Traditional Friction Treatments

A 2013 study titled Evaluation of Pavement Safety Performance conducted by FHWA as part of the Evaluation of Low Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund study (ELCSI-PFS) Phase VI provides an excellent description of various pavement treatment types, including:

• Thin Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) overlay,
• Open graded friction course,
• Ultra-thin bonded wearing course,
• Chip seal (seal coat),
• Slurry seal,
• Microsurfacing,
• Diamond grinding,
• Grooving,
• Micro-milling,
• Shortblasting/abrading,
• Cape seal,
• Scrub seal, and
• High friction surfacing.

NCHRP Report 500, Volume 7 discusses pavement friction treatments and their associated safety benefits.