ROAD STRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE

The paper describes two ways in which the road maintenance engineer can assist in coping with the heavy vehicle; by making good the damage done by the heavy vehicle to the road and by minimising the effect of the vehicle on the amenities particularly by reducing the amount of noise produced. The paper first gives a definition of maintenance as including all those activities necessary to make good the effect of repeated passage of heavy vehicles on the road and proceeds to the conclusion that the road network used by heavy vehicles is the entire road network of the country and not only selected parts. Maintenance operations designed to make good damage are shown to be mainly concerned with the provision of adequate width and strength and improved radii at junctions. Action to minimize noise is indicated as covering the surface of the road and reinstatements, joints and manhole covers and gratings in the surface. The desirable features of surfaces are listed and the use of friction course to reduce both noise and spray is recommended and a specification is given in the Appendix.