The Federal Highway Administration is currently encouraging initiatives for new paving to include a Safety Edge to reduce crashes when vehicles leave the pavement and try to return. The FHWA has currently joined agencies with 20 different states to promote this program and interest is growing.
In order to ensure the long-term effectiveness of this new technology, as with a majority of asphalt surfaces, these new edges of asphalt pavement will need to be maintained to reduce raveling and breaking apart of the edges due to sun and rain and freeze-thaw conditions. If left unprotected, these edges will begin to deteriorate due to Mother Nature. Once deterioration occurs, their effectiveness in safety from vehicle departure off the road loses effectiveness or purpose. What is the solution? The answer is sealcoating those shoulders that utilize the Safety Edge.
A recommended product for maintaining the integrity of asphalt shoulders is an asphalt emulsion fortified with polymers for flexibility and fiber-reinforced for longevity. That product of choice is Liquid Road. As many of you know and understand, sealcoating more than doubles the life of asphalt. Counties and street departments can save tax payer dollars by lengthening the life of the new highway edge program by extending the life of the asphalt edge. Sealcoating will reduce the number of times needed to repair or repave these edges.
Liquid Road is the material up to handle this task. The polymer modification from the manufacturing process of Liquid Road makes the difference. Elastomeric polymers are hot blended into Liquid Road to ensure maximum flexibility, weather resistance and adhesion to the pavement surface. The special fibers built into Liquid Road provide strength. Fiber reinforcement provides a more durable surface coating. A sealcoating program applied to the asphalt edge every few years will protect the asphalt and limit the raveling that will occur without sealing the shoulders of roads and highways.
As the FHWA program takes hold and expands across the country, it is good to know that Liquid Road is available Nationwide throughout the SealMaster network.
For more information on the Safety Edge you can visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/everydaycounts