LINKS TO SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON OFFICIAL AND SEMI-OFFICIAL WEBSITES
( Listed under broad subject headings )

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 the number of UK local authorities that are producing their own highway design specifications, perhaps this may be indicating the increasingly "open" 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,  

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"   (NEW)
CYCLE-WAYS
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 CONDITION SURVEYS
ROAD SURFACE FRICTION
SOIL MECHANICS, GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
STREETWORKS
TECHNICAL JOURNALS

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 )

CYCLE-WAYS

The Scottish Executive
Cycling by Design

( a very comprehensive guide providing reference to almost all matters relating to cycle-way, planning, design, construction, and maintenance )

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 )

University of Cambridge - Department of Engineering 
Acoustics (Tyre Noise)

( 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" )

Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute
The Influence of Road Surface Texture on Traffic Characteristics   

( this is just one page of an excellent website, but it demonstrates simply yet most effectively the difference between megatexture, macrotexture and microtexture, also the text is most helpful in indicating how these factors can affect road characteristics and vehicle tyre performance )

ROAD MARKING

Department of the Environment for Ireland
Guidelines Document for Road Marking in Ireland 

( this document provides a description of the current practices in road marking in Ireland, guidelines on good practices in relation to materials, equipment and laying are also outlined, performance criteria are set out for road markings whether comprised of thermoplastic material or any other acceptable form, tests for compliance and testing equipment are also described, the document also sets out specifications and standards to be achieved in road marking contracts,  conditions of contract and sample tender documentation are also provided - if you are new to road marking specification read this document )

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 )

Maryland Asphalt Association 
Hot Mix Asphalt, Pavement Design Guide

( this is an extremely useful guide that provides a very important insight in to the nature and design of bituminous mixtures for road pavements )

Hawaii Asphalt Pavement Industry (HAPI) 
Asphalt Pavement Guide 

( this is an exceptional and extremely comprehensive resource for engineer and student alike, with many photographs, graphics, and even video clips to illustrate the text, which covers almost all aspects of highways maintenance and construction, a MUST site to visit especially if you are on broadband ) 

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 )

BRE Projects - Building Research Establishment Ltd. ,Trading as BRE 

Testing of industrial products - Aggregates for construction

( a most informative site on the testing procedures of the various aggregate tests for determining aggregate properties, with reference to, and comparisons with, different tests that qualify similar aggregate characteristics, an excellent site to visit for the engineer and technician wanting to gain more understanding of aggregate testing )

RECYCLING, RECLAIMED ROAD CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)
Viridis, Aggregate Information Service

( this site provided access to many excellent information sheets, in .pdf format, on recycling road materials, including bituminous materials, from the recycling research body Viridis, a subsidiary organisation of TRL, the activities of the Aggregates Information Service (AIS) have now ceased and the information generated by the service has been transferred to the AggRegain website operated by WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme)

ROAD PAVEMENT AND BRIDGE DESIGN, SITE INVESTIGATION, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE

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 recent November 2004 amendment to the Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works, these are particularly useful volumes in relation to the content of this website, I advise you to download the relevant series appropriate to your work area, AND READ THEM THOROUGHLY )

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 importantly what has and has not been published, well worth a visit )

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 )

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 CONDITION SURVEYS

Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions
National Road Maintenance Condition Survey

( a copy of the 1999/2000 NRMCS report is able to be downloaded from this site in .pdf format, and there is also access to useful examples of the differing types of road failure recorded in this report )

Portsmouth University, Civil Engineering Department
Data Collection for the Purpose of Highway Maintenance, ( MARCH, CHART, RMMS, etc. )

( excellent information on the various methods of collecting data that will reflect the condition of highways )

ROAD SURFACE FRICTION

Transit New Zealand and WDM (UK)
International Conference on Surface Friction - 4th. May 2005 

( this inaugural international conference on Surface Friction for Roads and Runways was held in Christchurch, New Zealand, senior researchers on this subject from all over the world came together and presented papers relating to their work, all papers are available for downloading on this website, an extremely beneficial resource for those seeking guidance on this topic, there are several papers relevant to the current Thin Surfacing/SMA situation in the UK )

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 )

TECHNICAL JOURNALS

Nordic Road & Transport Research

( this is "a joint publication in English with the latest research findings of six public research organisations in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden", these substantial journals are all able to be downloaded in .pdf format, there are twelve issues available going back to 1998, I have not read them all yet, but they seem extremely informative and direct you to other work where more detailed information can be obtained, a MUST visit site for the serious researcher )


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