cac0fae8c8f092b7d7e32f10d5d4e9c220d2969b My Health Is My Life: High Friction Surfacing Gives Your Pavements The Skid Resistance You Need

High Friction Surfacing Gives Your Pavements The Skid Resistance You Need

By Margaret Murphy


Pavements can be given a surface treatment compiled of materials that are polish resistant, tough and attrition resistant aggregates that are attached to the surface through resin. This kind of surface treatment can be either cold or hot applied and has been enforced and used across world. Anti-skid surfaces may be accomplished by high friction surfacing. Essentially, it is applied so as to reduce the braking distance and add skid resistance.

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.

Not only does the material increase skid resistance, on road surfaces, it can as well be used for other purposes such as traffic calming, on bike paths, lane delineation as well as for decoration purposes. Surfacing can either be hot or cold applied. When hot applied it adheres to the pavement by adhesion because of heat application and while it is cold applied, it adheres to the surfaces through 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.

Before the application of the abrasive resistant material, various precautions need to be met in order to achieve quality adhesion. First, the pavements need to be in good condition without cracking and scaling. For open graded surfaces, they can no longer act as open-graded after installation. They may require double layer application in order to achieve the adequate 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.

When the aggregates have been installed, the extra material should be removed from the new surfaces before opening up the pavement to be used again. This can be done effectively by using the power bloom and compressed by air. Extra sweeping can be done during the next few days to remove the loosen stones.

Installation of the anti-skidding material has many advantages other than being skid resistant. Unlike removing and replacing the existing pavement, installing the aggregate material is not an expensive undertaking. On the other hand, it can be performed virtually over any type of pavement and can be done during short closures such as 4 to 6 hours.




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