If Britain’s roads were truly coated with the substance invented by Scotsman John MacAdam in the 18th Century, our car tyres would be slashed to ribbons within a mile and we would be covered in dust or mud. Tarmac as we know it was invented by a Welshman in the Twentieth Century after an accident with a tar barrel.
McAdam invented a method for using crushed rock to provide a hardwearing surface for a rapidly expanding road network. Tarmac was patented in 1903 by Nottinghamshire’s county surveyor Edgar Hooley after he noticed the result of a tar spillage on a road outside an ironworks.
Once Edgar perfected a technique for mixing slag and broken stone with tar, the first Tarmac road in the world was laid in Nottingham and road travel has been smooth and trouble-free ever since – until you hit a pothole or patch of loose road surface.
Tarmac and the British summer
Despite its hardwearing properties, Tarmac will become soft at around 50 degrees Centigrade. This doesn’t sound like a problem in the UK, but temperatures on a road surface under direct sun can reach melting point.
When Tarmac repeatedly melts and hardens, it becomes brittle, making it more likely to break up due to wear and tear or frost.
Regular road surface maintenance protects the roads and budgets
Regular road maintenance to the road surface ensures a road never needs full reconstructive work, which reduced long term costs and inconvenience to road users, and now is the time to do it, before the winter hits.
Globic Groundworks offers a wide variety of options with regard to road resurfacing from wear and tear repairs to full road reconstruction.
Our teams are fully NRSWA Streetworks accredited and can quickly and efficiently repair potholes and other surface defects. If the defect goes deeper, we also repair structural damage to the affected layers.
We also offer a professional tarmacking service for resurfacing carparks, playgrounds, walkways and pavements.
To find out how Globic Groundworks can help you, contact us now at our Aldershot office on Freephone 01252 312738 or email info@globicgroundworks.co.uk and avoid future problems.