Conventional concrete safety barriers of the New Jersey type are frequently used in Belgium. At the end of 1993 more than 1600 km had been placed. Slightly higher precast safety barriers connected by a Swedish system have been successfully used especially to separate the traffic during reconstruction works of a...
Study of the Impact of Vehicles against Concrete Barriers Delimiting the Area of Approach to Narrower Carriageways in Function of the Barriers Feature
This paper examines the influence of the different factors that affect the problem of the collisions against the concrete safety barriers used to delimit the area of approach to narrower carriageways. In particular we have studied the influence on the damage of the vehicle and the shear strength necessary in...
Concrete Wheel Tracks – The Ecological and Economic Alternative in Rural Road Construction
The changes in the landscape happened during the last 40 years due to human activity have produced a slow change of mind. Therefore it is no wonder that also for road construction nature is taken more into account. The Concrete wheel track is a compromise. Firstly it prevents from covering...
Wheel Tracks the Compromise between Agricultural and Environmental Interests
Changes in society are giving rise to growing objections to surfacing any more sand roads. These objections are provoked by the interest in the environment, countryside and cultural history. On the other hand, agricultural developmont calls for continued mechanization in order to reduce production costs. This means, among other things,...
First Experimental Application of Deactivated Coloured Concrete in Belgian Road Construction
Deactivated coloured concrete is characterized mainly by two factors: its colouring and its surface treatment. Colouring is achieved by using preferable coloured aggregates and admixing the mortar with a dye. The surface treatment consists of chemical aggregate exposure. A first major experiment in Belgium combining coloured concrete and chemical aggregate...
Cycling on Peat
A cycle track had to be laid quickly on a poor load-bearing subsoil, 18 m of peat. The usual design would have caused excessive subsidence and damage to the adjacent road. The chosen solution was a "floating" structure. In the design the upward pressure of the groundwater was considered to...
Cement Concrete Structures in the Design of Urban Roadways
Urban roadways represent considerable stakes from both the quantitative and qualitative standpoints, with the almost permanent concern today for integration with respect to the site and to users of public spaces. A non-exhaustive review of the trends in practices and tools available to designers, builders and managers of urban roadways...
Urban and Pen-Urban Porous Pavements
The control of disturbances (noise, flooding, runoff water pollution, etc.) nowadays constitutes a major preoccupation of local populations. The roadway, in the diversity of the functions it performs in the urban and pen-urban scctor, can contnibutc activcly to the control of such disturbances. Porous pavements constitute a valuable area of...
Concrete a Material for Urban Development
These last years, the development of the road network in urban areas of France has taken a new direction. The aim is to improve the users safety as well as the traffic conditions. This new trend requires a geometrical development of urban areas, with regard to safety, aesthetics, intcgrotion into...
New Drainage Systems for Cement Concrete Road Structures
During a research programme on geocomposite draining materials, the Belgian Road Research Centre constructed and monitored comparative drainage test sections for a concrete block-paved road. The geocomposite drain was easier and quicker to install than the conventional granular drain. Three years of continuous monitoring of weather data, drainage outflows and...
Construction of Concrete Pavements on Bituminous Draining Bases
In January 1 9a9 1ro, ad section of 12 km, the access to Zaragoza from Huesca (Spain), was opened to the traffic. Works presented two main technical singularities in Spanish road design and construction. The first one was the introduction in Spain of the construction of rigid pavements on bituminous...
Concrete Block Pavement Structure with Porous Concrete Base
Heavily trafficked concrete block pavements (CBP) require a proper designed cement treated base, which however i.g. offer only a low water permeability. Hence water may accumulate in the beddinq layer and under unfavourable climatic conditions frost heavings and deteriorations can occur. This can be prevented by a base course of...