TOPICS
Hiccups
on the Website
Interesting stuff
on the "Web"
Forgotten
Publications
Surface
Dressing 2007
Motto
of the Month
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Introduction
I had thought that
when I retired "time" would slow down, it does not, the pace
of life slows down and becomes more enjoyable, but the passage of time
is as swift as ever, so it becomes increasingly important to use this
dwindling resource wisely.
What one describes
as wisely is down to each individual, I have never been one for the
"world cruise" option, I would not fit in with the rest of the
passengers, but then I was never a "natural" for local
government.
However, I still think it important to try and inform Engineers and
Engineering Technicians about the "real" world of highways
maintenance.
So in answer to the many emails I have received asking me to continue
to maintain this website,
yes I will be doing so, as best as I am
able.
The exercise will be more interesting because I will be looking to
find new happenings and information via the internet and no longer
from my circle of contacts that I encountered on a daily basis in the
course of my work.
Judging from my "stats", this decision will be
welcomed by most of the major players in the industry, or at least by
the staff who work for them.
With this level of "support" it seems odd that this website
hardly ever, well never, gets a mention in the mainstream highways
maintenance press.
But as there is no "engineering" publication that I regard as
"independent" I am not surprised.
I regard the use of the
highways maintenance press as acting much the same way as the Sun,
when it claimed it was responsible for returning the John Major government
to power. I say this not in a political sense, but in the sense of
determining the nature of thinking, and resulting decision making (in
that case voting) that resulted from the
"press" influence/intervention.
There does seem, in my reading, a distinct imbalance in favour of
articles and contributions supporting "New Highways
Maintenance",
as opposed to the converse argument that supports past/existing
methods and materials
I sometimes get confused as to whether members of "my
team" are kicking the ball in the same direction as the majority
of the players, it is even more perplexing when it includes the
"captain".
It gets even more interesting when you realise most of the current
"captains" are not skilled in the arts of football.
It seems likely that we will need whole new "teams" so that they
will all be kicking in the same, "correct", direction, but
will they still be playing football.
Enough of the analogy, I'm off to watch the match, it could be an interesting
encounter, with the "referee" playing an important role.
Hiccups
on the Website
It is likely that
most of you did not even notice the "now you seem me, now you
don't" pages on the this website between Christmas and the end of
February.
But for "regulars" who did notice, I was not having a
"senior movement", or a series of confused incidents in
relation to pages either being present or not being present, especially
updates.
These happenings were the result of my Internet Service Provider
transferring webhosts from the old/existing server to a new
server.
This caused a few problems, and files were lost, by my ISP.
So let this remind you to keep good, up to date, "backups", I
do, so the problem was minimal.
Hopefully everything seems to have settled down, and the service from
the new server seems to be working efficiently, and you should have
continued good access to this website.
Interesting
stuff on the "Web"
As I have already mentioned most
of my input for the newsletters will be coming from browsing the internet
and seeing what is of interest to me, and passing on what I think will
be useful to you.
It is good that I am finding an increased amount of background and
equally importantly specific information on highways maintenance
materials being provided by some commercial suppliers.
I am a bit reticent to include specific links in this newsletter less
I should embarrass these suppliers, who do tend to be the medium size
companies, sometimes still family owned, however you may find links
elsewhere on this website.
So do browse around with a few appropriate key words and you could
well be rewarded with returns from commercial organisations that
actually tell you specific details about the products they offer,
British Standard materials as well as proprietary, whether they will
have supply capabilities in you area is another matter.
British Standard bituminous mixtures are not "dead" as some
would have you believe, and I still recommend using them especially on
local highway networks, and of course, sampling and testing, to ensure
the supplied materials comply with the British Standard.
But to move on and tell you about some good independent information
that you can download, we all like something that is "free",
to us, but remember somebody paid for it.
I was recently browsing the revamped, given a "make-over",
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) website, and I was impressed.
The website seemed to me far more "user friendly", and they
seem to be offering far more "basic" help in road pavement
design and materials selection.
You have to pay for specific advice and guidance of course, but I
think it is likely that it will be coming from a very knowledgeable
source, which can be supported with laboratory and trials results.
I now come to the "free" bit, and again I will not give a
direct link because I do want you to look at the fresh presentation of
the TRL website.
Once you have accessed the site select TRL Reports and
Publications, then select Free Reports, then progress to Page 3 of
these reports, the range 21-30.
Here you will find the opportunity to download, in .pdf format, the
following reports.
TRL Report TRL636 - The application of Enrobe
a Module Eleve in flexible pavements
TRL Report TRL 639 - Guidance on the development assessment and
maintenance of long life flexible pavements
TRL Report TRL638 - A model set of asphalt sustainability indicators
The above are excellent reports, they contain a wealth of good
information, I do not agree with every detail, but did you expect me
to.
But I can thoroughly recommend them, do not just download them, read
them, take some time to study them, do not just read the
conclusions.
The fact that these reports are
available suggests to me that "somebody" of influence does
want you to be aware of the information that they contain.
But if you are going to download them, do not delay, items of this
nature that I find and recommend to others from this website have a
habit of "disappearing".
I recall that I used to recommend downloading a number of free TRL
Reports on all aspects of tyre noise generation in relation to road
surfaces. They were excellent reports that were substantiated by data
from trials
and laboratory work, now I cannot find then anywhere, perhaps TRL
would like to include them in their new Free Reports section.
I must add that I am just concerning myself with reports relating to
"materials" matters, there are many, many reports able to be
downloaded that encompass the many other disciplines that fall within
the general heading Highways Maintenance, e.g. Road Safety, so please
check out this new TRL website facility.
Forgotten
Publications
I have been trying to bring some order to thirty five years of accumulated
notes, diaries, old copies of magazines, reports, books and other
"clutter".
Whilst engaged in this process I came
across a book that I had forgotten about, it is titled,
"Bituminous Mixes and Flexible Pavements - An Introduction".
I feel disappointed with myself that in my struggle to keep up with
all the "new" information coming in to the highways
maintenance industry recently, especially since 1997, that I had
lost touch with this publication.
This document is absolutely excellent, and I am not one to offer praise to the
"industry" lightly (remember I am a "client" man
through and through) and this publication came from the
"industry".
It qualifies itself as an "introduction" to the subject,
some introduction.
If only engineers and technicians who are involved in highway pavement
design, construction and maintenance were familiar with such an
"introduction" they would be much better informed engineers and
technicians, and able to make more reasoned / better decisions.
This publication is comprehensive in all aspects relating to the use
of bituminous mixes in flexible pavements, from the quarrying of the
aggregate to design and production of the mixes to the nature and the
loading of the traffic using the finished pavement, and lots, lots
more.
The publication is not old in engineering terms, being published in
1992 by BACMI (British Aggregate Construction Materials Industries).
However the book was prepared under the auspices of the ACMA product
group, (Asphalt and Coated Macadam Association), and bears its
distinctive emblem, for those "old timers" who can remember
it.
It is further interesting to look at the list of authors who
contributed to the production of this publication, some are sadly now
in the great Highways Laboratory in the cosmos, others are readily
recognised as having senior positions within the current industry.
I doubt if this publication is still available for purchase, but it
may still be available in libraries, it has the ISBN number of ISBN 0
9520643 0 8.
It was originally published by BACMI, it cost £12:00, and was
obtainable from,
156, Buckingham Palace Road,
LONDON,
SW1W 9TR
However, since ACMA was absorbed into BACMI, and then I believe BACMI
was absorbed into QPA, it may be that you need to approach the Quarry
Products Association to find out if copies are still available.
It would be good to think that it is still in a form that could be
re-published if necessary.
The re-publication of this book would be an excellent item to raise at
the forthcoming IHIE conference,
"Annual Essential Highway Maintenance Conference and Exhibition - Improve Efficiency
: Deliver a Better Service",
that is if there are any "real" engineers and technicians
there, the event is quite pricey for ordinary mortals to afford.
This conference, which is sponsored by the engineering journal "Highways"
,
is to be held at the Park Inn Hotel, Northampton, on the 10th. of May,
2007,
further details can be found on the the Insitutute
of Highway Incorporated Engineers website.
The theme for this conference is, "providing professional
leadership by developing and sharing knowledge and standards based on
integrity, fairness and quality", who can argue with that.
It is my opinion that the re-publication of the document I mention, in
its original form, would be a big contribution to "sharing
knowledge", and be of a major benefit to those members of IHIE
involved in road pavement design, construction and maintenance.
 Surface
Dressing 2007
It is the beginning of
another surface dressing season, and I could not resist writing a
brief piece on the subject in view of the drastic change in weather
conditions from the ideal conditions of April to the problematic
conditions of May.
Indeed who would be a "on the ground" works supervisor in
charge of the operation.
You are "damned" if you
decide to dress and the storm decides to open up on a recently laid
dressing, and you are "damned" if you decide to stand the
operation down until the weather becomes more stable, but it does not
actually rain and therefore you have lost production on that day
unnecessarily.
As I say who would be the works supervisor in charge, on some days you
need "second sight" to be able to make the correct
decision.
However having voiced that true comment this is not a piece to find
excuses for work that has failed for reasons of poor preparation, so,
have you :-
# completed your pre-patching of failed areas of road surface to
be surface dressed
# performed hardness testing on the various road surfaces to be
dressed
# performed required pre-sweeping and removal of road surface
contamination
# selected the appropriate size chipping and binder rate of
spread from Road Note 39, (do not be tempted to
use a larger option chipping on the increasingly hard surfaces from
materials now being used as surfacing)
# selected the appropriate polished stone value (PSV) and
aggregate abrasion value (AAV) for each site, (
with just a little inconvenience of swapping chipping/ aggregate
source this is an extremely cost effective way of improving skid
resistance on bends and other "difficult" areas)
# verified that the chippings supplied comply with the relevant
British Standard requirements, (dust content is
particularly important when heavy rain follows what appears to be a
successful dressing, water will follow the line of dust between
chipping and binder layer and chippings can be dislodged some time
after laying, even the following winter)
# specified a suitable binder for the site conditions
(you do not need modified binders for all sites, especially rural
sites, but modified binders are needed for high stressed and highly
trafficked sites, selecting premium binders for all sites may be an
unnecessary expensive option)
# checked the binder sprayer for transverse distribution and
rate of discharge of binder, (without this
information you cannot verify the binder sprayer speed table and that rates of spread
of binder are
correct, you could be spraying too much or too little binder)
# perform regular on site checks of the binder sprayer to ensure
discharge rates stay constant
# take regular samples of binder and check its properties, (check
for viscosity this will affect the rate of spread from the spray bar,
check for cohesion and adhesion this will help determine that you are receiving
the correct grade of binder, and that it has not been
"damaged" in transportation and storage)
All the above should be standard procedure, and should destroy
the comment that surface dressing is somehow "slap dash" or
a second rate procedure.
It is a first rate, cost effective, highway maintenance
procedure that extends the life of a highway pavement, and its
surfacing, while offering a means of providing a good level of skid resistantance.
In my area it was determined from highway surveys that approximately
70% of all road surfaces were successfully established surface
dressing, and this type of rugous/rough surface is particularly
important in rural areas in the winter.
(I appreciate them on the main roads as well,
safety comes first in my book.)
I will continue to support all who
endeavor to perform this process correctly, but I will criticise those
who do it badly, out of ignorance or commercial gain.
Generally I have found the "guys" who do the work are out to
do a good job if the they are provided with the means of doing it, and
are not "over pressured" to produce unreasonable amounts of
"square metres" per day.
One last suggestion before I leave the subject, if we are going to
experience sudden heavy storms, it is not a bad idea to have a central
stock of clean small (3mm ish) chippings, so that if the storm hits
your dressing before the binder has broken and it starts to "pick
up" on vehicle wheels, do not hang about, just go in and cover
everything up with the small chippings and wait for it to settle.
You can make further appropriate decisions once the dressing is
stable, and you might just escape the local paper headlines.
More detailed information, and images of the process, can be found
from the,
Surface Dressing Menu
And finally, for those of you involved in the real work,
against all provocation from the public, and the idiot fast drivers,
stay calm, stay polite, and sweep as soon as it is safe to do so.
Good Luck.
Motto of the Month
"If you do
not go into the kitchen you will not get burnt, but you will go hungry."
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