Light-Traffic Roads in France Towards New Practices

Decentralization has brought about significantly renewed interest in France in investments for regional and local roads, their rehabilitation and maintenance. Many methodological tools have been developed in the past 10 years to prepare and accompany these trends in areas in which cement concrete had played a sinall relative part in French engineering: roads in residential areas, small communal roads in rural areas, streets and roads in urban areas and major cities. These tools are gradually providing better knowledge regarding cement concrete designs and are contributing to the adoption of this material by contractors and contracting agencies. The overall rationale of this range of consistent tools, from design to maintenance, is described and may be examined in greater depth using the extensive bibliography.