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The Idiots' Guide to
Highways Maintenance |
LINKS TO SOURCES OF
INFORMATION ON OFFICIAL AND SEMI-OFFICIAL WEBSITES
( Listed under broad subject
headings )
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I have decided to bring together links I
have come across in my browsing which I think are worth listing
as sources of "official" and "semi-official"
information.
These links offer an excellent opportunity for some serious learning on matters relating to highways maintenance and construction. In some cases the link will refer you to documents, although boring, you need to be aware of. It is also worth noting that some UK local authorities are producing their own highway design specifications, perhaps this may be indicating the increasingly "alternative option" nature of national specifications and the difficulty in understanding them. |
All these links did work when I set them up, but the "web" is, I have found, a continually changing environment so if you find one of these links does not work over a period of a few days, allow for problems at the other end, we all have them, perhaps you could let me know and I will remove the redundant link from the page, thank you.
I can be contacted at the email address to the right,
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IMPORTANT,
IT
IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO VERIFY THAT ALL INFORMATION REFERRED
TO ON THIS SITE, AND THE SITES TO WHICH THERE ARE LINKS, IS
CURRENT AND ACCURATE.
THE INFORMATION IS PRESENTED AS A
BASIS FOR LEARNING AND IS NOT NECESSARILY DEFINITIVE ! !
!
CONTENTS
AGGREGATES
- "PLANNING4MINERALS"
CONCRETE
BBA/HAPAS
- GUIDELINES DOCUMENT FOR THE ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION OF THIN SURFACING
SYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENT
(NOISE - POLLUTION - SAFETY)
ROAD MARKING
HOT BITUMINOUS
MIXTURES, DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
MATERIALS TESTING
RECYCLING,
RECLAIMED ROAD CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
ROAD PAVEMENT AND BRIDGE
DESIGN, SITE INVESTIGATION, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE
ROAD PAVEMENT
CONDITION SURVEYS
SOIL MECHANICS,
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
STREETWORKS
AGGREGATES
The British Geological Society
"Planning4Minerals"
( particularly browse the "Resources" section,
the information, pictures and diagrams related to the subject of aggregates is
refreshingly comprehensive and very well presented, this is just the sort of
information engineers and technicians need to study )
CONCRETE
British Ready
Mixed Concrete Association
"Technical
Guidance"
( I
especially recommend the "Technical Guidance" section of this website
where you will find a wealth of theoretical and practical guidance on the selection of concrete,
also the specifying,
testing and working practices related to ready mixed concrete, and most of the
information is able to be downloaded as .pdf files or as PowerPoint
presentations so that you may include the items in your own concrete technical
folder )
ENVIRONMENT
(NOISE - POLLUTION - SAFETY)
The Swedish National Road and
Transport Research Institute
Transguide
( a simple but effective website where many of the published works from most of
the Swedish research institutes involved in highway/road related topics can be
searched for, accessed, and possibly downloaded, a very impressive resource, try
searching for "Tyre/road noise - Myths & Realities, it is there, and it
will be worth the search )
( a very informative
site regarding the nature of noise generation from a tyre, it is good to see
this work being undertaken as part of an open and balanced approach to
environmental noise reduction, browse all the site, but you definitely need view
the "further links" options )
Highways Agency
Incident
on 28 February 2001 at Little Heck Railway Bridge, Issued August 2002
( I have linked to this item on the Highways Agency's website so that you may
access an extremely complete yet concise piece of writing on the
"total" subject of skid resistance of a road surface, including the
vehicles ability to dissipate forward energy, written by someone who obviously
knows their subject for those who need to know, it is found under the
sub-heading, "Composition and condition of the road surfacing" )
ROAD MARKING
Department for Transport
Department
for Transport - Traffic Signs Manual - Chapter 5 : Road Marking
( the document that will indicate how road
markings need to be laid out, with other associated information, the DfT are
prepared to provide it in .pdf format free of charge "for research, private
study, or for internal circulation within an organisation", therefore this
suggests to me that there is no reason why road markings should not be applied
correctly )
UK - Office of Public Sector Information
The
Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions
( this aspect of road marking is outside my area of knowledge, and I do not know
if this document is current but with a date of 2002 it is likely to be up to
date in most items, it is a very impressive, comprehensive, document to find
"on line", you need to browse it to understand my comments )
HOT BITUMINOUS
MIXTURES, DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
Federal Highway
Administration of the US Department of Transport
Hot Mix Asphalt for
the Undergraduate
(
a very special site that offers a course of instruction on hot
mix asphalt that is able to be downloaded, some of the files are
rather large, but it is certainly worth checking out, it pays
particular attention to the USA "Superpave" programme )
Asphalt Education Partnership
beyondRoads.com
( a community resource of interesting facts and
history relating to asphalt, you must visit this site if you only look at the
excellent interactive guide to asphalt mixing plants to be found under
"Explore", then "Tour a Plant", the best I have found on the
"web" )
MATERIALS
TESTING
Lincolnshire County Council Soils and Materials Laboratory
Lincs
Laboratory
( "Lincs Laboratory is a multi-disciplinary group
which provides a comprehensive range of soils and materials testing, data
capture and consultancy services to the construction and associated
industries", this is a site you must visit to see the range of support and
information a fully functioning laboratory can provide, it needs browsing
thoroughly if you are to gain all the benefit that this website can provide, you
then need to ask yourselves if your engineers and technicians are receiving the
same support )
Norfolk County Council Soils and Materials Laboratory
Norfolk Partnership Laboratory
( This website as well as making the browser aware of the
many comprehensive services it is able to offer in relation to highways
maintenance and construction also provides an internal link at the bottom of the
page, "Pavement temperatures on the A140 Scole Bypass", this link provides
interesting information relating to temperatures within the road pavement over
time, as well as overlay construction details, accessing this information is
recommended )
Transport Research Laboratory
NEW
!
TRL
Library : Publications
Many, probably most, of the TRL and
TRRL reports are now able to be downloaded free of charge from this website once you
have "registered" with TRL.
( this is a huge resource of
excellent researched technical information, you
will need to use the search facility to find the various reports that you wish
to study, I repeat these reports are now free to download, it is often necessary
to search on keywords in the document title rather than the report "number", my
advice is to take full advantage of this facility now as it is my opinion that
it may be withdrawn under pressure from other elements of the highways
maintenance industry )
RECYCLING,
RECLAIMED ROAD CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
ROAD PAVEMENT AND BRIDGE
DESIGN, SITE INVESTIGATION, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE
University of Washington
Pavement Guide Interactive
( I do not know why I have only just found
this website, it is a most excellent source of very comprehensive information on
all matters relating to highway pavement design, construction, maintenance,
materials, laboratory testing and much more, you must visit this site to
understand the completeness of the resource, it may be a site for those who
already have some technical training, but if you want to visit a site that
provides, more or less, all you will need to know on the subject of engineering
highways, this is the site to visit )
Highways
Agency
Design Manual for
Roads and Bridges and (on a trial basis) Volumes 1 & 2 of Manual of Contract
Documents for
Highway Works
(
a "mega" resource, all 15 volumes of the manual in .pdf
format, in handy manageable sections, this site is an absolute MUST for UK engineers and technicians, and a valuable learning
tool for the rest of the world, Volume 7 is the section most
applicable to highways construction and maintenance, it covers
just about ALL elements of the
subject,
to this already superb source of
information has been added, on a trial basis, access to Volumes 1 & 2 of the
current Manual of Contract Documents for Highway
Works, these are particularly useful volumes in relation to highways maintenance
and construction and hence the content of this
website, I advise you to download the relevant series appropriate to your work
area, AND READ THEM THOROUGHLY,
NEW :-
it is now possible by using the
"links" page of this website to access the website of the BBA and
download, in .pdf format, various Guidelines Documents for the assessment of
HAPAS approved products, including the,
"Guide Lines Document for the
Assessment and Certification of Thin Surfacing Systems for Highways", note "Systems", I recommend, and I hope
that you will study the document thoroughly if you are purchasing these products
for motorway and trunk road surfacing, as you must, or if you are considering
purchasing "Negative Textured Surfacing" NTS, for local highway networks
which at this time is not compulsory,
if you are confused
over NTS reading the Summer 2006 Newsletter
may provide insight )
Department for Transport
Department
for Transport - Traffic Advisory Leaflets
( although of more
interest to the specialised traffic engineer this website does contain advisory
leaflets on such items as the construction of "traffic cushions", and
"traffic humps", all these leaflets can be downloaded in .pdf format,
well worth a browse just to see what advice is available )
Highways Agency
Highways
Agency's Compendium of Research
( a very interesting site where you can find
out what has been researched, what is being researched and what is set to be researched
in the future, and most interestingly what work has been completed but has not been published, well
worth a visit if you have an inquiring mind )
UK Roads Board
UK
Roads Liaison Group
( an excellent site for keeping you up to date with new
and relevant codes of practice, "guide-lines" style documents, and
informative newsletters, many are able to be downloaded in .pdf format,
e.g. "Well Maintained Highways" if you fully explore the content of
the website )
Durham University,
Civil Engineering Department
Road Design
Examples
(
an excellent comprehensive site relating to road pavement design
in the U.K., in its many aspects, provided by Durham University,
a MUST visit site for the young engineer / technician, it
includes excellent worked examples on road pavement design for
the UK, work found on this site will relate, in part, to
information found in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges
referred to above, the site has separate sections on Traffic
Analysis, Site Investigation and Earthworks - this website appears to be
becoming out of date with regards to reference to current documents, however it
is still an excellent site to visit to understand the procedures of road design )
Leicestershire County
Council - Department of Planning and Transportation
Highways, Transportation and Development -
The Leicestershire Guide
( this site
has been almost totally reconstructed, it contains a huge amount of information and drawings appropriate to this
subject some of which can be downloaded in .pdf, and other useful formats, and
it now has many integral links to other "web" sources of information
appropriate to a particular topic, this is a most useful resource provided by
this authority and will not fail to enlighten on some aspect of designing,
constructing and maintaining a highway network, this is a "must visit"
site )
City of York Council
Technical
highway design drawings and specification
( an excellent website
presentation from a local authority, relating to the design requirements,
specifying and construction of highways, with the considerable bonus that
included drawings are able to be download in widely used CAD format )
University of Nottingham (Author - Andrew Dawson)
Engineering
the Forestry Road Pavement
( this may seem a rather unusual reference to include here, but this document
which is .pdf format explains the basic principles of road pavement construction
so well that it is an excellent reference to students and newcomers to the road
construction industry )
ROAD PAVEMENT CONDITION SURVEYS
Pavement Condition Information Systems (PCIS)
( This website is an extremely comprehensive resource on
the various topics involved in road pavement (and footway) condition surveys, it
is logically laid out, and if you pursue the many and various avenues you will
find a wealth of information on visual and machine based surveys, there is too
much to précis in this brief description so I suggest that you visit the site,
however as a more "practical" engineer it is my opinion that the various
"systems" on offer must remain a tool of the Engineer and not become the
dominant decision maker on what work should and should not be undertaken. )
SOIL MECHANICS,
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
GeotechniCAL - Based in the Faculty of the Built
Environment at the University of the West of England, Bristol
Educational Technology for Ground Engineering
( this site appears to be primarily offering web based
information to teachers and lecturers providing instruction in soil / ground
engineering, however it offers a large resource of information on soils
mechanics and absolutely superb examples of how this information can be
presented on the web, including self assessment tests of your knowledge, even I
could not resist testing myself, a very much recommended site for those needing
guidance on soils mechanics )
STREETWORKS
Department for Transport
Streetworks
Information
( all
the relevant official documents relating to streetworks are to be
found mentioned on this site, many are able to be down loaded )
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