At the turn of the 21st century Russia faced the burning issue of the lack of modern roads. Residents of megalopolises fell into a transport trap in the first place. The country is choking in traffic jams. We went to one of the sections of the federal highway M4 "Don" on the approach road to Krasnodar. Here the first traffic jams meet the holiday-makers traveling to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.

The four-lane motor road of the federal highway narrows down to three lanes near the stanitsas Plastunovskay and Dinskay and the motor-car tourists from all Russia flow into the local traffic stream. However the traffic capacity of the road planned at the time of the USSR is not sufficient now. An open joint-stock company “Donaerodorstroy”, the biggest construction association of the South of Russia founded in far 1956, is reconstructing the road. It is really difficult to build roads.

We managed to track a full cycle of a roadbed production, from putting the crushed rock in the bunker of an asphalt concrete plant till the paving of a roadbed of the future highway with the hot mix asphalt concrete (HMAC). Being the largest player at the market, an open joint-stock company “Donaerodorstroy” possesses 10 stationary and mobile asphalt concrete plants, 5 concrete production plants, bitumen storage tanks and its own approach line. We visited one of the construction bases of the enterprise which is situated in stanitsa Dinskay, in immediate proximity to the construction site. Asphalt concrete is produced in several stages.

The process begins with the processing of aggregate. Crushed stone and sand is loaded into the bunker where it is divided into fractions of different size. Then the technology requires that the mix is dried in a drum where high temperatures help to extract moisture that can impair the durability of the future asphalt concrete. At one time with the drying of solid materials the bitumen in tanks is heated. At the following stage of production all the components are mixed up in a separate bunker: crushed stone, sand, mineral agent and bitumen. It is very important to observe the proportion in asphalt production as the quality of the future road depends on it.

After the mixing, hot asphalt gets into the discharge bunker. There comes the time of dump trucks. The main force of the motor convoy of an open joint-stock company “Donaerodorstroy” is represented by 80 Volvo FMX trucks. After the hot asphalt mix is loaded into the dump trucks it is transported to the place of paving. It is extremely important to keep it of the required temperature not to disrupt the technology. The asphalt concrete paving is one of the final stages of road construction. However, huge work has been carried out before. The road project starts with the geological examination resulting in a road design and finishes with the agreements to construct bridges and roundabouts.

The road building begins with the bottom layer – one of the elements of the road dressing. It is necessary to level and compact the soil, to lay “the cushion” from sand and crushed rock. Thousands of tons of aggregate are transported. Above the layer of mineral concrete the geological grid is put. This is a kind of stabilizing element that consolidates the roadbed and prevents it from cracking and wheel tracking.

The last stage of construction of a roadbed is asphalt concrete paving with the observance of standards and quality control. At this stage a well co-ordinated work of dump trucks, asphalt pavers and road-rollers is especially important. The result of work of the huge team takes its final shape. Spending time in traffic jams is not the best pastime, especially on the way to the soft sea. But sometimes we simply have no choice.

We are happy to inform the holiday-makers that in summer 2015 the situation on the road section from Krasnodar to stanitsa Plastunovskay will considerably change and the cars will quickly pass one more section of the road. "Donaerodorstroy" is making your way to the sea even shorter.