24 May 2019
UPDATE
The Roads Section of the Infrastructure & Transport Directorate (ITD) has, over the past few weeks, conducted various different slurry trial mixes on the road from White Gate to Lemon Tree Gut (via Knollcombes), as they seek to find alternative patching/surfacing methods for the Island’s road network.
Slurry is a micro-surfacing method used to address certain road defects. It is not new to the Island, having already been used on the Grand Parade parking area in Jamestown, but not as a patching method on the Island’s roads.
In their quest to find a more cost-effective alternative to the current grit and tar method for fixing potholes and other road irregularities, the Roads Section has mixed different combinations of sea sand, crushed sand and grit, with anionic bitumen. Depending on the road defect, deeper holes were treated with a higher percentage of grit, whereas shallow scars were done with less grit and more sea sand.
Slurry layers do however take longer to cure than the grit and tar method and must be kept free of traffic until the layer has hardened sufficiently.
Knollcombes Road was chosen as it contained a bit of every road defect common on the Island. A section of this road also has a tree canopy that does not allow much sunshine to pass through and is normally wetter than the other sections. This allowed the Roads Section to test a slurry layer in damper conditions.
Along with treating the road defects, the three hairpin bends at W-Road were also given a surface slurry coating over the full width of every turn. This was done to test how the slurry layer handles the strain of turning vehicles on an incline and in different weather conditions.
Over the coming months, the different slurry mixes and the different applications will be evaluated to ascertain if slurry can be used as an alternative method in addressing road defects as opposed to the existing methods.
The public is thanked for their cooperation and understanding during the time of the essential road closures. Any feedback from the public is also welcome.
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SHG
24 May 2019