Skip to main content

Retexturing crucial UK route

Contractor Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald has used Klaruw’s advanced longitudinal grooving system, GrooveTex, to retexture sections of concrete surface on the M20 in the UK. The GrooveTex system improves and restores surface skid resistance by creating micro longitudinal grooves using closely spaced diamond-tipped saw blades at a predetermined width and depth. While being based on proven diamond-grinding techniques, Klaruw’s system is said to be optimised to provide significant improvements.
July 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Klaruw’s new grooving system has been used in the UK to improve skid resistance and boost safety for drivers

Contractor 1530 Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald has used Klaruw’s advanced longitudinal grooving system, GrooveTex, to retexture sections of concrete surface on the M20 in the UK.
 The GrooveTex system improves and restores surface skid resistance by creating micro longitudinal grooves using closely spaced diamond-tipped saw blades at a predetermined width and depth.  While being based on proven diamond-grinding techniques, 2311 Klaruw’s system is said to be optimised to provide significant improvements.

Unlike traditional grinding systems, GrooveTex adjusts to and follows the profile of the surface. The surface levels after treatment remain the same as the surrounding surface, avoiding the need for removal and reinstatement of road markings, road studs or ironwork.

Productivity is also said to be higher, as the machine has a retexturing width of 2m, said to be the widest of any unit available at present. A full lane width can be treated in a single pass using two GrooveTex machines in echelon.  The benefits mean that the GrooveTex treatment is less costly than competing systems, according to Klaruw.

The technology has been tested successfully on the M20 and is likely to be used elsewhere in the UK, to boost safety for drivers. Unaffected by wet weather, Klaruw successfully completed the GrooveTex treatment within the specified timeframe and with minimal disruption to motorway users. The system also has the potential to reduce road/tyre noise levels generated by concrete.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Concrete removal using high pressure water jets
    May 8, 2012
    The use of high-pressure water jets to remove old concrete on structures is becoming increasingly popular. Hydrodemolition of concrete structures by robotic equipment is becoming an increasingly used method for removing deteriorated concrete with high-pressure water techniques.
  • Solid ground
    June 1, 2022
    The depth effect of heavy single drum rollers is remarkable and is significantly increased by the polygonal drum, available only from BOMAG.
  • Economic and environmental asphalt recycling
    February 27, 2012
    Recycling materials offers the road ahead for highway construction - * Don Brock writes. Recycling has been used in the US for over 50 years in various industries. Today, steel is 100% recycled, and many other products that we have can be recycled.Environmental groups have aggressively pushed industries to recycle more, but it is either economically driven or legislatively driven.In the highway industry it has predominately been economically driven and discouraged by stakeholders such as aggregate producers
  • Highways: environmental problem or environmental enhancement?
    March 21, 2016
    Highways need not be a blight on the countryside that many people, urban planners included, believe they will always be. By Bram Miller, director, and Martin Broderick, environmental consultant, at Ramboll Environ While the world’s highway networks bring undoubted economic and social benefits, they are generally perceived to lead to negative environmental impacts. Some may consider this an unfair reputation, but it is difficult to argue that in the majority of cases both the construction and operation of