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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS AS SEEN BY A COUNTY SURVEYOR ---PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE IHT CONFERENCE, 1986, LONDON

The technical and financial consequences of national recipe specifications for highway materials are discussed. The adoption of local designs using regional specifications to achieve national end-results forms the basis of the proposals presented in this paper. Since a rigid national specification tends to prevent innovation and development, much wider use needs to be made of on-site and non-traditional materials in road pavement designs which are specific to the particular site; this requires the application of analytical techniques based on the quantified properties and engineering behaviour of materials to be subsequently verified by end-result measurement. The whole-life costing approach should be applied to elements as well as the overall scheme or highway budget in preference to an initial cost approach. Roads requiring maintenance must be designed to allow remedial work to be carried out readily and economically, thus avoiding future costs of signing, additional lanes, strengthening alternative routes, and high user costs caused by delays. This requires a change in the design of materials towards durability and re-utilisation, rather than initial performance in terms of stiffness as at present. The approach to road maintenance requiring remedial action at the end of the pavement life does not respond quickly to technical or environmental changes. In contrast, the diagnostic approach allows for any changes affecting the road network to be assessed and appropriate technical and financial action to be taken; it will increasingly make use of analytical methods of testing and evaluating existing roads, new products and construction techniques closely linked to designs and procedures based on engineering "end-results" rather than methods. Better use of computer-based data management systems will facilitate the analysis of the performance of existing roads and materials, and the development of improved materials and designs for the future, while allowing designs to be better tailored to local engineering and environmental conditions and using quality assurance procedures for the homologation of new products and techniques. A statistical risk based system for control and compliance testing linked to a performance-related payment system could be used as an incentive to achieve quality of the product at minimum cost, taking into account the whole-life costs of variation in quality, and not just the initial cost of supply. Based on whole-life costs, the level of investment in works must be commensurate with the needs of the highways and of the traffic. The application of these principles to specific examples (earthworks, drainage, sub-base/capping layer, roadbase and surfacing) is described. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 819701.

  • Corporate Authors:

    INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION

    6 ENDSLEIGH STREET
    LONDON,   United Kingdom  WC1H 0DZ
  • Authors:
    • Cottell, MNT
  • Publication Date: 0

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Pagination: 23 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00487862
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: Sep 30 1989 12:00AM