TOPICS
High Specification Aggregate
Motto
of the Month
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Introduction
I am a bit late with this month's newsletter, but the weather has been
nice and the grass, and everything else, has been growing so I have
been busy in the garden.
But I have now made time for this edition because of a matter that I
think you should be aware of, and if you should want to make a
response you do not have a lot of time especially with the holiday
period fast approaching.
I would like to think engineers and engineering technicians will be
making informed responses to this document, in my opinion it is very
important to have a true reflection of what is happening in the
industry presented in this type of publication, as once in print
things tend to become the "truth", and may misinform those
who are truly "in charge".
High
Specification Aggregate
A draft
report, "The Sustainable Use of High Specification Aggregates in
England" has very recently been published by the consultants
Symonds Group Limited.
The Symonds Group Limited has recently been acquired by the
Capita Group, and from the 1st. of June will be known as
Capita Symonds Ltd..
The report was commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister.
I believe this is a very important report and should be studied, and
responded to, by as many practicing highways maintenance engineers and
technicians as possible.
The timing of the release of the draft and the fact that comments are
required by mid August will make it difficult for engineers and
technicians to find the time to respond, but I hope you will make the
effort. |
At this time it has only been in the "office" for a couple
of days and I have only had time for a quick browse and I have found
much to commend it, with a very large amount of information on the
subject of high specification aggregates.
But already one extremely knowledgeable and experienced colleague has
come up to me with extracts covered in "high-lighter" which
they believe are confusing, if not to say misleading. The brief but
important section in question was once again related to proprietary
Thin Surfacings and their "success" with regard to
durability, and I have to agree the passage does bear criticism.
The report is "freely available", if you can get hold of a
copy.
I found by putting the title
in a couple of reliable search engines (5/6/04) I was unable to track down a
copy on the web, although I did find reference to its commissioning on
the website of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
The distributed report actually says it is able to be
downloaded from the website of the Mineral Industry Research
Organisation (Miro), www.miro.org.uk,
but obviously this is a members only site because a password is
needed to access it.
However you can find more information about Miro by accessing the
website www.miro.co.uk
, this you may find interesting.
It is likely that if you work for a reasonable sized local authority,
or consultancy, this draft report is already in your office,
somewhere, ask around and see if you can obtain a copy, if you are
involved in practical highways maintenance you will be interested in
this report.
I hope that as many practicing highways maintenance engineers and
technicians as possible will be able to gain access to this report and
find the time to be able to make a reasoned and supported response to
the authors.
Motto of the Month
"Knowledge
is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can
find information upon it."
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