The users of urban streets – pedestrians, cyclists, motorists – are sensitive to the colour of pavement surfacings. Colour is crucial for blending the surfacing into its surroundings and enhancing its visibility.

1. COLOURED ASPHALT MIX
VIACOLOR
A city in colour

2. key
benefits
a broad palette of colours
the same advantages as conventional
surfacings
a mix suitable for all types of traffic
enhanced safety as a result of greater
visibility
A BROAD RANGE OF
COLOURS
A wide range of pigments supports a broad range of
Viacolor surfacings in different colours: titanium oxide
for light colours, chromium oxide for greens, cobalt salt
for blues, iron oxide for reds and yellows, etc.
The users of urban streets – pedestrians, cyclists, motorists – are sensitive to the colour of
pavement surfacings. Colour is crucial for blending the surfacing into its surroundings and
enhancing its visibility.
Functional colour-coding of surfaces to distinguish among the different types of traffic can
substantially improve safety. To achieve such surfacings, Eurovia has developed a coloured hot
mix: Viacolor.
VIACOLOR
COLOURED MIX

3. BEYOND BLACK
AND WHITE
With clear binders hot mixes can be made with the
colour of the constituent aggregates: pink porphyry,
light grey quartzite, brown cherty limestone or white
hard limestone, for example. These surfacings have the
very natural appearance of their materials.
Pigments can be added to obtain brighter or more
varied colours.
Eurovia has developed an original process for preparing
and introducing these pigments that ensures their
regular distribution throughout the mix. They are first
dispersed in an oil that is compatible with the binder to
obtain a pigment paste. Packaged in predetermined
amounts in heat-fusible bags, and these are then
directly injected into the mixing plant.
GREATER DIVERSITY MEANS
GREATER SAFETY
Viacolor is suitable for all types of traffic and promotes
safety by making surfaces easier to read and visually
differentiating functions: footways, car parks, bicycle
paths, traffic lanes, emergency lanes, etc.
Viacolor beautifies the environment by using a variety
of colours on a variety of facilities: schoolyards,
playgrounds, park and garden pathways, suburban
development paths, traffic islands, etc.
Light-coloured Viacolor is particularly well suited to a
number of special applications:
as a pavement surfacing in tunnels and underpasses,
it saves lighting and improves visibility and thereby
safety,
as an engineering structure surface course, it reduces
the temperature reached by the surfacing when
exposed to sunlight and thereby limits thermal stress
on the structure deck.
The lighter the colour of the surfacing, the more
sensitive it is to tire tracks, oil spots and other soiling.
A BROAD PALETTE
OF COLOURS AND APPLICATIONS

4. Viacolor uses synthetic coating binders with the same
properties as conventional bitumen but without the black
colour. These synthetic binders are made from oil-based
ingredients but contain no asphaltene (which gives
bitumen its black colour) and are thus light-coloured,
translucent and transparent in a thin film.
Viacolor is designed with clear binders that can make the
most of the natural colour of the aggregates used in the
mix. Pigments can be added to obtain a wide variety of
colours.
These binders are available in the same grades as
traditional road bitumens, ranging from 20/30 to 180/220.
Some of these binders are polymer modified to
substantially extend the range of loadings for which
Viacolor can be used.
Viacolor is usually designed in a 0/4mm grading for
pedestrian paths and surfacings not subject to heavy loads
and in 0/6 or 0/10 gradings for trafficked pavements.
It is applied, by paver or manually, in a thickness of 20 to
40mm.
Eurovia has patented the composition of the pigment mix
and the production of the corresponding Viacolor coloured
mix.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
18, place de l’Europe - 92565 Rueil-Malmaison cedex
Tel.: +33 1 47 16 38 00 - Fax: +33 1 47 16 38 01
www.eurovia.com
technique@eurovia.com
-February2014–500copies–Photos:Euroviaphotolibrary
PROPERTIES EQUIVALENT TO THOSE OF
A CONVENTIONAL SURFACING