Evaluation of Various Surface Cleaning Techniques Inside Tunnels on Pavement Skid Resistance

A request started a comprehensive investigation on the Skid Resistance (SR) inside a highway tunnel in Madrid, Spain, to determine methods that will improve or maintain the SR above the minimum required level (60), after the application of Hydroblasting, without the need of pavement surface rehabilitation. The right lane located on eight sections inside tunnel XC was used as a test section, in which three went thru the application of water pressure applied weekly, biweekly, and monthly. Three other sections for surface sweeping at the same frequencies and two untreated sections as control. Using the Microgriptester, weekly SR measurements taken before and after tracked the pavement response. Results showed that SR decreased weekly depending on the frequency of the treatment applied and for higher frequencies, SR was almost at the same level. Water pressure and sweeping applied weekly, biweekly, and monthly, during the two months testing period, maintained the SR level above the required value of 60 and the untreated sections showed that pavement surface must be treated to maintain the SR above 60.