities, placing due emphasis not only on the best equipment, professional development of their staff, but a commitment to providing the highest standards of operational health and safety. This commitment to delivering the very best professional service has been recently recognised as "excellent" by the Oman Industries Commerce and Tender Board.

As a company Oman Building and Contracting Company LLC has placed a great deal of emphasis on "excellence" in its operations. To this end, a key feature of the success of the Salalah bypass has been the processing of materials during the construction of the highway with mobile screening and crushing equipment used by the company manufactured by Sandvik Mining and Construction. The Sandvik fleet has been supplied through the Sandvik dealer in the region, Al Fairuz Trading & Contracting Co.

Established as a trading company in the 1972 by Sheikh Salim Suleiman Al Fairuz, today Al Fairuz Trading is considered as one of the largest construction equipment companies in the Sultanate of Oman. With a staff of 150 people in three locations — head office based in Muscat, branch offices at Salalah and Sohar — Al Fairuz provide sales, parts and service facilities at both offices. Additionally, and to highlight the customer focused nature of their operation, full workshop and warehouse facilities are also provided to ensure minimal machine downtime.

A principle reason for the acquisition of the Sandvik machinery was due to the fact that at various locations in the project crushers and screening systems were needed to be used in conjunction in order to produce a range of base materials, and aggregate, for asphalt and civil engineering works from the indigenous materials. The Al Fairuz supplied Sandvik machinery has been found to provide flexibility, mobility and unique reduction rates, thereby making a tremendous contribution to cost reduction through facilitating the processing of any suitable indigenous materials to be found in the vicinity of various road construction segments.

All the Sandvik impact and jaw crushers, together with assorted screens used on the Salalah road construction project, are track mounted, self propelled and diesel hydraulically powered, enabling them to go to the source of any material as quickly as an excavator in order to commence processing immediately. The screens and crushers may be used either individually or in groups, and can be relocated within hours to a new segment of the project thereby combining productivity and flexibility.

One of the impact crushers used is the QI430; this was the first machine developed following Sandvik's acquisition of Fintec and Extec. Appropriately, this unit combines Fintec's and Extec's expertise in the design of track-mounted mobile crushers, with Sandvik's proven ability to manufacture durable and highly productive impact crushers. Powered by a fuel efficient 330 kW C-13 Tier 3 compliant diesel engine, the Sandvik QI430 is carried on a maneuverable tracked undercarriage and incorporates a Sandvik CI322 impactor with a fluid clutch drive. Fed via a two deck pre-screen, the crusher is a four hammer open style rotor with a diameter of 1,150mm, and a width of 1,330mm that discharges onto a secondary pan feeder. The plant is also equipped with a primary feeder and a separate two deck pre-screen.

Building upon the highly advanced features of the world famous Sandvik Doublescreens the screener used in the project is the QA450, which introduces a triple deck screen box, with an extra side conveyor, enabling it to produce up to a total of four product materials plus one oversize from the tipping grid. Designed for maximum productivity combined with accurate product sizing, the QA450 incorporates a large feed hopper, a pair of large screen boxes and extended conveyors that afford massive stockpiling capabilities. The screen box in the QA450 makes use of the tried and tested Doublescreen design, but now with a unique triple deck design cementing Sandvik's position as a true world leader in mobile screening technology.

The material being processed is known as "wadi-gravel", which consists of a mixture of limestone and basalt. The material possesses a feed size of 0-500mm, with the QI430 and the QA450 being used as a crushing and screening train to produce: 0-5mm, 5-12mm, and 12-22mm gradings. These two highly productive pieces of equipment are currently working two ten hour shifts each day, averaging an impressive production of 250tph over the last twelve months.

In order to enhance the flexibility of the screening and crushing operation a third machine is used to produce a 0-50mm grading - the Sandvik QI340 with product recirculation system. This is a large heavy duty tracked crusher incorporating the definitive Sandvik impact crusher; the QI340 combines the revolutionary mobility, power and design of Sandvik with productivity at its core. This ensures that the QI340 is the ideal machine for contractors and quarry operators who require a very high throughput machine, capable of producing a high quality end product.

To date the Sandvik machinery has proved equal to the task in processing the material, working twenty hour days. The combination of state of the art Sandvik manufacturing, together with high levels of aftermarket support from Al Fairuz, will ensure that the Salalah bypass is completed on time, and with materials of the highest quality.

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