Service
Anti Skid
Shepherd and Sons Contracting ltd
Anti Skid Surfacing
Anti skid surfacing is a coloured surface coating applied to roads, junctions, and specific areas to increase friction and reduce vehicle stopping distances. Commonly seen as yellow or red surfaces on UK roads at high-risk junctions, bus stops, and approach zones. Contains aggregate grit for friction.
Two types:
- Cold applied anti-skid
- Hot applied anti-skid
Applications: Road junctions, approach zones, bus stops, pedestrian crossings, car parks, private roads.
Choosing the right anti skid system
On public roads anti skid is specified as high friction surfacing under Clause 924 of the Specification for Highway Works, and HAPAS classifies certified systems as Type 1, 2 or 3 by the traffic they can take. On junction and roundabout approaches, Type 1 is rated for up to 3,500 commercial vehicles per lane per day, Type 2 for 1,000 and Type 3 for 250, each with an expected life of five to ten years at that limit. That makes choosing a type a decision based on the traffic count rather than on price.
Cold applied systems are laid as a resin binder with the aggregate broadcast onto it while it is still wet. Hot applied systems arrive with the resin, aggregate and fillers pre-mixed, are heated in a boiler and screeded out, so the aggregate is held within the material rather than scattered on top. Both depend on a sound, clean and dry surface, because a system laid on a weak or damp surface loses its aggregate in the wheel tracks first.
Where anti skid goes, and where it must not
Typical sites are the approaches to signalised junctions and roundabouts, pedestrian and school crossings, tight bends, steep gradients and the approaches to level crossings. Highway authorities pick them from measured skid resistance and collision history, so the extent of a scheme is usually settled before a contractor is asked to price it.
Two rules catch out well-meaning specifications. High friction surfacing must not be laid on the circulating carriageway of a roundabout, only on its approaches. And it must not be specified simply to colour a road: a coloured cycle or bus lane is a different product for a different purpose. There is more in what is high friction surfacing?
Anti skid surfacing contractors in Kent and across the UK
We are based at Little Westerhill Farm near Maidstone in Kent and apply high friction surfacing to roads, junctions, bus lanes and approach zones nationwide. The material needs the surface dry and above temperature, so anti skid is one of the few things we programme around the forecast as closely as the closure. Day to day that means Kent, London, Sussex and Essex, with national mobilisation for extended programmes.
The formal specification term for this work is high friction surfacing, and the standards behind it, Clause 924, calcined bauxite at PSV 70 and BBA HAPAS certification, are set out on our high friction surfacing page.
