The History of Paving
3000 BC
 Minoans build roads from segmental units. |
620 BC:
The first bitumen-set brick pavers are used in Babylon for roading.
500 BC: The Persian Royal Road of about 2500km is completed, running from Turkey to the Persian Gulf.
AD200
 Romans complete 85,000km of main roads from Newcastle, England to Damascus, in Syria using segmental stone paving. |
1750: Englishman John Metcalf builds 240km of highways, mainly in Lancashire and Cheshire.
1870: Clay pavers make their first appearance on the streets of North America.
Late 1800s: The first concrete pavers appear in Germany.
1926:
The US Bureau of Roads test the strength of paving for roading.
1936: The first experimental road is built with concrete pavers at Neuss, in Germany.
1951: The first concrete pavers are produced in The Netherlands as a substitute for clay units.
1952
 Pavers shaped like dog-bones are introduced in The Netherlands. |
1964: Germany produces the first product standard for concrete pavers.
1966: The Netherlands follows suit.
1970s: Machines start to produce pavers.
1972
Canada introduces a product standard for precast concrete paving slabs. (It was revised in 1999). |
1972:
The first European-made paving machine lands in the United States.
1973: North America gets its first paving manufacturer: KNR Concrete in Toronto.
1980: A watershed year: the first international conference on concrete block paving, held in Newcastle, England. Future conferences are held in The Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Israel, and Columbia. The basis of much of the written knowledge about paving has arisen from these conferences.
1982: Pavers make their mark on big industrial sites, as their strength and longevity is recognised. The first big project: a coal terminal in Virginia, the second a container yard in Edmonton, Canada.
1983
Concrete pavers are used for the first time on an airfield (in Luton, England). |
1988
 US concrete paver production reaches 8 million square metres, thanks to the growth of the residential market. |
1985
First mechanically installed street in Dayton, Ohio. |
1992
Pavers are used for the first time at a North American airport (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport). |
1993: The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute is formed in North America.
1998
400,000 square metres of paving is laid at Hong Kong's new international airport. |
2000: The 5000th anniversary of segmental paving.
|
Industry News
Granite miners protest shipping disruption
March 28, 2007
An association comprising granite miners from the Riau area of Indonesia is going to the country's Trade Ministry for support as shipments to nearby Singapore continue to be disrupted.
Some 20 barges with thousands of tonnes of granite from the Riau islands have been detained following the banning of sand exports to the neighbouring country in early February.
The barges were detained by the Indonesia navy on suspicion that black-market sand was being smuggled beneath the layers of granite.
Authorities also allege that crew were unable to produce some vessel and crew documents.
A representative of the association says the suggestion that the barges were involved in sand-smuggling is clearly unfounded, saying anything beneath the shipment is simply dust from the granite shipment.
Sand exports to Singapore have been barred since early February because of concerns over damage caused by sand mining.
The price of granite has doubled in Singapore since the trouble began.
Subscribe to our newsletter
|
|
