Manhole project to give skidding the slip

17 May 2006
 
A new kind of manhole cover with an anti-skid coating is to be trialled by Bristol council on the road system serving a major new development.
The initiative, involving around 100 manhole covers, is in response to calls from the council’s motorcycling forum and highway safety auditors’ recommendations. It anticipates a new British and European standard that will eventually set skid-resistance standards for service covers.
The city council and Bristol Alliance, developer of the £500M Broadmead project, are funding the use of covers developed by leading manufacturer Saint Gobain Pipelines and waterproof coating specialist Stirling Lloyd.
Instead of surface castellations, these have a 2mm-deep tray in which diamond bauxite is anchored in a special adhesive.
The covers had been tested on access roads at the manufacturer’s plant, said Mike Brewer, Bristol highway works engineer. ‘We have a great deal of confidence in this.’ Broadmead’s expansion involves road diversions, giving road safety officers the opportunity to take a whole-route approach to the problem of slippery access covers, he explained. The new city quarter, under construction on Bristol’s edge, has a ‘serpentine route with flowing bends’. High-friction surfacing was specified for half of the road system, which opened last week.
Engineers have also positioned the covers away from bends.
The EN124 standard requiring friction testing was due in 2008, but is not now expected until 2010. ‘This may spur people to get it back on track,’ Brewer added.

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