TOPICS
Surface
Dressing
Small
Business Power
Motto
of the Month
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Introduction
Perhaps it is me,
but I believe nobody really informs you about things these days,
"real" information that is.
The technical journals are hardly technical anymore, and you seem to
find the same editors and "journalists" contributing to many
of the industry magazines.
The "free papers" published by the main players just tell
you how wonderful everything is, with the exception of one free
bitumen related publication I used to recommend people to seek out because of its
excellent technical content, but this has ceased to be published.
I find the technical content of all journals so poor I have stopped my
subscriptions to the organisations and publishers that I used to
receive publications from and rely on the "library" copies
at the office.
I find this all rather sad, because I can look back over 20/30 years of various
technical publications, and the A4 binders full of technical articles
that I have carefully removed and archived as a source of reference.
Alas this now seems to be a thing of the past.
I am told this situation is because everything these days is regarded
as commercially sensitive, and consultants and manufacturers will not publish
any detailed findings
on any work they do because it may benefit their competitors.
(It might also tell engineers and technicians what is, and is not, in
their products.)
But personally I think it is just the age we live in, and today's age
is the "age of spin",
I hope I am still around for the "age of openness".
It is fortunate that the advent of the internet allows us
access to websites that are prepared to share information with all,
and I suggest you visit the excellent sites on my web-page,
LINKS TO SOURCES OF
INFORMATION ON OFFICIAL AND SEMI-OFFICIAL WEBSITES
There is an enormous amount of sound technical advice able
to be accessed from these websites.
I would also recommend searching the web for yourself, it
is amazing what you can find with a little diligence, the search
engine I find most successful in locating technical information is,
Google, but there are
others that you may prefer.
If you have found my website you will already be aware of some
good "key words" so do a little "browsing", and do
not just look at the first page or two of hits, be a little more
thorough, the good stuff is not always at the top.
Surface
Dressing
There are two new publications that you should be
aware of if you are involved in surface dressing in the UK.
These are a new edition of,
TRL Road Note 39 (Fifth Edition) : Design Guide
for Road Surface Dressing
and
RSDA/CSS ENG 4/2002 : Code of Practice for Signing at Surface Dressing
Sites
The first publication is available from TRL,
I do not have the price to hand but you will find it on the
website.
The changes are not great but you should be aware of them, even though
the TRL stress Road Note 39 is a design guide, and not a
specification
The Code of Practice for Signing at Surface Dressing Sites is
published jointly by the Road Surface Dressing Association (RSDA) and
the CSS.
Copies are available from the CSS courtesy of,
CSS,
Lincolnshire County Council,
City Hall,
Lincoln.
LN1 1DN
E-mail address ............ css@lincolnshire.gov.uk
This is priced at £30:00.
Although "signing and guarding" is not really my subject, it
is a very important part of any road works, and this code of practice
appears an excellent reference on the subject with respect to surface
dressing.
Small
Business Power
It is a fact that in my "day job" I am required
to undertake quite a lot of reading of publications that have content
related to highways maintenance, and it can be quite a boring
occupation.
But every now and again you come across a gem that
makes it all worthwhile, well, I think so.
Recently a copy of "Business Standards", the monthly journal
of the British Standards Institute (BSI), landed on my desk for me to
trawl through to spot any British Standards,(BS's), any British
European Standards (BS EN's), any new drafts, etc., etc., that might
be relevant to highways maintenance and need purchasing for the
reference library.
I always have a quick browse through the articles and
news items, that are the outer part of the journal, that directly or
indirectly have reference to the role "standards" play in
the role of business.
In the October/November issue there is a very interesting article on
small and medium size businesses and I can recommend its perusal.
Did you know that, and I quote, "companies with fewer than fifty
employees contribute 43% of employment and 31% of the UK's gross
domestic product".
This led me to think of all the small businesses that are involved in
various aspects of highways maintenance, quite a number I can assure
you, the majority of them providing an excellent service.
However, I am waffling on, because the point of the article was that
the use of appropriate British and British European Standards can be a
definite help to small businesses by creating a level playing field
where everyone has to comply to the same standards.
I am, and always have been, a big believer in the use of
"standards", it creates a situation where everyone should be
aware of what is required of a product or process.
But for any standard to be effective it
must be able to be understood and enforced.
I hope the standards creators will bear this in mind in their committee
rooms, as some of the more recent standards I have needed to purchase
border on the unintelligible for the average engineer / technician
looking for guidance in an area they are not experienced.
But, for all the small businesses out there who are involved in
highways maintenance I would echo the feelings conveyed in the BSI
journal, which is, be part of the standards creating process appropriate
to the
type of work you undertake.
I suggest you do not leave it all to the "big
boys", you will be left out.
Personally, I would like to see the small business sector retain a
significant, independent, share of the highways maintenance industry
and not just be sub-contractors to a few very large
"players".
So, I suggest you investigate this BSI initiative and visit the website specially created for small and
medium size businesses,
www.mysmallbiz.co.uk
at the moment there does not seem a great deal of input from the highways maintenance
sector, perhaps it is time for somebody to make a start.
The
various small scale recycling processes on offer spring to mind as an
area of work where some basic unifying standards would give increased
credibility to the market and expand its potential as an environmentally
friendly and cost effective exercise.
Motto of the Month
All the mottos I have used to date have been from calendars, books of
quotations, from the radio, etc., they have never been invented by me.
But this month I have plagiarized a well known saying to come up with a
motto of my own regarding bituminous road pavement surfacings, and
this is,
"A good
thick'un will always beat a good thin'un"
Especially during the winter laying period !
You cannot keep blaming the laying contractor for poor workmanship
when they are working with materials that by their very nature do not
lend themselves to be laid in cold conditions.
Or are we going to see a closed season on Thin Surfacings, I cannot
see the Suppliers being very pleased with that idea.
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