Performance Evaluation of an Innovative High-Friction Surface Treatment

Abstract

High-friction surface treatment (HFST) is effective for improving pavement surface characteristics and enhancing drivers’ safety on the road. However, common HFST applications are not cost-effective and provide only limited preservation benefits to the existing pavement structure. In this study, the performance of a new HFST, consisting of corundum sand and waterborne epoxy, has been evaluated through laboratory testing. A battery of laboratory tests was performed to compare this new HFST against three common HFST applications used in the United States. Three aspects of the performance were investigated: (i) improvement of skid resistance, (ii) durability to environmental effects (moisture damage and freeze–thaw cycles), and (iii) the effect on an existing crack through semi-circular bending tests. The results showed that the application of the low-cost HFST provides an improvement of skid resistance as good as or better than the traditional HFST applications. Furthermore, since the aggregates used in this technique are much finer than the traditional HFST applications, the treatment looks more like a slurry, and it has the potential to fill the existing cracks with a width of 1.5 ± 0.1 mm and retard further propagation of the cracks. Results revealed that this new HFST technology (developed by a Chinese manufacturer) has the potential to lower the cost compared with materials and practices currently used in the United States.