Skip to main content

Cost-effective road condition, friction measurement systems

Findlay Irvine, experts in measuring skid resistance, will use Intertraffic Amsterdam 2016 to feature its GripTester and micro GripTtester that can help road authorities ensure that they meet national and international standards for surface friction.
February 15, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

7687 Findlay Irvine, experts in measuring skid resistance, will use Intertraffic Amsterdam 2016 to feature its GripTester and micro GripTester that can help road authorities ensure that they meet national and international standards for surface friction.

For roads and pavements, the company says its unique GripTester is a trailer-based continuous friction measuring device that has been used on Europe’s roads for more than 20 years and can give repeatable, cost-effective results on the skid resistance of a network.

Findlay Irvine says this information can provide a detailed overview of the condition of a network, highlighting areas of concern that require investigation and potential remedial work. It may also highlight areas where projects were about to begin that do not necessarily need to be completed immediately allowing for resources to be better appropriated providing a safer network for road users. The GripTester can deliver data in a number of formats including files compatible with Pavement Management Systems (PMS).

The company says its micro GripTester is now seeing an increase in global use where testing of smaller areas is required, such as high-friction surface dressing, white- line testing, accident or high-incident site testing and pedestrian area testing. The mGT is a portable unit that can be deployed from the boot of a car, or carried as luggage. It has onboard processing, with a computerised water control system, along with built-in GPS.

Related Content

  • March 17, 2017
    Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
  • July 20, 2012
    Debating a cost-effective means of road user charging
    Does GPS/GNSS-based technology provide a cost-effective means of charging or tolling on a national or international level, or are the issues pertaining to effective enforcement an obstacle. Here, leading equipment manufacturers debate the issue.
  • August 10, 2016
    Calculating the cost of stellar solutions
    The increasing availability and accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is opening up low-cost options in many areas as David Crawford finds out. Boosting commercialisation of European global navigation satellite system (EGNSS) technologies for ITS initially depends heavily on demonstrating competitive and cost/benefit advantages obtainable from the deployment of EGNOS (the current European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), and ultimately the EU’s Galileo constellation (see box). So,
  • May 31, 2013
    Temporary traffic monitoring with Bluetooth and wi-fi
    David Crawford reviews developments in temporary ITS. Widespread take-up of technologies such as Bluetooth and wi-fi are encouraging the emergence of more sophisticated, while still cost effective, ITS responses to the traffic issues posed by temporary road situations such as work zones and special events. Andy Graham of traffic solutions specialists White Willow Consulting says: “A machine-to-machine radio link is far easier and cheaper than reading characters on a plate.” There can be other plusses. Tech