Road Surface Retexturing

Shot blasting fires small steel shot into the road surface. The shot will reprofile the aggregate surface. This improves the micro texture of the aggregate and thereby enhances skid resistance. The shot also will clear detritus from the road and so improves the macro texture of the surface as well.

All our shot blasting systems are ‘captive’ so that the shot once fired into the surface is vacuumed up and sent through a sorting process. This will send any road detritus into one storage tank on the lorry, whilst the shot itself is returned to the hopper to be reused. The shot is continually recycled until it disintegrates.

Shot blasting is performed as a mobile works similarly to hydro blasting and therefore requires minimal traffic management. It is an extremely effective way of restoring the pavements skid resistance at a fraction of the cost of resurfacing and with a fraction of the amount of carbon.

Surface retexturing is a safe, sustainable, and cost-effective solution that will restore skid resistance across any road surface. We provide surface retexturing through two applications: Hydroblasting and Shot blasting.

Both Hydro and Shot blasting applications target the roads micro and macro textures to remove debris and bitumen. Our advanced equipment will then capture the waste output from the road surface. With shot blasting, all shot is recycled three to four times until it disintegrates, and all water used in hydro blasting is recycled at water treatment plants.

Surface retexturing is flexible and effective in improving network safety at a reduced cost and delivering on carbon savings.

When a road surface is newly laid, it has an inherent skid resistance, which helps prevent accidents and promotes safer roads. The skid resistance is dependent on both the micro and macro texture of the road surface.

Over time, traffic and other factors cause the skid resistance to reduce through binder bleed, aggregate embedment and polished exposed aggregate. Inadequate skid resistance will lead to higher incidences of skid related accidents.

Retexturing the worn surface will restore the road surface to the same, or better, skid resistance as when it was first laid. This ensures the best road safety conditions of the road surface. Retexturing is a vastly cheaper alternative to resurfacing the road and significantly quicker and more environmentally friendly.

Both shot blasting and Hydro blasting are low carbon alternatives to various resurfacing options. Both processes have been validated by Lucideon, an independent third party, for carbon emissions. Shot blasting produces 0.3171kg Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per square metre with hydro blasting even lower at 0.3109kg CO2e per sqm.

This represents a greater than 90% saving over traditional 40mm plane out and resurface options that are commonly used to rectify low friction issues.

The hydro blasting process captures the waste water and excess binder. This is sorted in the lorry and the waste water taken away for recycling at approved waste water treatment centres. The shot blasting waste is similarly captured. These are then taken back to the WJ depots where they are then sent away for processing and used as infill material in road construction.

The retexturing process is managed from the cab using a touch screen-controlled system that offers a high degree of accuracy. This ensures other road assets such as road markings, studs and expansion joints are avoided and do not require replacement. Our skilled operatives can make fine adjustments to ensure that the process runs efficiently at all times.