British arenaceous rocks for skid-resistant road surfacing

摘要

There is only a limited number of commercial sources of roadstone which is sufficiently durable and resistant to polishing for use on present-day heavily trafficked roads. The Institute of Geological Sciences and the Transport and Road Research Laboratory have carried out a survey of the British arenaceous (gritstones and similar) rocks with the object of finding new sources of suitable roadstone.nAn account is given of the selection, sampling and testing of a cross-section of possible suitable arenaceous rocks, together with a discussion of the results. The survey has disclosed that there are potentially large resources of high-quality material in the West Country, Wales, Shropshire, Southern Scotland and Northern Ireland. The survey has provided information that will be of value in future assessments and also in selecting stone within a quarry.