Skip to main content

Irish orders for special surfaces

Over the past few months, Lagan Construction, the primary partner of Ennis Prismo Traffic Safety Solutions in Ireland, has secured contracts to install more than 60,000m² of the international road marking manufacturer's high-friction road surfacing materials. The contracts were awarded following earlier trials using Ennis Prismo's BBA-HAPAS [British Board of Agrément-The Highways Authorities Product Approval Scheme]-approved Type 1 material Tyregrip on trial sites for Ireland's National Roads Authority (NRA
February 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Ennis Prismo's Tyregrip material has been used on trial sites for Ireland's National Roads Authority
Over the past few months, 2340 Lagan Construction, the primary partner of 1394 Ennis Prismo Traffic Safety Solutions in Ireland, has secured contracts to install more than 60,000m² of the international road marking manufacturer's high-friction road surfacing materials.

The contracts were awarded following earlier trials using Ennis Prismo's BBA-HAPAS [British Board of Agrément-The Highways Authorities Product Approval Scheme]-approved Type 1 material Tyregrip on trial sites for Ireland's National Roads Authority (NRA).

The most recent of these trials was on a steep downhill section approaching the junction of a very busy main road near the capital Dublin, where 21 fatalities have occurred over the past three years.

The road is often frequented by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) from a nearby quarry, and the asphalt surface, when combined with rain and speeding vehicles, was clearly not up to the job of stopping vehicles quickly enough in order to avoid accidents.

A 2,000m² downhill area approaching the main junction at the black spot was installed over a two-day period in September 2009, in difficult traffic management conditions.

Due to the unusually steep incline, Ennis Prismo recommended the addition of cellulose fibres in order to prevent the epoxy bonding agent running down the gradient before it had the chance to initially cure and secure the high friction surfacing in place.

The trial is currently ongoing but the NRA, which is set to take full responsibility from local highway councils for the design and specification work for all of Ireland's roads in 2011, has already suggested that if successful it will specify Tyregrip for the entire region.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Lighting innovations boosting brightness, cutting costs
    January 27, 2014
    CU Phosco’s new P850 LED main road lantern has just seen its first major deployment – between Junctions 16 and 17 of the A55, a strategic road which skirts the North Wales coastline – Jason Barnes reports The A55 is a grade-separated dual carriageway also known as the North Wales Expressway. Some 139km long, it originally ran from Chester to Bangor but was extended across the Isle of Anglesey into Holyhead Docks in 2001 under a project part-funded by the European Union.
  • UK’s M3 motorway gets first orange emergency area
    August 1, 2017
    The first of a new-style smart motorway emergency stop area is being trialled on the M3 in England. The redesigned emergency area has a highly visible orange road surface and better signs to improve its visibility, according to Highways England, the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, maintaining and operating England’s motorways and major A roads.
  • Scottish application for SMA surfacing technology
    May 20, 2014
    A new Scottish specification for stone mastic asphalt could help with some of the durability issues sometimes experienced in the UK An alternative specification for stone mastic asphalt has been used on the A90 in Scotland, with tests suggesting that the material will be more durable than thin surfacing produced under the standard UK specification, Clause 942 of the Specification for Highway works.
  • Caterpillar Paving offers a guide to efficient night time paving practices
    October 3, 2014
    Efficient night-time paving operations can reduce construction costs and cut traffic delays - *Todd Mansell writes As roads become more congested, the user cost of daytime lane closures to accommodate road construction and paving has increased dramatically. One solution to lower user costs associated with traffic delays is to carry out more paving at night during off-peak times. However night-time paving brings new challenges to producing quality work in safely.