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 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,

If you have a "gmail" account using this email address may provide a little more security.

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 )


[ Top of Page ]