Skip to main content

It’s a blast! Road Dryer RD-1200XT

Traditional pavement drying typically involves the use of jet engine dryers, infrared heat and portable blowers, combined with brooms and manual squeegees. Each method has its limitations along with safety concerns. These include the use of jet fuel, noise, melting pavement, danger from thrown rocks or other objects – not mention slow results. Because of this, traffic is often fully restricted from traveling on roads or runways where drying work is taking place.
November 28, 2018 Read time: 3 mins
The usual flying objects will be grounded: heated air is blown directly downwards through multiple nozzles
Traditional pavement drying typically involves the use of jet engine dryers, infrared heat and portable blowers, combined with brooms and manual squeegees.


Each method has its limitations along with safety concerns. These include the use of jet fuel, noise, melting pavement, danger from thrown rocks or other objects – not mention slow results. Because of this, traffic is often fully restricted from traveling on roads or runways where drying work is taking place.

The Road Dryer eliminates all of these issues, according to its manufacturer, because the unit swiftly and safely dries the pavement.

The RD-1200XT preconditions the incoming air to remove moisture prior to heating and directing the heated air to the road. This allows faster drying time and the unit will not harm asphalt, as the flow of drying air does not exceed 150°C.

Heated air is blown directly downward through multiple nozzles. This eliminates the risk of creating flying objects meaning that traffic can continue to flow in nearby lanes. Traffic congestion is reduced.

Available as a simple-to-operate trailer- or truck-mounted unit, the RD-1200XT can be adjusted for 2.4m-3.7m drying widths. Because it dries pavement on demand, it provides flexibility for contractors and government agencies to meet timetables by minimising delays from weather- and project-related wet conditions.

Weather is not the only cause of wet pavement. Milling processes also use water to cool a milling machine’s grinder teeth, leaving the road surface wet and unsuitable for paving until dry. The Road Dryer can follow behind a milling machine and immediately dry the pavement for resurfacing.


Because the pavement is ready for paving or surfacing typically within an hour, it allows for increased throughput by several road kilometres per shift.

For striping operations, hydro-blasting leaves the road surface wet and it must be dried before new paint may be sprayed on the surface. With a Road Dryer RD-1200 following the hydro-blaster to dry the surface, a paint sprayer may be run immediately behind the Road Dryer unit, to paint or repaint lines.

Road Dryer is based in the city of Greenville in the US state of South Carolina and has a manufacturing facility in Palm City, Florida state. The company provides equipment sales and leasing throughout North America and around the world. The company can provide experienced operators, as well as onsite training for crews.

Related Content

  • Seal of approval
    August 2, 2012
    Timely maintenance using proven cost-effective methods can extend the life of a highway by many years as Patrick smith reports Highways are expensive assets to construct, and the wear and tear of modern traffic means that regular maintenance will delay costly repairs or in extreme cases reconstruction. There are a number of methods of carrying out such maintenance, and these include the use of slurry seals and micro-surfacing, which are cold mixed asphalt which is a mixture of graded aggregate, asphalt emul
  • Spanish contractor Sorigué has the edge with VÖGELE SprayJet
    March 21, 2016
    Spanish contractor Sorigué, the first to use the SUPER 1800-3i SprayJet from Vögele, has pioneered paving thin overlays and the development of new mixes. The company won the contract for rehabilitating the surface course of the 3km-long dam, 10m-wide promenade in the Catalonian port city of Tarragona. Sorigué’s idea was to overlay the existing surfacing with a thin layer applied to a spray seal of polymer-modified bitumen. The spray seal prevents water penetrating inside the structure – a major advant
  • Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar is redeveloping its airport
    August 23, 2016
    Mongolia’s economy is growing fast, with capital Ulaanbaatar the centre for activity. Being landlocked, the country depends heavily on aviation to carry passengers and cargo. The existing Chinggis Khaan International Airport was built in 1956 and upgraded in 1987 and 1997 for international traffic. But the old airport cannot meet demands and boosting the country’s capacity to handle flights is essential. The New Ulaanbataar International Airport (NUBIA) will triple passenger capacity to approximately 3
  • It’s in with the new for asphalt plants
    April 4, 2013
    A leading asphalt plant manufacturer is playing a key role in the upgrade of a major European airport, while another is said to have created one of the most modern plants in Europe. Meanwhile, a host of new plants and plant concepts have been, or are about to be, unveiled. Guy Woodford reports Intrame says its ultra-mobile UM-280 asphalt plant has played a key role in the resurfacing of the runway and taxiways at Gatwick Airport in southern England – the busiest single runway airport in the world. Around 35