Dorset Council has improved the skid resistance of 67,000 square metres of road surface this year through retexturing.
The local authority described the process as part of its ‘green’ approach to highways maintenance as it cuts emissions compared to resurfacing.
The process – delivered by WJ Textureblast – uses one of two techniques to blast the road surface to regain its skid resistance.
Depending on the individual site, the road will either have small steel shots fired at the surface to improve the texture or will have water blasted at the surface to remove excess binder.
Both techniques are said to be capable of returning the road to the same or better level of resistance it had when the material was first laid.
The council said road retexturing has helped reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced by over 335,000kg and saved around 6,700 tonnes of virgin aggregates from being used.
It has also saved over £1.2m compared to using conventional resurfacing methods.
Ray Bryan, portfolio holder for highways, travel and environment, said: ‘We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and embedding our climate and ecological emergency response work in all that we do.
‘Using retexturing to refresh skid resistance rather than replacing the surface is a good example of how making small changes in the way we do things can lessen on our impact on the environment and take us closer to our net-zero target.’
Nigel Savage, managing director for WJ Textureblast, said: ‘We have been working with Dorset for over 10 years, and it’s great to see the benefits we continue to bring to the area’s road network. This year, we have been proud to show the level of carbon savings that can be achieved through the use of retexturing, when compared to resurfacing.’
According to WJ, its Hydrotexture technique delivers water at high pressure to scour excess binder and detritus from the road surface, thus restoring macro-texture and exposing micro-texture.
The system recovers the resulting mix of water and detritus using suction, thereby eliminating the need for a separate road sweeper.
VolkerHighways recently used WJ’s shot blast surface retexturing process to raise skid resistance levels across West Berkshire.
