BOUND SURFACING
HITCHIN TOWN CENTRE
PAVING REFURBISHMENT
In talking to Local Authority
Engineers recently, it has become
very clear that the information in an
independent Investigative Report,
which was made following a detailed
8 year durability evaluation and
with site inspections by the team
from Paving Expert.com that was
carried out approximately 2 years
ago in 2017, would be of tremendous
assistance to ALL Town and City
Councils, District and other Unitary
Authorities around this country.
The Historic Hitchin Market paving
refurbishment and repointing
project using GftK’s vdw 850 plus
Paving Joint Mortar was now carried
out after extensive evaluations and
field testing for 12 months by the
responsible engineers, completed
10 years ago, and just as in the
inspection two years ago, in 2019
after 10 years service, it is still look
good, performing in all weather
conditions and under frequent
heavy trafficking of this busy
market square! ‘After 8 years it looks like it was
jointed yesterday!’ - These were the
words from www.PavingExpert.
com when they visited to inspect
the paving refurbishment that they
had last witnessed underway on
the site eight years ago, when the
traditional granite sett paving of
the historic Hitchin Market Square
in Hertfordshire, was refurbished
and repointed with GftK’s vdw 850
Paving Joint Mortar. The expert
continues: ‘Oh yes - The paving
had been patched and pointed,
re-pointed and grouted, glued and
all sorts over the years, but nothing
lasted long. They might get a couple
of years, but before you knew it, the
setts were a rocking and rolling all
over again. Faced with the prospect
of having to lift and re-lay the
whole square, at huge cost, the Local
Authority and their Consultants
undertook some tests and decided
to have one last roll of the dice with
what looked like a very promising
product: VDW 850 resin jointing
mortar by NCC Streetscape.’
The Hitchin Town Centre Paving
Refurbishment Inspection Report
in full can be viewed
www.pavingexpert.com/point_
ncc06.htm Like many old town centres and
market squares, this is now a
very different and demanding
environment for paving and
particularly the pointing, due to
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multiple heavy duty loadings and
all sorts of modern traffic exposure,
plus frequent mechanical street
cleaning etc.
However, working in phases, without
closing the market, this project was
completed on time and on budget,
because work could continue and
be completed using GftK’s vdw 850.
This unique paving joint mortar is
based on graded, water dispersed,
epoxy resin coated and bound,
alluvial, no-fines quartz sand. No-
fines means no-dust produced in
mixing either - very important for
occupied streets with people and
businesses continuing to work. Just
as the contractor can continue to
work, even despite the wet weather
and low temperatures throughout,
which would have made any cement
based or single-pack paving pointing
mortar useless and doomed to
failure.
Today after now 10 Years, the
historic market paving is still
looking great, a valuable asset to the
Town; most importantly it will also
continue to do so!
www.pavingexpert.com
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