Prismo Group — Quality Reflects

Cold Plastic MMA  ECODYN    Crystalex  EP Series Paint 

Durham County Council

A117 Stockton Road

Shockingly, nearly 2,500 people were killed on the UK’s roads 2008. This is a tragic loss of life by any standards, especially when many accidents can and should be prevented. However, a certain amount of comfort may be taken from comparing 2008 with 1966, when, with only a quarter of today’s traffic on British roads there were nearly 8,000 fatalities.

Regional data illustrates some interesting trends and a recent article in the ‘Northern Echo’ showed that from 2008 and 2009 the number of road fatalities in the north east of England decreased by 15.4%, compared with the previous year. Also impressive was the reduction in serious injuries, down 12.1% from 1,680 to 1,477.

During that period Durham County Council (DCC) returned a road death decrease of 16%. DCC is one of the councils in the north east actively pursuing road safety improvements across the region and these figures prove the initiative is working.

The reduction is due, in part, to DCC’s key decision to improve road safety by employing efficient and cost-effective engineering solutions, particularly in rural areas, rather than through the use of ‘heavy engineering’ processes such as speed bumps and other physical speed restrictions to slow traffic down.

DCC’s drive to reduce accidents on its roads is being undertaken in partnership with international road marking specialist, Ennis Prismo. Together DDC and Ennis Prismo are designing and employing innovative techniques to further improve road safety, particularly in wet conditions and after daylight – critical periods when the chance of an incident is increased.

Realising that practical engineering solutions were needed to ‘educate’ and ‘inform’ drivers of the road conditions ahead, Ennis Prismo looked to enhance road safety by improving the wet and night visibility of standard road markings. This was achieved by embedding glass beads into the company’s new and fast curing two-component methyl methacrylate (MMA) cold plastic line marking paint to vastly improve retro-reflectivity.

Billy Beamson, Northern Operations Manager for Ennis Prismo, explained: “Currently most white lines applied on UK motorways and trunk roads, as specified by CEN 1436, have a retro-reflective index of 100 millicandellas; a measurement of the amount of light that is reflected back from the oncoming vehicle’s headlights by the road markings and how easily those road markings can be seen. Obviously, the better road markings are defined the safer the road will be, especially in the wet, at night, or both. We knew Ennis Prismo had the product capability and technical know-how to dramatically improve the brightness of road markings at night and thus, improve potential safety for road users.”

Accurate and correct installation of the MMA and glass bead system is critical and application requires specialised machinery. Ennis Prismo recently took delivery of a new machine specifically for this purpose and pre-application trials of the new equipment were carried out at their own facility, as a ‘shakedown’ to iron out any issues prior to use on any project and to perfect the paint delivery. The first site where the new machine would apply the product for real traffic use was the A117 Stockton Road, the main arterial road linking Stockton-on-Tees with Sedgefield, south of Durham.

Initially built as a single carriageway through mainly rural areas, sections of the road have been converted into dual carriageways by adding extra northbound lanes. The southbound side remained as the original road and because of its winding nature, some safety improvements were required.

In accordance with DCC’s instructions all existing road markings where removed prior to the application of MMA before new edge and centre lines were applied using un-beaded thermoplastic spray as a base line for the cold plastic.

Ennis Prismo’s Technical Team was on hand to ensure that critical levels of bead application and optimum bead embedment were achieved in order to deliver the desired result in terms of retro-reflectivity.

Initial test runs highlighted the speed at which the cold plastic cured correctly, taking just 20 to 25 minutes from initial application. Once cured, the lines where ‘read’ by Ennis Prismo’s unique mobile road markings assessment facility – a vehicle equipped with the latest technology for measuring retro-reflectivity of laid road markings.

Improved visibility of road paint is the first aim for increasing road safety. The more clearly the road edges and centre line can be seen in all weathers and light conditions, the better informed drivers are to make the right decisions on speed and direction for the road ahead. The results of the A117 exercise indicate that the focused partnership between DCC and Ennis Prismo is set to reduce the number of accidents in the area even further.

The increased durability of the product in service on the road network offers value for money to the road users and rate payers of County Durham. The improved durability also offers improved safety to the staff installing the road markings. This in turn offers opportunities for the reduced temporary traffic management costs and reduced disruption or congestion to the road users.

Based on the results of performance testing of the products and the reduced collision numbers on road treated as part of earlier development trails with these products it is expected that the collision numbers will show a marked reduction on the A177.

The increased performance of Ennis Prismo’s road marking products provides improved road delineation and improved information to the driver at the earliest opportunity.

• MMA improves visibility
• MMA improves information for drivers
• MMA improves road safety
• MMA improves the durability of road markings
• Improved road delineation

• Reduced temporary traffic management costs
• Reduced traffic disruption
• Reduced congestion
• Reduced collision numbers

• Value for money
• Improved accident reduction