An MTM/HP at work at a German mega-construction site

Building a ring road in Lower Saxony

Bickhardt Bau has been working in road construction for over 50 years. With more than 2,500 employees, Bickhardt Bau is one of Germany’s largest construction companies. Its headquarters is in Kirchheim/Hessen, in the Assia region.

The head of the company’s Mechanical Engineering Department is also responsible for the machine fleet and buying new machines. “The MTM/HP is our first FAE. We bought it in April 2022 through FAE Central East Europe,” he recalls.

The purchase proved immediately useful, since not long afterwards Bickhardt Bau opened a large road construction site in Lower Saxony at Volpriehausen. “We were hired to build a ring road between Volpriehausen and Bollensen. So, we opened up a pretty imposing construction area. We’re talking about 600,000 square meters,” the company explains. “This site is different because we have to process materials with a lot of rocks that can be as big as 30 cm around, and our classic tillers and soil stabilizers weren’t equipped to handle it, whether on their own or attached to a tractor. They just weren’t capable of reducing the granulometry and withstanding the impact of crushing the rocks.”

What kind of work are you doing?
“Mostly, we’re stabilizing the soil and crushing rocks. Specifically, we have to process and reclaim 180,000 cubic meters of rocky soil, a mix of clay, mud and sandstone, all with a required milling depth of 0.3 meters. We also have exact instructions as to the granulometry of the processed material. The size requested is 0/63 with a max. overage of 5%.” Luckily, the FAE MTM/HP, combined with a Fendt 936 tractor, was up to the challenge. “The FAE has proven functional, efficient, and very versatile. We can crush 0.2 m³ sandstone blocks and — using the same machine — significantly improve the quality of the soil foundation in a rocky area about 80,000 m².”

All of this with a single compact and extremely maneuverable multitask machine that’s easy to transport by road and inside the construction area.

What is its most valuable feature?
“The variable-geometry crushing chamber,” which is excellent for rock crushing. The volume of the chamber increases based on the depth, lowering fuel consumption and increasing operating speed.