Engineering petrology for roads in South Africa

The thirty different types of rock used by engineers in South Africa for road construction are described and the suitability of these rocks, and their weathering products, for road construction is discussed in the light of the South African geology and climate. Unconsolidated windblown sand, alluvial deposits and soil are not included.

The thirty types of rocks are divided into nine groups according to their petrological and road engineering properties. In some cases this grouping cuts across the traditional genetic classification of rocks.

Special attention is drawn to the importance of quartz in determining the quality and durability of rock to be used as aggregate in road construction.     

A three-dimensional mechanistic-empirical model for geocell-reinforced unpaved roads

Geocell is a three-dimensional geosynthetic product that was originally developed to confine granular bases and minimize permanent deformation of unpaved roads. Many laboratory and field tests have demonstrated the effectiveness of geocell reinforcement in roadway constructions. However, the lack of a well-established design method that can quantify the benefit of geocell reinforcement has greatly limited the application of geocell in roadways. This paper presents the development of a three-dimensional mechanistic-empirical (M-E) model for geocell-reinforced unpaved roads. The constitutive equation for the tangential resilient modulus of the base material was derived under a general three-dimensional condition. Two analytical models were introduced to estimate the compaction- and repeated load-induced residual stresses in the base layer. These analytical models consider the material properties and construction effects in a rational way thus can be used for various situations. Finally, the proposed M-E model was validated against the test results from four unpaved road sections. Comparisons between the calculated results and the test data show that the three-dimensional M-E model effectively simulated the permanent deformation behavior of geocell-reinforced unpaved roads under a large number of load repetitions, given that the unpaved road was stable under a repeated load.     

Weather effects on recycled concrete used as a paving material for roads

Transportation is vital for the economic and social development and prosperity of every country. Weather phenomena can significantly affect transportation, having huge impacts on the economy and transport user safety. Research indicates that the road transportation system is the most vulnerable system to weather effects. Results from a nine-year period in Cyprus showed that extreme weather conditions resulted in a 5.8 % increase in fatalities on the roads. On the other hand, there is pressure to develop more environmentally sustainable materials to be used in roads, considering the availability of natural aggregate resources and the amount of waste concrete material arising from construction and demolition. This paper describes the use of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) as a paving material in roads and its properties related to weather effects. Eight different concrete mixtures containing recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) were tested for the weather-related parameters of sorptivity, porosity and permeability. Results showed that the use of RCA and eventually RAC will affect the behaviour of road pavements, due to their higher sorptivity, porosity and permeability. However, it is believed that this will not be detrimental to the quality of road surfaces.     

山区道路泥石流工程防治原则与模式

绕行（避让）或穿越是道路面对泥石流灾区两种传统的处理方式。绕行就是远离灾区,穿越有从流通区或从堆积淤埋区通过两种模式。在淤埋区通过包括地上桥梁（忌用涵洞）和地下隧道两种模式。地上模式中还有从扇顶、扇腰或扇缘通过三种模式可供选择。这些原则与模式均与泥石流性质、规模和公路级别息患相关。本文对这些模式进行了对比研究,最后提出了道路泥石流工程防治的原则与模式。     

Avalanche risk assessment for mountain roads: a case study from Iceland

This paper presents an assessment of the avalanche hazard potential and the resulting risks on mountain roads for a 38.7-km-long section of road no 76 (Siglufjarearvegur) in northern Iceland following a regional scale approach developed in the Alps. The assessment of the individual avalanche death risk proved applicable to distinguish areas of avalanche hazard with a risk above the accepted level, which should be given priority in following detailed investigations and the planning of possible protective measures, from road sections where the avalanche death risk is low and accepted according to international practice. The cumulative individual and collective avalanche death risks in the investigated road section provide a comparable measure for assessing the avalanche hazard both within the Icelandic public road network and on an international scale. The case study on road no 76 in northern Iceland shows that a standardised regional scale risk-based approach is practical to determine, analyse and assess the avalanche hazard situation on mountain roads in Iceland and guarantees comprehensible, reproducible and comparable results as a basis for a sustainable planning of measures.     

Predicting and identifying traffic hot spots applying neuro-fuzzy systems in intercity roads

Providing safety in roads for the purpose of protecting human assets and preventing social and economic losses resulted from road accidents is a significant issue. Identifying the traffic hot spots of the roads provides the possibility of promoting the road safety which is also related to investigate frequency and intensity of occurred accidents. Accidents are multidimensional and complicated events. Identifying the accident factors is based on applying a comprehensive and integrated system for making decisions. Therefore, applying common mathematical and statistical methods in this field can be resulted in some problems. Hence, the new research methods with abilities to infer meaning from complicated and ambiguous data seem useful. Therefore, along with identifying the traffic hot spots, adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy inference system is used to predict traffic hot spots on rural roads. In this process, a fuzzy inference system from Sugeno type is trained applying hybrid optimization routine (back propagation algorithm in combination with a least square type of method) and accident data of Karaj-Chalus road in Tehran Province. Then the system was tested by a complete set of data. Finally, the stated system could predict 96.85 % of accident frequencies in the studied blocks. Furthermore, the amount of effective false negative in all cases included only 0.82 % of predictions, which indicated a good approximation of predictions and model credibility.     

The functions of roads according to regional political criteria

Conclusion The function profiles established within the framework of this research project are available as data files and cartographical representations. They form a fundamental input in the proposed dimensioning method, for the establishment of suitable constructive principles of road sections (either within the framework of a review of the existing network or for the planning of new roads). Above that the system of location and road section related indicators constitutes an extensive information basis for regional and traffic planning.     

用土工合成材料治理道路翻浆的研究

介绍了各种土工合成材料的排水、隔离、渗滤、加筋等功能作用。根据路基土的物理力学性能和水力性能与土工合成材料的材料特性,决定采用复合土工膜、沥青玻璃布、沥青棉胶布、竹排等,工程实践表明,采用了土工合成材料后,大大减轻了路基冻害现象,不失为一种较为理想的治理路基翻浆冒泥的方法。土工合成材料治理道路翻浆,可以使路基的破损程度降到最低,为车辆运行提供平坦的路面。     

道路行车荷载影响深度分析

提出了黏弹性边界单元有限元模型,用以研究行车荷载在道路中的有效传播深度。通过与Lamb问题的解析解及连盐高速公路实测结果对比分析,验证了数值模型用于研究车辆荷载在道路中引起的动响应具有很好的精度。应用该方法探讨了行车速度、道路各结构层的回弹模量对动响应沿道路深度变化的影响。研究表明,用附加动应力大小作为行车荷载有效传播深度的控制标准不足以反映车辆荷载对道路沉降的影响。尤其对建于软土地基上的道路,建议以竖向动应变作为界定车辆荷载影响深度的控制标准为宜。分析表明,软土地基中行车荷载引起的动响应的影响深度一般在6～10 m范围内,这对地基的设计处理和道路工后沉降的控制具有重要参考意义。     

Assessment of potential sediment disasters and resilience management of mountain roads using environmental indicators

In recent years, extreme rainfall events occur frequently, causing serious watershed sediment disasters, destroying mountain roads, and endangering the safety of residents' lives and property. This study aims to deal with the spatial change of potential sediment movement on the road slope pre-disaster and to screen disaster hot spots for early warning and control system. The conceptual model is used to simulate the distribution of primary and/or derived disasters on a watershed scale to assess the impact of sediment disasters caused by heavy rain event. Correlation analysis shows that the models in assessment of primary disaster and derived disaster are significantly correlated with the collapse ratio and disaster ratio, respectively. Since the primary disaster has been considered when calculating the derived disaster risk, the terrain subdivision along Provincial Highway 21 (Tai-21) is extracted to understand the derived sediment disaster on the road slope. The model can effectively evaluate the road sections prone to disasters. According to the risk level, the hot spot of road slope disasters and the management of disaster resilience are determined and can be the reference for disaster prevention and control.

     

The parallel roads of Glen Roy and adjacent glens, Scotland

The width and angle of outward slope of the parallel roads of glens Roy, Gloy and Spean have been measured at 787 points and road volume has been approximately determined at 236 points. Analyses of the measurements show that road widths are highly correlated inversely with the slopes of the hill sides on which they occur. Road volume is unrelated to hillside slope or to geology, but is highly correlated with length of fetch from south-west. Locally the roads resulted from fluvial (including fluvioglacial) depostion, but normally they are the result of erosion at the back and deposition at the front. It is maintained that the roads were not formed only by wave action but also by powerful frost action in the critical environment of the slightly varying lake level. It is inferred that each road was at first formed extremely quickly and, thereafter, developed very slowly     

Rehabilitation of storm water collection systems of urban environment using the small roads as conveyance channels

In this study a new grated inlet is proposed for small roads which do not have storm water collection systems. A setup was designed and constructed in the laboratory conditions to calibrate the grated inlet. The inlet is suggested to be installed at the end of the road where the road itself joins to another road or to a street. Thus, newly installed inlet will collaborate with existing storm water collecting system of the main road. Inlet structure covered by slots is installed across a 0.90-m wide flume which will act as a small road. The slots are longitudinal and parallel to the flow direction in order to curtail clogging. It is a tilting flume and both subcritical and supercritical flow regimes can be observed. The intercepted flow by the inlet is measured and the efficiency of the inlet is obtained in terms of longitudinal slope and the Froude number. It is observed that the grate efficiency gets higher as the longitudinal slope approaches to horizontal. Further the grate efficiency also depends on the total flow through the channel. As flow increases in the channel, the efficiency of the grate increases within the limit of the inlet or discharge channels capacity.     

The roads of the Sayan Mountains: Theorizing remoteness in eastern Siberia

The Sayan crossroads is a distinct cultural and economic region in the mountains of eastern Siberia. It spans three federal units in the Russian Federation: the national republics of Tyva (Todzha kozhuun) and Buryatia (Okinskii raion), as well as Irkutsk oblast (Tofalarskoe municipality). Attempts at integration by the state during the Soviet period and afterwards have privileged the construction of roads in a variety of forms to connect these areas economically with regional centers and, in turn, the rest of the country. Yet this process has been uneven and led to divergences in the economic regimes in each of the three regions that make up the crossroads. The evolution of subsistence economies, exploitation by extractive industries, and the development of tourism as an alternative source of income all differ across the three federal subunits. In turn, these divergences within the crossroads as a region point to variation in the condition of remoteness. Remoteness is an instance of relative immobility, determined by physical geography, environment, and ethnicity. And remoteness influences the function that roads play in integrating state spaces both economically and politically. In turn, this article argues for the foregrounding of the remote in the literature on mobilities in human geography, considering what the condition of remoteness allows for and forecloses in the articulation of state power and the integration of hard-to-reach areas.     

A tale of two roads: Land tenure, poverty, and politics on the Guatemalan frontier

Agricultural frontiers are hot spots for the most dramatic land cover change in the history of humankind: forest conversion to agriculture. They are also areas of unusually rapid population growth and acute poverty, with scant access to public services and infrastructure. Although a large body of literature explores the determinants of land cover change on the frontier, one issue that has been largely unstudied is that of frontier political and socio-economic development. This paper reports on data from 28 communities along an agricultural frontier in a core conservation zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), where the predominant land tenure systems at the community level appear to be related not only to land use, but also to political organization and human development indicators.     

A combined method to predict the long-term settlements of roads on soft soil under cyclic traffic loadings

In order to investigate the mechanism of the long-term settlement of road on the soft soil, an in situ measurement of a highway in southeast China was conducted during both the construction and post-construction stage. In the theoretical analysis, the long-term settlement of the pavement on thick soft soils was divided into three main components: the consolidation settlement, the creep deformation and the traffic load-induced deformation. The equivalent time line model based on the viscous–elastic–plastic theory was adopted to simulate the road settlement caused by the consolidation and creep of the subsoil. A cyclic strain accumulation model, which was obtained from laboratory tests of soil elements, was adopted to consider the road settlement induced by cyclic traffic loadings. A pavement dynamic response model was used to calculate the dynamic stresses in the subsoil generated by moving traffic loads when the road was open to service. It was found that the equivalent time line model combined with the cyclic strain accumulation model could predict the road settlement accurately at both the construction and post-construction stage. Numerical results showed that the traffic speed had limited effect on the post-construction road settlements for the speed range considered. The post-construction settlement of the road, mainly composed of the traffic-induced settlement and soil creep deformation, could be reduced significantly by increasing the embankment surcharge during the construction stage. The creep component accounted for over 10% of the total post-construction settlement, while the percentage of the creep deformation in total post-construction settlement decreased rapidly as the embankment surcharge increased.     

Investigations in Kenya and Malawi using as-dug laterite as bases for bituminous surfaced roads

Summary In Kenya 1974/5 and in Malawi 1984/5 trial sections of bituminous-surfaced low volume roads were constructed using as-dug laterite in place of stone or stabilized material as a base course.The laterite did not conform with any accepted specifications but performed equally well when compared with adjoining sections of road using stone or stabilized material as a base.The construction procedures employed are described. A period of 4–6 weeks between the compaction of the base and its surfacing is considered essential if the road is to perform satisfactorily. During this period it is exposed to the weather and traffic or to periodic watering and rolling. This treatment fills any cracks with dust or mud and closes them by the kneading action of rubber-tyred traffic. The bituminous surfacing is applied where the base has dried out to about half the optimum moisture content and is extended about 1.5 m beyond each edge of the carriageway.In 1984, $40000 US per km was saved in Malawi in this way, approximately 70% being in convertible currency without incurring additional maintenance or vehicle operating costs.     

热反射技术及其在多年冻土区道路热保护中的应用

热反射技术是一项被广泛应用于建筑物及道路表面降温的主动冷却技术, 国内外很少对此技术在多年冻土区道路热保护方面进行研究。针对多年冻土区气候及工程环境特点, 综述了热反射技术在冻土区道路中的应用现状和研究成果, 阐述了热反射涂层的基本成分、 反射机理和测试方法, 分析了路用热反射涂层的材料性能、 反射效果和路用性能, 简要介绍了热反射涂层在路基边坡应用方面的研究进展。指出在当前条件下利用热反射涂层保护多年冻土区道路所遇到的问题及可行的解决方案, 并在此基础上提出了今后研究的重点： 从材料选择、 理论分析和试验方法入手, 对路用热反射涂层的颜色、 反射性能、 路用性能和区域适用性进行改进和研究, 加强多年冻土区道路热反射涂层的野外试验和分析, 深入研究复杂气候和工程环境下的热反射涂层性能。     

Analysis of rockfall risk on mountainside roads: evaluation of the effect of protection devices

Many kilometres of roads are close to rock slopes that are prone to rockfalls. The fulfilment of safety requirements in such situations is a multidimensional design process involving public and private technicians in the assessment and management of the problem. In this paper, a rockfall risk management approach has been applied to the road infrastructure network of the Regione Autonoma Valle D’Aosta, in order to calculate the level of risk and of its reduction using rockfall protection devices. In order to better understand the methodology, a comparative analysis of road accidents in Aosta Valley has been discussed. The road risk assessment was developed taking into account the absence of rockfall protection devices, and when they are present, different levels of efficacy have been considered.     

压密注浆加固水泥混凝土路面脱空施工工艺与评价方法

文章通过城市地区旧道路的注浆前后弯沉检测分析,说明通过注浆加固可以解决路面脱空,有效提高旧水泥混凝土路面承载能力。同时通过工程实践总结出一套可供工程使用的压密注浆参数、控制和检测措施。     

Effect of rainfall and antecedent dry periods on heavy metal loading of sediments on urban roads

Concentration and mass loadings of heavy metals adsorbed on sediment from an urban road surface in Beijing were investigated. The buildup and washoff processes are discussed. Results showed that masses of sediments smaller than 500 μm in diameter varied from 11.2 to 25.5 g/m². On average, sediments smaller than 125 μm accounted for 42.9% of sediments smaller than 500 μm in mass. Cd, Cr, Cu, and Ni were more likely to attach to smaller sediments than bigger ones, compared to Pb and Zn. Mass loading of the sediments generally increased with antecedent dry periods, but the linear relationship was better for smaller sediments than for bigger ones. Heavy metal concentrations adsorbed on sediments with diameter less than 40 μm generally decreased more obviously than those adsorbed on bigger ones after rainfall events.