Road repair and maintenance specialists Velocity have protected over half-a-million square metres of UK roads with preservative treatment Rhinophalt completed so far since launching the service.
Working on a mix of rural, residential and urban roads as well as parts of the strategic road network, the condition of roads has been ‘locked-in’ as local authorities increasingly look to protect their assets, preventing deterioration.
Velocity added the treatment to their portfolio to complement Velocity Patching, bringing customers a treatment for all phases of their asset lifecycle. The company became an approved installer of road asphalt specialist ASI’s Rhinophalt product, with the first projects following soon after.
The service was launched with the ambition to bring Rhinophalt to the UK’s local road network, building on Velocity’s strong relationships with local authorities throughout the UK. Projects carried out this year have ranged from trials to the most extensive installation carried out on a single county’s network to date.
Particularly suited to roads that are in ‘green’ to ‘light amber’ condition, Rhinophalt is a unique product that locks-in the current state of the road, preventing deterioration.
Containing Gilsonite, a naturally occurring bitumen, Rhinophalt penetrates the road surface to depths of 30mm, setting hard in any microcracks and air voids to prevent the ingress of water and oxidisation of the carriageway. Once treated, deterioration is prevented for a period of up to five years.
Prior to installation, detailed site inspections are carried out to determine appropriateness for the treatment and the designed.
With a full delivery plan developed and managed by Velocity, installation is carried out overnight under lane-closures, minimising disruption for residents and road users. With a curing time of two hours, roads are open for traffic the following morning.
Operationally, following a pre-sweep the product is quietly sprayed onto the road with one pass of a single machine. No compaction or heavy equipment is required, and because the profile of the road is maintained there is no need to raise ironworks, kerb heights or thresholds.
Gavin Blogg, Velocity’s business development manager, said: “Local authorities are increasingly seeing the benefit of asphalt preservation, keeping their assets in good condition rather than applying more costly and disruptive interventions further down the line.
“With the addition of Velocity Preservation, we have a treatment to protect roads that are in green or light amber condition to complement our Velocity Patching technique, used to bring roads in red or amber condition back up to standard.
“The feedback from customers has been terrific; existing customers and those planning on using the service see how it fits into their asset management strategies. With a strong pipeline in place, we are looking forward to next years’ season as more and more local authorities look to protect their assets.”
As well as offering asphalt preservation, Velocity pioneered spray-injection patching, a technique to quickly deliver permanent repairs to potholes and other defects. With a fleet of 26 machines, the company repairs over half-a-million defects per year on the UK’s road network.
