A review on acoustic and skid resistance solutions for road pavements

As cities grow in size, traffic also increases, thus making the population more exposed to road noise and traffic accidents. It is therefore important to study and understand which properties of the pavement influence its acoustic impact and skid resistance performance. The pavement texture plays a major role in generating noise and friction, and it can be engineered in order to control both of them at the same time. The phenomena regulating skid resistance are well understood today. The same applies for noise generation and propagation; the literature contains methods of designing the pavement surface layer to achieve consistent results. Several types of solutions can be found for asphalt mixtures, most of them derived from decades of studies and research. They use different approaches to be effective for noise and friction, but all have in common the control of the surface’s macro and microtexture. Finally, some considerations are made regarding novel paving solutions with artificial aggregates instead of natural ones to address noise and skid resistance.