South Devon Link Road | HyperGrip™ | Case Study | QMS
The newly constructed South Devon Link Road is a 5.5km dual carriageway built to bypass the existing A380 between Newton Abbot and Torbay to ease congestion through the village of Kingskerswell and to improve the connection of Torbay into the Highway Infrastructure, paving the way for an improved local economy. First proposed over 50 years ago, the project was granted full approval in May 2012 with work beginning in the autumn of that year.
In development and testing over the four years preceding the commencement of the SDLR project, QMS HyperGrip™ is a brand new high friction surfacing treatment from Quality Marking Services Limited.
Designed using a cold applied methyl methacrylate (MMA) resin, HyperGrip™ can be installed to new bituminous surfaces after just 12 hours and boasts a maximum cure time of one hour, minimising disruption to road users and reducing costs to the client by removing the need for extended traffic management.
Part of the project requirement was to use as many local contractors and suppliers as possible and approximately 50% of the workforce employed to construct the road were from the surrounding areas.
Quality Marking Services Limited (QMS) was engaged by the principal contractor, Galliford Try, in August 2014 to install the line marking, road studs and high friction surfacing to the bypass as well as £25,000 of temporary works required throughout the project to enable the fluid movement of traffic around the construction site.
QMS HyperGrip™
Galliford Try engaged Quality Marking Services Limited in a sub-contract to carry out all road markings to 6km of dual carriageway, 8 slip roads and 20 side roads on the South Devon Link Road. The sub-contract also encompassed the installation of 8,700m2 of QMS HyperGrip™ high friction surface treatment.
As Pavement Agent, I was in direct contact with QMS throughout the course of the project to co-ordinate and deliver the above works to the project programme specification and deadline.
A significant amount of the work was carried out at night under traffic management. I found QMS to be extremely adaptable in their resourcing to ensure the road markings and high friction surfacing installations could be achieved within the tight deadlines.
In the final weeks of the project, prior to the link road opening to the public in December 2015, bad weather slowed operations and the delivery of the high friction surfacing became the critical path in programme completion. Throughout this period QMS worked closely with Galliford Try to mitigate the risk of delay and delivered the works on time to meet the opening deadline.
The flexibility demonstrated by QMS enabled us to overcome both the technical and weather related challenges of programme and I would highly recommend QMS for future projects.
Richard Gallagher, Galliford Try, February, 2016
As a prestigious local road marking and specialist surfacing company, QMS met the criteria for the £340,000 contract and with a brand new BBA HAPAS Type 1 High Friction Surfacing Treatment, QMS HyperGrip™ recently launched to the market, QMS were able to deliver a combined road marking and anti-skid solution, further enhancing the service offering to the project. QMS began lining work on the Link Road in February 2015 with the QMS HyperGrip™ installations from September. A combination of day and night work was programmed to fit in with planned closures and to meet the demands of the client.
Throughout the duration of the contract temporary road markings were installed to specified sites to reduce disruption to the flow of traffic on diversion routes and to ensure it was managed effectively.
Over the following months, QMS installed over 3,000 Road Studs, 8,000 metres of Ribline and centre lane line along the length of the bypass including ancillary markings, junctions, arrows and letters.
The contract required the installation of 8,700m2 of QMS HyperGrip™ High Friction Surfacing across 3 sites along the link road: Edginswell Lane Junction, Penn Inn Flyover and the Riviera Way which used a combined total of 70,000 tonnes of aggregate and over 25,000 tonnes of resin.
Despite poor weather conditions hindering progress throughout November and December, QMS Crews worked tirelessly to complete the installations in time for the opening of the Road on Tuesday 15th December.
“Programming the works for the South Devon Link Road proved challenging from a logistical standpoint. The flurry of activity during the final phase of the link road’s construction meant that we had to collaborate closely with other contractors working on the bypass to ensure that we were all able to complete our respective works in time for the opening.
Despite the difficulties with logistics and unpredictable weather impeding progress, the challenges fuelled a considerate working environment across all workers onsite and it was a pleasure to work alongside Galliford Try and other contractors on the scheme.
The entire QMS team are incredibly proud to have played a part in the construction of such a high profile local project and it’s fantastic to see the road open and delivering on its pledge to alleviate congestion through Kingskerswell.”
Andy Smith, QMS Contracts Manager
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