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Public Administration is committed to cold microsurfacing

Asphalt News 02/03/2016
Trucks working on cold microsurfacing
Spanish Ministry of Public Works logo

In times of reduced investment in road infrastructure, the Ministry of Public Works and other public administrations have opted for slurry seals and cold microsurfacing for road preservation, including these techniques in its tender specifications.

Cold microsurfacing, also known as bitumen slurry, has undergone significant technological development since its appearance in Spain at the beginning of the '70s. Nowadays, cold slurries or microsurfacing are probably the most versatile treatments for preserving pavements. An adequate selection of the materials to be used, along with proper manufacturing and application make it possible to waterproof the worn and cracked surface of a local road, until giving it a high degree of roughness that will guarantee proper resistance to the passage of vehicle tires on roads with high traffic intensity and speed.

The application of this preventive preservation technique has taken on significance in the current economic and social context, due to its advantages over other treatments such as its lower cost, execution speed, and high performance.

When the surface does not have major structural problems or deformations, cold microsurfacing represents a very efficient solution due to its economic and effective manufacturing and installation at ambient temperature, since it makes it possible to recover the lost initial surface characteristics of the surface.

Repsol promotes the use of these preservation techniques, adapting both our conventional and modified emulsions, to the materials used with the objective of conferring the expected properties to the mixture.