Viscocel Takes The Toll

Viscocel SMA Fibre was used by RMC Aggregates to manufacture the company’s Viatex SMA for re-laying the toll gate section of the A15 Approach Road to the Humber Bridge. Approximately 1500 tonnes of Viatex SMA was laid by RMC sister company, RMC Surfacing, on the section of dual carriageway as it widens into 12 lanes at the Humber Bridge’s toll gates.

The Viatex provides an extremely durable and hardwearing surface that can withstand rutting, despite being subjected to a high volume of braking heavy goods vehicles at the toll gates. The lattice created by Viscocel’s long, interwoven fibres affords the Viatex SMA more elasticity, enabling it to withstand continual heavy loading. It also produces a high degree of stiffness throughout the SMA which improves its load spreading ability.

The SMA also improves the safety of the toll gate approach road with less risk of skidding or aquaplaning and reduced spray from the road surface, improving visibility. This is due to the structure of the finished surface, which allows it to accommodate more water, held in the body of the material rather than on the surface.

As well as the superior performance of Excel’s Viscocel SMA Fibres, RMC selected Excel as its supplier because of the ease of handling of the 12kg bags the fibre is supplied in, the ‘openness’ of the fibre and its compatibility with the Krendl 2000 fibre delivery system. This ensures that the fibre is easily and evenly distributed in the SMA mix, guaranteeing superb consistency across the laid surface.

The greater toughness and stiffness of the Viscocel-based Viatex SMA means that the performance criteria could be achieved with a very thin wearing course: the surface layer of the re-laid approach road is only 40mm deep. This allows the surface to be laid quickly and needs less cooling off time, enabling RMC to keep disruption to a minimum as the toll gate approach road was re-laid section by section.