Tyre roar and surface

[mattc]

have to agree. the M20 off the tunnel is shocking not just for the state of the road but the state of the driving too (awful lane discipline mostly)

Yep - correct; quiet = expansive.

It's ultra-annoying if you've spent a couple of weeks driving round France and Spain where the roads are very smooth - they use the porous tarmac through which water drains as mentioned in another post and the difference is massive. Driving off the Eurotunnel and joining the UK motorway network again (M23?) is a truly shocking experience.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Remember what the M5 was like prior to the tarmac? very very noisy concrete

Yes, in the Taunton area. Certainly used to wake me up!

 

[whitenemesis]

I have just been driven from Arlanda airport to Stockholm. What a wonderfully smooth and quiet motoway that is!
With the extreme weather they get out here there should be no reason why we in the UK can't manage the same surface finish?

 

[big x]

I have just been driven from Arlanda airport to Stockholm. What a wonderfully smooth and quiet motoway that is!
With the extreme weather they get out here there should be no reason why we in the UK can't manage the same surface finish?

We can but only in small stretches ! The M25 between the M3 and M4 is totally silent in my BMW. Mind you, when this happens you start to notice any less than perfect door seals etc.

adam

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

With the extreme weather they get out here there should be no reason why we in the UK can't manage the same surface finish?

We can. Or even better if we wanted too.

Unfortunately, we (as a nation) don't attach enough importance to pay for it.

The amount of science involved in asphalt is surprising.

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

Don't think so; it seems that in the wet, the 'quiet' surface has almost no spray in the wet. Visibility in the rain is vastly improved. The M5 in Somerset has several sections of it. I don't know how well it wears though. I like it very much.

The newer "Whisper Asphalt" is quiet, with low spray characteristics. It is slightly porous so water doesn't pond on the surface in heavy rain. I think the official name for it might be "Stone Mastic Asphalt" but it's a good few years since I have been personally involved in road and motorway building (M40 Banbury By-Pass) so I might have got that wrong.

The previous high quality surfacing was "Hot Rolled Asphalt". This was a carpet of impermeable sand/bitumen into which coated granite chippings were rolled while it was still hot, to improve skid resistance. It was the longest lasting surfacing available, but it was noisy, used lots of expensive bitumen and because it was impermeable, there was a lot of spray in the wet. It could also lose its skid resistance through tyres polishing the granite chippings, so the resistance had to be restored using the even noisier surface dressing, known to us in the trade as "spray and chip".

Stone Mastic Asphalt uses less bitumen, is quieter and causes much less spray, but it doesn't last as long as Hot Rolled Asphalt. However, when it does need renewing, it can be recycled to an extent that wasn't possible with Hot Rolled Asphalt. To the person who said it isn't being used in the UK because of its cost, I believe you are wrong.

All new and replacement motorway surfacing is being done with "Whisper Asphalt" even if only in patches, which is why there is a variation in surface noise on a patched motorway.

 

[Wezzel]

You are quite right Tony. It is still called Stone Mastic Asphalt. It is laid in a thinner layer than the old Hot Rolled Asphalt and therefore as long as the existing road underneath is structurally sound it is cheaper to lay.

It is also quicker to lay, has good initial skid resistance, is more resistant to rutting, has reduced spray and reduced noise. Indications are that it lasts as long as HRA.

All in all good stuff and is becoming the standard.

 

[Satch]

There is quite a bit of "mechanical retexturing" work that goes on these days rather than "resurfacing". Explains why a stretch of road near me went, after weeks of work, from being pretty silent to a roar inducing horror.

Improves the frictional quality of the road as a short to medium term measure but in some cases creates a pretty rough and noise generating surface.

 

[jeremytaylor]

have to agree. the M20 off the tunnel is shocking not just for the state of the road but the state of the driving too (awful lane discipline mostly)

People forget they are back in the UK and keep to the right all the time . Concrete roads should be banned IMHO - they are too noisy!

 

[rf065]

To the person who said it isn't being used in the UK because of its cost, I believe you are wrong.

All new and replacement motorway surfacing is being done with "Whisper Asphalt" even if only in patches, which is why there is a variation in surface noise on a patched motorway.

Whisper Asphalt is slightly porous but not the porous asphalt I mentioned. The two can be confused as this goverment report confirms.

[SIZE=-1]"As part of a strategy to reduce impact of road noise the Highways Agency is carrying out research into alternative types of low noise road surfacing. As a result, new types of surfacing are now being introduced, some of which are often confused with porous asphalt, given their spray suppressing properties. Research on porous asphalt and the new road surfaces is continuing and will include monitoring spray reduction and the benefits offered."[/SIZE]

Russ