Roads - surface dressing

Surface dressing is a cost effective way of restoring the road surface and sealing it in one process. Every year the County Council improves its 9,000km of roads with a programme of surface dressing. Surface dressing offers a quick, efficient and cost-effective way of maintaining skid-resistant and waterproofing road surfaces so arresting future deterioration.

Why and when?

The purposes of surface dressing are to waterproof the road surface, to delay disintegration, to provide texture, and provide a skid-resistant surface.

Unfortunately surface dressing is not popular with road users, this is mainly because of the loose chippings which are an inevitable part of this process. However the speed of the surface dressing operation and the short duration of time during which motorists are inconvenienced is also an important benefit as to its use.

We undertake surface dressing because it:

Improves skid resistance making the road safer to drive on
Makes the road waterproof and protect it against frost and winter damage
Extends the life of the carriageway surface by up to 10 years
Is comparatively low cost at just a fifth of the price of resurfacing. This means that we can treat a much larger proportion of the road network each year- 200 miles of roads can be surface dressed for the cost of resurfacing 40 miles.
Prevents much more expensive work being needed later
The duration of operations causes less inconvenience to the motorist

Surface dressing work is undertaken between mid-March and finishes by the end of August each year. This is because the process requires warm dry weather to make sure the dressing becomes established.

The Process

Steps:	Process:
Step 1	Sweep the road to remove any loose material and cover all gullies and manhole covers
Step 2	Spray the road with bitumen binder and then cover with a layer of loose stone chippings. Initially the chippings are held in place by the fresh bitumen.
Step 3	Press the new chippings into the bitumen by a roller; however, they will only become fully embedded under the action of vehicle tyres.
Step 4	Traffic is allowed onto the new surface, at a reduced speed, to help to push the chippings into the road. The action of traffic soon begins to embed the chips, forming a stable and hard wearing new surface.
Step 5	Excess chippings will be removed by the contractor during the days immediately after completion of the surface dressing works.
Step 6	14 days after the surfacing works the contractor will give the road a final sweep and repaint all the lines.

Loose chippings may initially be a problem and this is why there is a speed limit of 20mph during the early life of the dressing. It is important that when driving you keep to the temporary speed limits and avoid sharp turns, this will:

Allow the surface to stabilise
Prevent any damage to your vehicle