Wednesday, May 25, 2016

High Friction Surfacing Gives Your Pavements The Skid Resistance You Need

By Margaret Murphy


Pavements can be accorded a surface treatment system composed of a material that is tough, polish and abrasion resistant aggregates and they are bonded to the surface using a resin. This form of surface treatment can either be hot or cold applied and has been used across the globe. These anti-skid surfaces can be achieved through treatment systems known as high friction surfacing. Basically, it is used so as to add skid resistance and lower the braking distance.

The ability to cut down on the braking distance has the potential of lowering accidents. The anti-skid material can be applied at different points on the pavements. These points may include pedestrian crossing, road junctions, approaches to traffic lights, roundabouts as well as road stretches where accidents are prevalent. On the other hand, development of various resins which are used in binding the aggregate on the pavement has increased performance and durability. The anti-skid material, however, saves lives and 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 anti-skid material makes this kind of treatment on roads suitable in certain areas. These areas where it is commonly used may include horizontal curves, ramps, intersection approaches, and steep grades pavement, surfaces where icing is common, bus stops points and bridge decks. These points always demands higher friction causing the anti-skid treatment to be ideal for such places and, therefore, significantly reducing accidents rates. This is because the materials that are used are made in a way such that they can achieve higher resistance to attrition by vehicle tires. Also, it is resistant to becoming smooth or polished.

Prior to applying the abrasion resistant material, some precautions should be met so as to achieve the desired adhesion. First, the surfaces should be in good condition free from cracks and scaling. When performed on open graded surfaces after installation, the surface no longer works as open graded. Again, a double layer may require to be applied so as to achieve the desired thickness for binding.

Another requirement is that pavement surfaces should be dry and clean for the application. Those surfaces made of concrete need to be shot-blast before application to achieve the best adhesion. Besides, the surfaces must be free of impurities such as oils, grease, and the likes.

Once the aggregate has been installed, the excess should be removed from the now new surface before opening it to the traffic. This is effectively done using a power bloom and then compressed by air. Additional sweeping may be done over the next several days to remove 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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