Wednesday, 25 May 2016

High Friction Surfacing Gives Your Pavements The Skid Resistance You Need

By Margaret Murphy


A form of surface treatment can be performed on pavements using a type that is usually tough, abrasion and polish resistant aggregates. The material is bonded to the pavement surfaces using resin. This kind of surface treatment is applied either hot or cold and has found its usage across the globe. The anti-skid surfaces are achieved through high friction surfacing. Usually, it is used to create skid resistance and reduce braking distance.

The ability to reduce braking distance has the potential to lower accidents. This anti-skid treatment can be put at various points on the road such as road junctions, pedestrian crossings, and roundabouts, near traffic lights and on road stretches with higher accident rates. Development in various resins used to bind the aggregate to the surface has improved durability and performance. By adding this kind of treatment on the road services saves lives as well as money.

Apart from enhancing skid resistance on road surfaces, it can be used for traffic calming, lane delineating, decorative reasons and for bike paths. Surfacing can be made through either cold or hot application. The hot enforced binds the material onto the surface by adhesion because of the heat application as the cold applied get attached on the road surface by chemical bond.

The ant-skidding properties make this form of treatment on road surfaces desirable in certain areas. Some of the areas commonly used are such as ramps and horizontal curves, steep grades, intersection approaches, bus stop points, bridge decks and pavement surfaces prone to icing. These areas often demand higher friction, making anti-skidding treatment ideal for such areas thereby reducing accident rates significantly. This is because the aggregate material used is made in such a way that it can attain high resistance to abrasion by vehicle tires. It is also resistant to polishing or becoming smooth.

Before applying the coating of these abrasive resistant materials, different precautions should be observed in order to attain quality adhesion. First, pavements need to be in perfect condition without scaling and cracking. Open graded surfaces can no more act as open rated after installation. Double layer application might be required in order to attain enough thickness for binding.

Another requirement is that the surfaces need to be clean and dry during the application. Concrete surfaces should be shot-blast prior to the application in order to get the best adhesion. Also, the surfaces should not have impurities such as grease, oil and such.

Once the material is installed, the excess should be taken away from the new surface way before opening the road to the traffic. It can be done effectively by a power bloom, then compressed with air. Additional sweeping can also be done over the next few days to get rid of the loose stones.

Installations of the anti-skidding materials have many advantages not only being skid resistance. Unlike placing and removing the existing pavement, installation of aggregated materials are not expensive undertakings. They can also be performed on nearly any type of pavements and they can be done on short road closures say 4 and 6 hours.




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