Unimog implement carrier: Efficient on field and road

National motorway 24, junction Gudow. Anyone who wanted to travel the shortest distance from Hamburg to Berlin back in 1990 had to cross the border between former West and East Germany here. At the end of 2013, the traffic between the two biggest cities of the Federal Republic of Germany again has to overcome a bottleneck, albeit only a temporary one, at almost exactly the same spot. The motorway is being redeveloped on a five kilometre section: new subsurface, new concrete top surface – and new embankments. Almost all roads outside built-up areas in Germany have these roadside verges made of compacted material such as sand and crushed stones.

Embankment landscaping is a pretty complex procedure. Road construction offices officially stipulate the exact width of the embankments, their height in relation to the upper surface of the road and their angle of inclination. They also specify the degree to which the material must be compacted during landscaping. The figures can vary from office to office. The compaction ensures, that the road is not washed out and eroded. “The examination of material samples show whether we comply with the required level of compaction,” explains Achim Rosinsky, owner of Rosinsky Dienstleistungs GmbH, on a wet and windy Friday morning on the closed section of the A24 near Gudow on the Hamburg-bound side.

The firm from the vicinity of Celle with a workforce of 60 employees was awarded the embankment landscaping contract. “This is a task that we often carry out nationwide,” says Rosinsky. Parallel to the central traffic barrier, a Unimog U 500 pushes the tipper ahead of it at a walking pace. Through an embankment landscaping attachment mounted at the front of the Unimog the material poured by the tipper is channelled precisely into the roadside verge.

The reason for the meeting with Achim Rosinsky rolls behind this “tandem”: a Euro VI U 423 of the new generation with a power output of 170 kW and a short wheelbase. “This is its first assignment.” The task for the manoeuvrable implement carrier: to tightly pack down (tamp) the material. The heavy compactor front attachment with its solid steel plate serves this purpose. At the rear, the Unimog has a broom attachment with a long extension support for cleaning the road’s surface in one and the same working sequence.

For over ten years Rosinsky has been using the Mercedes-Benz Special Truck all-rounder. In his current fleet of about 100 vehicles, from the wheel loader to the new Actros, the U 423 is Unimog number eleven. Number twelve has been ordered: a new U 530, which, with 220 kW, is the most powerful implement carrier of all time. For Rosinsky, the decisive reasons for buying the two vehicles were the new 4- and 6-cylinder engines, which comply with Euro VI and yet require up to three per cent less fuel. “We had an invitation to tender that expressly called for Euro VI,” says the managing director, who believes that this will be the case more frequently in future.

The 37-year-old also has high expectations when it comes to the new, optional synergetic drive system EasyDrive. At speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour it enables a switch between the driving and the steplessly adjustable working modes while the vehicle is on the move. “The vehicle is now operated via the steering column lever, which is a bit unfamiliar for the drivers – but they get used to it quickly!”

In addition to the building and maintenance of embankments, Rosinsky also does mowing work and puts up game protection fencing along the motorway. “We take on everything that is carried out on the roadside,” says the managing director. “On the A3 in the Würzburg region, for example, we’ve just filled in asphalt on roadside verges in the so-called three-layer process. We have to work at very specific temperatures here and compact immediately.”

The company was founded by Achim Rosinsky’s father as a winter maintenance business in 1985. Clearing away snow and gritting still play an important role. The fleet operates throughout Lower Saxony as well as in Hamburg and Magdeburg. “Our service combination of various roadside jobs and winter maintenance makes us pretty unique in Germany.”