Skip to main content

Crack infill system ideal reinstatement solution

Overnight repair work on a major English motorway has avoided the major traffic disruption and significantly increased road surfacing costs that would have occurred if left untreated.
February 17, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Overnight repair work on a major English motorway has avoided the major traffic disruption and significantly increased road surfacing costs that would have occurred if left untreated.

The problem affecting a large stretch of the M42 close to Birmingham Airport and the nearby NEC Arena in the Midlands region was completed using highways maintenance products from 2314 Stirling Lloyd. It concerned fretted joints in the wheel tract to the road surface.

Faced with the prospect of completely removing the road surface if left untreated, Amey Area 9 (sole provider to the 2309 Highways Agency of management services and maintenance of the motorway network throughout the Midlands) quickly set out to find an effective and durable repair method.

Its search concluded that Stirling Lloyd's HAPAS [Highways Authorities Product Approval Scheme]-approved Safetrack Crack Infill system "was the ideal reinstatement solution." Based on an advanced, fast-curing reactive resin, this high-performance road maintenance system is designed to arrest further decay of the road surface by filling cracks or fretted joints, supporting the edges of the asphalt while preventing water penetration.

Given the stretch of motorway affected and the heavy traffic experienced along this route, Amey Area 9 understandably wanted to test the system on an initial 100m section of the road over a six-week period before committing to the full works. The Safetrack Crack Infill system proved highly successful, both in application and performance, so was selected to complete the remainder of the repair, approximately 17,000m.

To minimise disruption to motorists the works were carried out over a series of night-time closures between 11pm and 4am. Within this five-hour window, specialist contractor, Line Markings, had to set out the traffic management, prepare the crack, apply the Safetrack Crack Infill and remove the traffic control.

Despite the tight time constraint the system's simple but speedy application technique and its fast cure enabled the treatment of approximately 1,000m of motorway per night shift.

Line Markings was able to complete the works in under three weeks, one week ahead of schedule. According to Stirling Lloyd, so impressed was Amey Area 9 with the performance and speed of Safetrack's application that the contractor was asked to return a few weeks later and complete the reinstatement of a further 3,600m of the motorway.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • BAM, Morgan Sindall start UK’s €112 million Oldbury viaduct job
    July 31, 2017
    A joint venture of BAM, Morgan Sindall and VolkerFitzpatrick has started refurbishing the Oldbury viaduct on the UK’s M5 motorway. The €112 million project will see repairs to a 3.5km stretch between junctions 1 and 2 of the motorway – one of the UK’s busiest routes – to the west of Birmingham city. Work is being done in three phases starting with the removal of the road surface on the southbound carriageway to investigate the condition of the concrete deck.
  • Ennis-Flint adds Thermaline and Thermaline XF to the EF Series
    May 10, 2016
    Ennis-Flint, a manufacturer and supplier of road marking materials, has added Thermaline and Thermaline XF to the EF Series Preformed Thermoplastic (PFT) product line. EF Series is made for streets, reinstatement road markings, car parks, cycle-ways and airport landside areas as well as car parks, shopping centres, schools, business parks and more, especially at intersections with heavy traffic where durability and proven performance is essential.
  • Highways England urges driver caution
    December 4, 2020
    In the past three years in England, 6,500 vehicles have driven into roadworks.
  • The UK Highways Agency engages Fugro for Doppler laser surveying
    January 6, 2015
    The United Kingdom’s Highways Agency has awarded its first commercial contract to survey thousands of road lanes using sophisticated Doppler laser equipment. Fugro is driving the project forward, reports David Arminas The Highways Agency Traffic Speed Defelectometer vehicle looks like an ordinary flatbed truck delivering a similarly ordinary steel shipping container. But looks are deceiving. Inside the container is a sophisticated Doppler laser measuring system collecting pavement condition data of the U