New best practice codes for road repair and maintenance offering technical and practical guidance have been published by the Roads Surface Treatments Association.
The codes fully acknowledge the change of highway delivery through outsourcing and the reduction of local authority in-house expertise that has resulted in a greater reliance on the expertise of the specialist road surface treatment contractor.
They aim to share that expertise and experience to the benefit of all those involved in road maintenance.
The codes cover a wide range of road surface treatments including: surface dressing; high friction surfacing; slurry surfacing; re-texturing; geosynthetics and steel meshes; velocity patching; thermal road repairs; recycling; crack and joint repair systems; preservation.
Howard Robinson, RSTA chief executive, said: “This library of technical guidance and best practice is a prime example of the private and public sector working together to share knowledge and expertise.
"The codes will improve client technical knowledge and understanding and provide benchmarks of quality and performance for contractors.”
Each of the codes provides a full explanation of the particular road surface process and a useful checklist. In order to ensure their relevance, the codes will be subject to regular peer review.
Robinson said: “The codes aim to educate and provide practical guidance in order to raise client confidence and ensure consistent quality performance.
“They provide the answers to how, what and why for a wide range road surfacing techniques”.
The RSTA Codes of Practice can be downloaded from www.rsta-uk.org/publications