Highways

Much of the mechanism to minimise the environmental impact of new, and upgrading of existing, roads is described in environmental impact statements (FIS). Recently, the community has played an important role in the preparation of EISs by assessing the potential impact and benefits derived from such statements Prepared by engineers....

Many Local Government authorities in Australia are finding themselves in the position where roads constructed many years ago are now showing signs of distress. This can be due to a deterioration in the riding surface, a loss pf structural capacity in the pavement itself or, as is often the case,...

The Brisbane City Council is responsible for maintaining approximately 5000 km of road. A Pavement Management System was developed in 1977 to formulate policy on the effective funding for the maintenance and rehabilitation of road pavements. Through this system all streets are visually assessed and classified with regard to surface...

Pavement performance audits have also assisted engineers to analyse vast amounts of data relating to the performance of various traffickable roads in the municipality. Assessing different rehabilitation or reconstruction strategies requires an understanding of the costs and longevity of different pavement types and treatments. Since rigid pavements outlast flexible pavements,...

Stabilisation, already widely used in road pavements in Australia, is being increasingly specified by engineers in three general areas: (a) To improve the engineering properties of sub- grade materials. (b) To modify or strengthen locally available materials which are often of a marginal quality in a situation of diminishing availability...

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the construction of concrete (rigid) pavements in NSW on both major highways and urban, municipal networks. Concrete roads have been constructed in configurations varying from two—lane carriageways to six-lane, dual-carriageway formations. Three major, heavily trafficked roads on which concrete pavements...

About 2700 delegates attended the five-day Congress which consisted of plenary sessions, committee reports and technical tours. The Association’s national infra— structure engineer attended the Congress to assess the relevance of new road technology for Australia. The Congress was organised by PIARC (a more detailed explanation of PIARC can be...

Signfcant changes in the costs and availability of key resources, which began to occur in the 1970s and are continuing in the 1980s, together with reassessments of the effects of traffic loads, particularly heavy traffic, are seeing reviews of the types of pavements and their design by road authorities in...

During 1990 large inland areas of Queensland and New South Wales were devastated by severe floods. Considerable media attention was devoted to the effect of these floods on people and their property. Evacuation, flood-relief oDerations and subseauent rehabilitation of towns damaged by the floods were widely reported. One element of...

The road transport system is a valuable and essential part of Australia’s infrastructure in which we all have an enormous stake. However, infrastructure is a long- term investment in the future and consequently receives little attention from the public unless something goes wrong or individually, we are affected by delays...

Construction of a major concrete road is nearing completion at South Melbourne, for the Country Roads Board, Victoria. The total area of pavement is nearly 70,000 square metres, equivalent to 19 lane Kilometer of roadway. The road forms the southern and northern approaches to the new bridge over the Yarra...

The Brisbane City Council operates a Pavement Management System for the identification of the pave- ment needs of the City’s 4400 km of roads. Roads with failed areas exceeding 20 per cent and in need of rehabilitation are identified by this system. One of the rehabilitation methods adopted for roads...