TOPICS
"Keeping My Hand In"
TRACS
Motto
of the Month
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Introduction
The light evenings in the northern hemisphere have all but disappeared
so I hope to be able to devote some time, during the winter to
updating and improving some of the pages.
I have information and pictures waiting to be included, but not enough
time to put to one aside for the task of web site development.
When I say web site development, I mean the basic task of adding,
including, presenting more information that is appropriate to the
subject of highways maintenance.
I would suggest to those of you who are thinking of creating a website
to support your line of business, whatever that may be, that you do
not forget the prime function of your website is to tell the browser
about your products and processes. With this in mind it is not always
the best policy to go to a website designer and have them design you a
very attractive internet presence that has no real
content.
It has to be said that I often receive emails from companies informing
me of their wonderful new websites that I should visit. I usually take
the time to access these sites out of courtesy, only to be greeted by extremely well
presented nothingness, and for those of us who are seriously browsing
for information this does not go down well.
We do not want to waste time being dazzled by presentation. We do not want to ring
telephone numbers, or give all our details (including where we work) on some "sign in
form" before we enter a website that still may not contain
anything that is worthwhile. We are certainly unlikely to email the local
representative, unless we have accessed sufficient real information
to raise our interest enough to make that contact.
I am writing this piece to be constructive to all of you who are
thinking about creating a website, whether yourself or by employing a
designer, to furnish as much information about you product, process
and yourselves as you feel comfortable in doing.
I feel confident that you will be rewarded with genuine enquiries
relating to the content of your site, if you know what you are talking
about there are quite a number of competent highways maintenance
professionals who will realise that, and be in touch when they need
your services.
"Keeping
My Hand In"
 I
thought I would include these tantalising glimpses of myself still out
there checking up on work after all these years.
I ought to be pensioned off by now, the knees cannot take it these
days.
It also serves to show that people should not think I have influence I
do not possess, people with influence are not to be found on their
knees testing road surfaces. But I do like to get my hands dirty
from time to time it keeps me in touch with the real world.
I would also suggest you observe how far my eyes are from the road
surface, who do you think is learning more about the road surface, me,
or the person in the office.
 It
is the knowledge that I have gained over the years by this close
contact with the work and all those involved in the many
aspects of highways maintenance (mainly road pavements) that allows me
to create a website such as this.
This testing is part of an exercise to
determine the effectiveness of a retexturing process on hot
rolled asphalt and precoats surface course (wearing course) around a
large roundabout. Testing using the portable skid resistance tester
and the Grip Tester was performed before and after the process, and
will be continued over the coming months and years to monitor the
condition of the road surface in relation to skid resistance.
The extremely robust nature of the road surface, twelve years after
laying, allowed this process to be performed. I would envisage that if
the retexturing process proves cost effective in improving skid
resistance for a sufficient length of time, a minimum of a further two
treatments would be possible on a road surface with the durable nature
of this bituminous mixture.
"TRACS"
- Traffic Speed Road Assessment Condition Survey
This is the new
machine everybody is talking about at the moment. I have been
fortunate and had the opportunity to have a close look at it. Well, as
close as they will let you, that is. Photographs of the inside are not
allowed, but let me assure you it all looked very impressive.
I will let you all form your own opinions on this latest road
condition survey equipment.
Personally I find it hard to believe that a piece of equipment of this
intricacy can remain fault free and in calibration for long periods of
time, and this is assuming the vehicle itself does not experience
breakdown or mishap.
The truly new feature in this machine is its ability to record road
surface cracking and it is this facility that is being grasped to
record unbiased and standard information on road condition throughout
the UK.
The government are adopting this process because they feel the
information they have been receiving from differing sources is
"unreliable" and cannot be directly compared due to the on
site standards of individual Coarse Visual Inspection (CVI) surveys
not being consistent.
The supply of incomparable data to the
government could well be so. But the point I would like to raise is
how we employ TRACS as an engineering tool not just a recorder of
surface cracking. and other road surface details..
The ability to measure cracking is achieved by the use of high
intensity strobe lighting and high speed cameras, these are housed in
the unusual arrangement at the back of the vehicle.
The ability to
measure the road profile, wheel track rut depth, and surface texture
utilising laser technology has been around for many years in various
forms of the High Speed Road Monitor.
How the data
collected relating to cracking is going to be put to practical use
still appears somewhat vague, and I can still see that an engineer or technician
will have to do further study on areas picked up by TRACS to determine
what type of action is needed, if any, as a result of information
recorded by a TRACS Type Survey (TTS).
Surface cracking is not necessarily going to indicate the strength of
the road pavement.
Deflectograph, in a purely recording deflection mode, associated with the
road category is likely to be a far better means of recording unbiased
road
pavement strength, in my opinion.
I can only see TTS's making the whole road pavement maintenance process more expensive, and
trained and experienced engineers will still be required so why not
just put some sort of national auditing procedure of CVI's in place.
If we compare the new process with deflectograph, I am unaware that the
well respected developer of deflectograph, and its method of processing
the data recorded, ever claiming that the information it produced was
definitive, but that it was a tool to be used as part of a package of
investigative measures to determine the condition of the road pavement
and what strengthening it might need if any.
Now I know we engineers and engineering technicians can be a "stroppy"
lot of individuals but if government think that they can improve the
condition of the UK road network by just using un-argumentative
machines, it is my opinion that they are in for for a very big and
very expensive surprise.
I am not going to go on because
there are a number of good websites providing better information than
I can give you on the subject of TRACS and TTS.
Also try and read as many of the articles published in the engineering
press as possible to gain a deeper understanding of the arguments for
and against the introduction of this type of road condition survey.
The easiest way for me to direct you to these websites is to provide
the web address of,
www.google.com
and suggest you
enter the words "tracs road condition survey" as your search
parameter and then browse the websites that are returned.
I can particularly suggest you download the .pdf presentation from the
website of the London Technical Advisors Group (LoTAG), and of course
you must visit the Department for Transport website to understand the
importance TRACS will have on Best Value Indicators (BVI's).
I think surface dressing will do very well out of this new type of
road condition survey.
Motto of the Month
"You do not
have to be faster than the lion, just faster than the slowest guy."
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