Roadtech and Road Safety in Wet and Dry Weather

Every supplier that manufactures, repairs, imports, or supplies items for use at a mine must ensure, so far as reasonably possible, that the items are safe to use and pose no health risks when used correctly. These requirements are governed by the Mine Health and Safety Act in South Africa and by similar legislations in other countries.

At FlowCentric Mining we regularly check the quality of our environmentally friendly RoadTech products to ensure that roads treated with them are safe for use. Risk assessments are done on each site to identify any risks associated with dust suppression, and controls are put in place to mitigate and manage the risks.

In addition to risk assessments and safety datasheets, brake efficiency on treated roads is also monitored. The deceleration of a haul truck is measured by doing brake tests on a treated road and compared to baseline measurements on untreated roads. These tests are conducted by an authorised service provider with compliant instrumentation.

One such test was recently conducted on a trial road with calcrete as the wearing course. The aim was to determine the brake resistance of a calcrete road treated with our RoadTech product.

The test was done using a CAT 777 haul truck with brake efficiency being compared between a RoadTech treated road and an untreated road, in both dry and wet conditions.

The results of the test were as follows:

• In dry conditions, there was no difference in brake efficiency between the two roads, both had an efficiency above 27%.
• In wet conditions, the brake efficiency of a RoadTech treated road offered 4.2% more brake resistance than the untreated road.

In conclusion, the calcrete road treated with RoadTech and the untreated road both provided adequate brake resistance for haul trucks in dry conditions.  In wet conditions however, the RoadTech treated calcrete road offered notably better brake resistance than the untreated calcrete road, thus making calcrete haul roads treated with RoadTech product safer for use in wet weather.