Preventing cracking in evolved roads

This heavily trafficked section of road, frequently used by HGV’s, was in a poor condition and required urgent maintenance. Selecting the right resurfacing solution presented a real challenge. The surfacing would need to offer enhanced resistance to reflective cracking despite high traffic volumes and underlying movement from the irregular and inconsistent granite setts that formed the base. The client also required that work should be completed with minimum disruption to local road users and be reopened to traffic during the day, between consecutive nights shifts.

After discussions with the client and contractor, Tarmac recommended an innovative solution that used their highly flexible ULTILAYER SAMI asphalt inter-layer, combined with an ULTIFLEX, HAPAS approved surface course. As well as providing a solution to reflective cracking, another key advantage was that both courses could be laid by the authority’s regular contractor using conventional paving equipment. This avoided the need to use a specialist contractor and helped to simplify the programme. Using Ultilayer SAMI meant that a thinner construction than originally planned was possible. This enabled a reduction in construction times and associated costs, as the kerbs did not need to be altered.

As planned, the ULTILAYER SAMI interlayer and ULTIFLEX surface course were laid over two consecutive night shifts. Steve Dyas, Highways Asset Engineer at Kingston upon Hull CC was impressed by the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the outcome and by the quality of technical support available from Tarmac. Collaborative working with the client and contractor, resulted in an innovative solution to this difficult site, that could be implemented quickly, with minimum disruption to road users. It also offered a new approach to resurfacing other challenging roads based on jointed concrete bays, where reflective cracking is frequently a problem. The site was visited in April 2019 by one of Tarmac’s technical team. Despite the challenges of the site, a visual inspection confirmed that the pavement was performing well and free of any deformation or cracking.