Measurement methods for the skid resistance of road surfaces

The objective of this Work Package (WP) is to finalise the process of harmonisation of skid resistance measurements in Europe to a point where a common scale is established that can be applied to a significant number of the measurement devices currently used in Europe, either for maintenance management purposes or for new product acceptance. Recognising that previous exercises to harmonise measurements have not been able to do so to a sufficient level of precision, this WP will pay particular attention to defining the group of devices to be included in the harmonisation exercise, the precision required for the Common Scale and the method of analysis use to define the Common Scale.

Within this context, a harmonised friction index is being developed on the basis of two campaigns of comparative tests. The first campaign was organised in May 2014 at IFSTTAR Nantes (France) with a group of friction devices belonging to the project partners or joint research units. The project consortium has decided to open the second campaign to new devices to enrich the database used in the development of the friction index.

This second campaign was held on the IFSTTAR test tracks (Nantes, France) during week 16 (13-17th April 2015) for devices measuring a sideway friction coefficient and on week 17 (20-24th April 2015) for devices measuring a longitudinal friction coefficient.  The participants accepted to provide the results of the measurements to IFSTTAR who collected the data.  Due to the test programme, the number of external devices were limited. Contact Veronique Cerezo at IFSTTAR (veronique.cerezo@ifsttar.fr) and Martin Greene at TRL (mgreene@trl.co.uk) for more information.

Work Package Leader: