Australia’s toughest certification process for coloured surface treatments and high friction surface treatments is the Transport Infrastructure Product Evaluation Scheme (TIPES). TIPES Certification involves three levels of certification.
What are the TIPES Certification Levels?
There are three levels of TIPES Certification.
Level 1 Certification is for trial products, Level 2 is interim approval and Level 3 is full certification.
In this article, find out:
- what the Levels mean
- what conditions apply to the products in each Level
- the recommended maximum project size for each Level.
What do TIPES Certification Levels mean?
TIPES Certification involves review of a manufacturers data, contractor application processes, test results and site inspections by a panel of experts from the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) and Queensland’s Department of Transport & Main Roads (TMR). Why? To ensure that manufacturer’s and contractor’s claims are supported with evidence, and the surfaces will deliver the required levels of skid-resistance, texture and colour for their service life. It is a vital service when performance is necessary for safety, and value is required for road managers and the community.
With new products achieving certification, it is vital that when procuring coloured surface treatments (CST) and high friction surface treatments (HFST), the level of certification is checked and what it means is understood. Check the TMR register to see the registered products, their conditions (in the footnotes of the register) and ask for any supplier’s TIPES Certification certificate as evidence.
TIPES Level 1 Certification: product has less than two years satisfactory field performance under heavy traffic loading conditions. It is for trial products that have not yet been assessed for longer term peformance.
TIPES Level 2 Certification: product has a minimum two years of satisfactory field performance under heavy traffic loading conditions, but less than five years. Additional constraints may be imposed on a product, such as requiring a record of all installations and their tests results to be forwarded to the Department of Transport & Main Roads so that their compliance and performance can be monitored.
TIPES Level 3 Certification: product has a minimum of five years satisfactory field performance under heavy traffic loading conditions.
A draft Technical Note released by TMR in September 2020 provided the following project sizes for each TIPES Level.
| TIPES Level | Project Size |
| Level 3 (Full) | All |
| Level 2 (Interim) | ≤500m2 |
| Level 1 (Trial) | ≤50m2 |
At the time of writing, OmniGrip Direct is the first and only company to have achieved Level 3 Certification (full, unrestricted) for a Coloured Surface Treatment, OmniGrip CST, as well as a High Friction Surface Treatment, OmniGrip HF. OmniGrip CST uses coloured Australian recycled-glass to achieve its Level 3 TIPES Certification.
OmniGrip Direct’s clients across Australia are reassured that the product, processes and quality of OmniGrip CST and OmniGrip HF have been independently scrutinised by Australia’s leading road research organisation and one of Australia’s leading road agencies.
Find out more about this vital independent process from ARRB, with OmniGrip Direct being the first to achieve certification.