East Riding of Yorkshire Council uses various techniques to repair and maintain its 2,200 miles of road network from repairing potholes and patch repairs, to full reconstruction.
One of these techniques is called surface dressing which takes place every year during the spring and summer months and takes around 13 weeks to complete.
This year the project will cost £3.5 million and temporary 20mph speed limits will be enforced during and after the process.
FULL CREDIT: East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
One of these techniques is called surface dressing which takes place every year during the spring and summer months and takes around 13 weeks to complete.
This year the project will cost £3.5 million and temporary 20mph speed limits will be enforced during and after the process.
FULL CREDIT: East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Surface dressing is a highway maintenance treatment used across the world. Sometimes
00:20 referred to as tar spray and chippings, the modern materials and process means the surface
00:25 can last for over 10 years. East Riding of Yorkshire Council carries out a programme
00:32 of surface dressing each summer to protect and preserve around 80 miles of roads across
00:37 the network. Roads get worn over time. This is due to the weather, the ageing of road
00:47 materials and the impact vehicles have on the road surface. Throughout the year, highway
00:53 engineers carry out regular checks to identify which roads are in need of repair. Some roads
01:00 may need reconstruction, but if the existing road is in reasonable condition, surface dressing
01:05 is used. Surface dressing is around one fifth of the cost of replacing the whole road and
01:12 means we can make our budgets go further. We normally treat around 200 different sites
01:19 each year across our 2,200 miles of road network. Initially, the crews fix potholes and defects
01:29 in the road surface. This is called patching and is sometimes done several months in advance.
01:37 Just before we apply the dressing, warning and information signs are put in place. Manhole
01:43 covers and gullies are also masked with a hessian tape which is removed afterwards.
01:51 Crews then spray the existing road surface with a hot sticky liquid called binder. This
01:58 is covered with stone chippings, which are then rolled into the binder. Traffic can access
02:10 the road almost immediately after the surface is rolled. As soon as the binder is set, a
02:16 mechanical sweeper sweeps the road to remove as many loose chippings as possible. These
02:23 will later be recycled. There will be some loose chippings on the road for a few days
02:29 until it beds down. The road can be used during this time with traffic observing the 20 mph
02:37 speed limit. After about a week, the road is swept again to pick up any final loose
02:44 chippings before the new road markings are applied and the temporary speed limit and
02:51 warning signs are removed. During a typical surface dressing season, we will lay almost
02:58 16,000 tonnes of chippings across an area, the equivalent of 150 football pitches. Surface
03:07 dressing always takes place in spring and summer as it requires warmer road and air
03:11 temperatures for the binder to set and the chippings to embed properly. The process is
03:19 also affected by extreme heat or heavy rain, when work will have to stop until conditions
03:24 cool down or dry up. This can mean we may be delayed getting to a site where we have
03:30 placed signs for a particular day. Surface dressing provides a water resistant and frost
03:37 protective layer which prevents potholes forming on a road for years to come. It also provides
03:43 improved skid resistance and a uniform appearance with new road markings, which all helps to
03:49 create safe roads. Inevitably, there is some short term disruption, but this is kept to
03:55 a minimum as most sites are surface dressed the same day. Large areas can be resurfaced
04:03 quickly and traffic can use the roads almost immediately at low speeds. East Riding of
04:12 Yorkshire Council will continue to invest in surface dressing as a valuable form of
04:17 preventative highway maintenance, which improves the future safety and serviceability of our
04:25 roads.
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