With more than 50 years’ expertise in mastic asphalt surfacing, IKO has collated its high-performance range of road, bridge and ironwork repair solutions into a singular point-of-service division.

Formerly known as IKO Highways & Civils, its success has led to its growth and the launch of IKO Road, which as Wayne Perrin, IKO’s Sub-Divisional Sales Manager Explains, has much to offer the world of road surface repair and maintenance:

“IKO Road is testament to the excellent reputation our road surface repair and maintenance materials have gained throughout the highways industry. It’s a triumphant story that dates back to the use of mastic asphalt surfacing on some of the UK’s major bridges such as the original Severn Bridge and Forth Road Bridge, but it wasn’t until 2013 that IKO Highways & Civils became a division dedicated to the use of mastic asphalt on highways.”

“The emergence of IKO Permatrack H Bridge Joint system in the early years consolidated the company’s reputation as an innovator in mastic asphalt materials and as the product’s profile grew, so did the prominence of the applications it was specified for, particularly the Permatrack H inlaid crack repair system.”

“The range of Permatrack mastic asphalt refurbishment installations also increased. Hence, as part of IKO’s Highways & Civils offering, they were put to effective use on projects at Southampton Docks (2013), an elevated section of the M4 motorway at Chiswick (2014), and numerous bridge joints and concrete bay joints on the M25 Motorway network in recent years (2018,2019,2020).”

“As the Permatrack brand grew into other fields of road and ironwork repairs, it made sense to amalgamate all of our materials into one all-encompassing offering.
The expanded service now includes bridge joints, inlaid crack repairs, patching, bridge surfacing and in a range that is as wide as anything the highway repair and maintenance sector has to offer, IKO Road’s provision also includes ironwork reinstatement.”

Why IKO Road is the ideal surface repair solution

IKO Road products mainly consist of a mastic asphalt composition, which is unlike traditional road asphalt repair solutions. Traditional solutions are generally based on the principle of an aggregate that is coated with a bitumen binder, whereas mastic asphalt is a blend of coarse and fine aggregates filled with bitumen binder.

This ensures roads are less susceptible to damage caused by water pressures and freeze-thaw cycles.
This not only helps to minimise project time and expense, it reduces the need to implement longer-than-necessary road closures, which are a bane for motorists and a strain on the national economy.

According to an independent survey carried out by the Asphalt Industry Alliance, the cost of repairing the backlog of maintenance work on local roads in England and Wales is £10.24 bn, thus highlighting the need for surface solutions which facilitate prompt, effective road repair.

How IKO Road systems are applied

All materials within the IKO Road range are hot-applied. For repairs involving cracks between lanes on a traditional asphalt surfacing on a motorway for example, it means plaining-out the defective area and forming a rebate in the carriageway.

This will generally be completed to a 160mm width and a 40mm depth. IKO Quick Dry Bitumen Primer is then applied to all surfaces, followed by an approximate 5mm-thick layer of IKO Permatrack PSB; a flexible, rubberised bitumen which penetrates, seals and bonds the final infill of Permatrack H (ICR) – a mastic asphalt inlaid crack repair. The result is a relatively quick installation and long-lasting repair.

IKO Road mastic asphalt material properties make it a user-friendly option for applicators. The materials’ fluid, void-less consistency eliminates the need for compaction with heavy industrialised equipment such as handheld compactors, which are known to cause debilitating stresses on the joints of handlers continually exposed to the machine’s powerful vibrations.

Mastic asphalt is poured into a trench, spread by means of a suitable float, levelled-off to the existing road surface and whilst still hot, broadcast with suitable aggregate to provide the required skid resistance.

IKO’s ironwork reinstatement material, Pacopatch, is another mastic asphalt product. Among its many benefits is its ability to negate the use of heavy machinery which also risks damaging the repair itself.
Part of the IKO Road range, IKO Pacopatch system, includes: IKO Pacopatch Grout, IKO Pacopatch Brick, and pre-coated chippings to provide a void-free high-performance ironwork repair solution for drains, gullies, manholes and inspection chambers.

IKO Road – certified quality

Mastic asphalt’s versatility makes IKO Road an option for a wide range of surface repairs, which are carried out by contractors signed-up to our registered installer programme. This assures clients that repair projects are in the hands of a professional team which meets IKO’S strict standards.

As for the products themselves, IKO Permatrack Inlaid Crack Repair system has BBA HAPAS certification, IKO Permatrack Bridge Joint is Highways England-certified whilst the mastic asphalt element is manufactured to BS EN 13108-6:2016, the European Standard that specifies the requirements for mastic asphalt mixtures on roads, airfields and other trafficked areas.

Case study: M25 Bridge Joints and Inlaid Crack Repairs.

For more than 10 years IKO has been supplying its Permatrack materials to numerous projects on the M25 motorway network. Initially used for bridge joint repairs, the solutions have also been employed to refurbish joints between carriageway concrete bays and traditional surfacing using the IKO Permatrack Inlaid Crack Repair system.

Close collaboration between manufacturer (IKO), client (Connect Plus) and installing contractor (Techjoint Ltd) has resulted in an excellent working relationship ensuring long lasting quality repairs are carried out to the highest of standards.

Examples of concrete bay joint repairs on the M25 motorway network are between Junctions 8-11 and Junctions 27-30. During 2019 and 2020, approximately 3,000 tonnes of IKO Permatrack product was supplied to these contracts which equates to more than 150,000 linear metres of roadway repairs.

The installations carried out by Techjoint Ltd involved plaining-out between concrete bay joints, priming all surfaces and applying IKO Permatrack PSB to penetrate, seal and bond before the final infill of IKO Permatrack H (ICR) was applied.

IKO Permatrack is not only selected for these projects because of its long-term performance but also because it offers a carbon zero solution. The net carbon footprint of every IKO Permatrack project is offset using internationally-approved carbon credits which means for every tonne of IKO Permatrack mastic asphalt produced, they are helping to fund environmental and humanitarian causes such as the Kenyan Stove and Ugandan Borehole projects.

Mohammed Jaja, Construction Manager for Connect Plus said:
“We previously specified IKO Permatrack materials and found them to be the perfect solution for inlaid crack repair for numerous bridge joints and crack repairs, so it was the obvious ‘go-to’ system. The fact that all the carbon produced, from manufacture to installation, can be offset is not just great from an environmental point of view, it is ethically the right thing to do.”