High Friction Surfacing, Auckland City – Late 2019
Calcined Bauxite is a man-made aggregate, created by firing Bauxite clay to around 1500 degrees centigrade.
At that temperature the clay is “calcined” and becomes very hard. The bauxite is used for fire bricks in kilns etc, but the aggregate produced also has the property that gives it a very high skid resistance when used as a wearing course on the road, and it does not polish and become slippery over time.
This decreases the stopping distance required by cars when in an emergency stopping situation, which means that the pedestrian may not be hit, or the car may not slide off the road.
