Frankfurt/Hahn Airport, which was commissioned as a civilian airport in 1993, is not only one of the fastest growing German airports but also the fourth largest cargo airport in Germany. This is why work on the B50 (the most important feeder road to Hahn) is of such significance. The company of Beitz-Fräsdienstleistungen from Alzey was contracted to carry out preliminary work on a 4.6-mile section of the B50 which was due to be widened and upgraded from two lanes to a four-lane "motorway". The work was estimated to take a week, but BOMAG BM 2000/60 cold planers finished the job long before then.

A three-stage method

As a whole, the job comprised three different stages: First, Beitz removed 1.5 inches of asphalt surface over 4.6 miles of the B50 roadway. A total of 180 truck loads were required to haul away the 5,000 tons of material.  

The second stage involved the additional removal of about 1,500 tons of binder and base layers covering 48,000 square feet to improve weak points in the road structure. This required another 55 truck loads to haul away. And finally, 12 inches of binder and base layers were removed from 500 linear feet in front of bridges, producing another 770 tons of material and requiring another 28 truck loads. Altogether, a total of 7,220 tons of material were removed from the project area, either selectively or en masse.