THE
From
the Suez Canal
to the A9
It's surprising just how diverse our activities are.
Obviously with a name such as ours, you would expect to find us hard at work improving the nations
\
road network .
.But we're equally at home on more exotic projects-the Suez Canal Road Tunnel is just one example.
In conjunction with our Arab Partners, we have recently completed this impressive 1.64 Km dual
carriageway road tunnel for the Egyptian Government.*
Tarmac-building places to go and ways to get there.
Tarmac Construction Limited, Construction House, Birch Street, Wolverhampton WVl 4HY.
Telephone: Wolverhampton 22431. Telex: 336057
.Client: The Ministry of Development and New Communities Authority. Arab Republic of Egypt. Consultants - Tams/Ace
American/Egyptian Joint Venture. Contractors-Osmac Joint Venture,The Arab Contractors Osman Ahmed Osman & Co. Ltd.
Tarmac Overseas Ltd. Designers-Sir William Halcrow & Partners.
(
,.
"Where
..
:-:.:.
are we now, Holmes?"
"We ~,e on the track of the greatest mystery
of my career.
"But where exactly?"
"Well, if Cambridge is over yonder, and that's
S1. Neots 1 espy-"
"This should be the A45 trunk road!"
"[t would hardly be Baker Street:'
"But, Holmes! We were led to expect a severe
case of a rigid pavement in trouble-"
"- yet this is a capital pavement A perfect
paragon of pavements:'
"What on earth d'you make of it?"
"Ah, there's your mystery, Watson. My
sources inform me that the road slab had originally
subsided a full 40 mm and was rocking badly upon
its eroded sub-base foundation."
"Dashed awkward, eh Holmes?"
"Consider, Watson: here you have a situation
where access is limited, headroom is restricted, and
the density of traffic makes a diversion impractical:'
"Yet repairs seem to have been effected with
the utmost dispatch. Quite a poser, Holmes:'
"H'mm. They would have had to lift the
pavement. Yet [ am reliably informed that no crane
was seen in the vicinity:'
"Dashed uncanny, what?"
"That would account for the absence of traffic
delays and road closure:'
"You deduce something, Holmes?"
"I believe we are treading in the footsteps of
... Balfour Beatty,!"
"Great Scott! The BALVACpeople!"
"Just so! With the BALVACsystem, roads
can remain open to traffic throughout the whole
repair procedure. Ah, 1 see it all now. They will have
used their fiendishly simple space frames to raise the
pavement and carry out grouting. Can't have taken
them much above four hours:'
"Must have saved the Authorities a pound or
two, what?"
"Undoubtedly:'
"Holmes ... Been wondering, what exactly is
this BALVAC business?"
"Elementary! A proven repair process which
uses the vacuum principle to introduce resins into
voids under failed concrete slabs:'
"Mystery solved, eh?"
"Not quite, Watson. There's more to
BALVAC than meets even my trained eye. To
uncover the full machinations, we must make all
haste to Balfour Beatty Power Construction!"
"Holmes?"
.
"The BALVAC masterminds, of course:'
"I shall hail a hansom at once, Holmes:'
EB
HAL VAC Manager, Balfour Beatty Power Construction
Limited,
P.O. Box 12, Acornfield Road, Kirkby, LIVERPOOL
1.33 7UG.
Tel: 051-5485000 Telex: 627249
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CONTENTS
FRONT
.COVER
STORY
T
HE front cover shows just two
of the many sophisticated and
diverse projects carried out by
the Tarmac Group recently.
The SuezCanal RoadTunnel was a
joint venture operation in conjunction with Osman Ahmed Osman and
Co. Limited.
The shield, associated equipment
and trailers were designed, manufactured and erected by Messrs.
Bade & Theelen of West Germany.
The shield was equipped with 30
hydraulic rams giving a total shove
capacity of 10,000 tonnes. Excava.
tion was carried out by means of 3
backhoe excavators covering the
complete face and capable of
extending 1.2m for the excavation of
each ring. The handling of the segments and the ring building was
achieved by a segment conveyor
which placed the segments on a
rotating erector.
The other contract shown is a section of the A9 - Perth to Inverness
trunk road.
The photograph. on the cover
shows the Siochd Beag Bridge on
the Avielochan-Slochd section built
by Tarmac.
Consultants:- W. A. Fairhurst and
Partners.
Advertisement
Manager
David Platt
East Midland Allied Press
49 Broadway
Peterborough, Cambs
Telephone 0733-47711
Subscriptions
The Construction of the Ahmed Hamdi Road
Tunnel, Suez
D. A. Harries, SSc., FICE., MASCE
/
Geotechnical Aspects of Pavement Drainage
T. S. Ingold, SSc., MSc., PhD., DIC., MICE., MASCE.,
MSociS (France), FGS., MIHE
9
Financial Control By The Engineer'
R. Pollock, BS., MICE., MIMunE., MIHE., and
I. Gabriel, BS., MIMunE., MIH~.
East Midland Branch History H. S. Taylor
16
The First 20 Years
24
Legal Notes
27
Transport in the 1980s (The Fifth in a Series of
Six Letters to a Politician)
Sir Colin Buchanan, CBE.
28
Institution
News
31
34 '
Highway and Traffic Technician news
The Institution
of Highway Engineers
3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street,
London SW1 WOJS
Telephone: 01-730 5245/7
President:
Secretary:
R. J. Bridle, BSc., FEng., FICE., FIHE.
Miss P. A. Steel, BA.
The Institution
is responsible neither
opinions expressed in this Journal.
for statements
.
£20 per year (post paid) single copies £2.50
All subscription enquiries please to
EAST MIDLAND ALLIED PRESS .
Specialist Titles (Editorial and Advertising Services),
49 Broadway',
Peterborough, Cambs.
II
made
nor
ABCJI
MEMBER OF THE
AUDIT
BVREAU
OF ClRCVLATIONS
Composed and processed by
East Midland Litho Printers Ltd
Qundle Road
Peterborough
@ The Institution
NOVEMBER 1981
2
of Highway
Engineers
1981
T:HEJOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF H IGHWA Y ENGINEERS
D. A. Harries, SSe., FICE.,. MASCE.
<C
z
TUNNEL
a committee member of the British Tunnelling Society of which
he is a founder member. it being
formed after his attendance at the
OECDConference in Washington
in 1970.
THE AUTHOR
David Harries has had 30 years
practical experienceof major tunnelling 'works at home and overseasin rock and soft ground. Heis
a director of Kinnear Moodie. one
of the oldest established tunnel.
ling firms in the UK and now a
part of the Tarmac Group.
'
For the last four years Mr Harries has been a member of the
Supervisory Board of OSMAC, the
Anglo/Egyptian
joint venture
constructing the Ahmed Hamdi
Tunnel. He is presently serving as
d
THE PAPER
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2
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
The Paperdescribesthe construction of the bored highway tunnel
under the SuezCanalforming the
first permanent underground link
between Africa and Asia.The tunnel was constructed by a 50/50
joint venture of Arab contractors
and Tarmac Overseas from the
UK; the original site of the crossing - 8km from Suezat EIShatt
- was abandoned becauseolthe
unfavourable ground conditions
for tunnelling. Detailed site investigations located a sub stratum of
competent mudstone at Shallufa
where the tunnel was finally
located 6km from the original
site. A pilot heading confirmed
the continuity of the mudstone
under the canal end the shield
used for this operation was
modelled on the type to be used
for the main drive. The 10.4m
INTRODUCTION
The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is a
two-lane bored tunnel driven under
the Suez Canal, 16 kilometres north
of Suez. It is the first of several
permanent crossings of the canal
proposed by the Government of
Egypt in its plans for the development of Sinai. The tunnel commemorates General Ahmed Hamdi
of the Egyptian Army Corps of
Engineers who was killed directing
assault bridging operations at the
tunnel site during the 1973 war. The
hydro-static head of 40 metres acting
on the primary tunnel lining makes it
one of the deepest tunnels of its type
in the world. The great depth of the
tunnel is a particular requirement
arising from the need to allow for
long term development plans for
increasing the capacity of the canal.
Current work includes dredging
operations deepening the canal from
18 to 23.5 metres. A second stage is
planned which will increase the
depth to 27 metres.
internal diameter tunnel was driven in 16 months using a purpose-designed shield fitted with
mechanical excavators and a ring
erector for the pre-cast concrete
segmental lining. A special feature of the shield. which weighted 400 tonnes, was the bac~ up
trailer 120m long fitted with lifting gear for assemblinga pre-cast
concrete permanent road deck
which was kept at a distance of
approximately 40m behind the
tunnel face. This road deck Wes
used for all construction traffic
and is a unique feature of the
tunnel. The Paper describes the
manufacture of the pre-cast concrete segments required for the
primary lining and the waterproofing measures.The tunnel is
one of the deepest of its type in
the world and the primary lining
is designed to accommodate the
movement
anticipated
from
future dredging operations in the.
Canal.
The Paper concludes with a
brief description of the secondary
lining, ventilation and control sec.
tions of the tunnel.
NOVEMBER 1981
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HISTORY
In May 1974 the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction
awarded a
contract
to the Arab Contractors
{Osman
Ahmed
Osmanl
for the
design and construction
of a bored
tunnel at EI Shatt, 10 kilometres
north of Suez. This was the site of a
former bridge crossing known as EI
Kubri at kilometer 148.5. Soon afterwards, Arab Contractors issued invitations to pre-qualified
International
Companies to participate with them
in a joint ventu re for the design and
construction of the tunnel. Six offers
were received
and after detailed
appraisal a contract was awarded to
OSMAC, a 50/50 joint venture of
Arab Contractors and Tarmac Overseas with Sir William
Harcrow &
Partners responsible to the joint ventu re for the overall design of the
works.
The contract
which
was
based upon FIDIC became effective
at the end of August 1976. Prior to
this date a preliminary
agreement
provided for the OSMAC joint ven.
ture to be reimbursed for the cost of
early stages of the work. The basic
design criteria for the tunnel cros-
Curved tunnel
sing inCluding the following requirements:
'
(alOne
two-lane road with a lane
width of 3.75 metres;
(b) A maximum road slope of 3.5 per
cent;
(c) Number of vehicles at normal
conditions 500/hour;
(d) Minimum
overburden
under
canal bed level equal to 6.5 metres
after final deepening and drilling;
(e)
Fully
transverse
ventilation
system.
SITE INVESTIGATION AND DESIGN
Site investigation at EI Shatt commenced in November, 1975, and by
March,
1976, 30 boreholes
had
revealed very difficult ground cond;, tions for tunnelling, which included
run ning sand, gravel and artesian
water. During this period a basic
design for the tunnel crossing normal to the canal had been prepared
by Sir William Halcrow and Partners.
For the next two months further sites
were investigated north and south of
the EI Shatt location. Following this
extended
site
investigation
the
designer recommended a new location for the tu nnel at Shall ufa. Bore
holes adjacent to the proposed new
centre line of the tunnel confirmed
that the sub-strata was a very hard
blue clay which appeared to extend
throughout
the entire length of the
works. 'The new alignment
of the
tunnel included a horizontal S bend
which was required to prevent the
,eastern portal from being sited on
relatively high ground. The length of
the tunnel was 1,640 metres. In July,
1976. the tunnel was re-located at
chainage 142.5km at Shallufa, Figure
1.
It was the intention at EI Shatt to
drive a pilot tunnel along the entire
length of the main drive using it as a
drain during construction.
The good
strata on the east and west banks
revealed by the site investigation
at
Shallufa made it possible to substitute a short pilot heading under the
canal in place of the original pilot
tunnel. As the bore hole data also
indicated that ground water would
not be present in significant
quantities the pilot heading was re-sited
in the crown of the main drive,
Figure 2.
The basic design of the main tun-
Provision tor
extra searing
Rubber sealing
gasket
Latex concrete
pads
epoxy
coaling
NOVEMBER 1981
THE JOURNAL OFTHE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
3
iTHE CONSTRUCTION OF THE AHMED HAMDI
nel specified a shield driven tunnel
with a fully bolted 600mm thick precast reinforced concrete segmental
lining forming a ring 10.4 metres
internal diameter. This concept was
retained for the Shallufa site to
obviate any delays in the ordering of
equipment
with
long
delivery
p~riods such as segment moulds
and the main shield, Figure 3.
METHOD
. Eight quotations for' the main
shield were received by OSMAC and
the proposal from Bade and Theelen
of West Germany. was eventually
adopted.
The Bade design was based on a
Greathead shield 11.8 metres external diameter weighing approxi-
mately 430 tonnes equipped with 30
shove rams each of 300 tonne capacity plus a small key ram. Three back
hoes were mounted in the shield two
operated on the upper 60 per cent of
the face area and the third machine
acted both as an excavator for the
lower 40 per cent of the face a rea and
as a loading-out machine to a chain.
conveyor located in the invert of the
shield. Due to the size of the face and
to ensure safe working conditions
the shield was fitted with three working platforms and tables. A rail
mounted trailer was attached to the
shield to support the main muck
conveyors, the hydraulic
power
packs
and
a
special conveyor for carrying 15 seg-
ments which advanced them consecutively to a ring-type erector arm.
The trailer was equipped with an
overhead travelling crane of 12
tonne capacity required to assemble
the pre-cast units forming the road
deck. The total installed power of the
equipment was 700 KVA, Figure 4.
The original construction time for
the tunnel at EI Shatt was intended to
be three years which meant that time
was not available for a road deck to
be constructed after the tunnel had
been driven. The road deck was
designed therefore to be installed
concurrent with the main drive and
used for construction traffic. Several
proposals for the design of the road
deck were considered at the initial
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONOF BADE SHIELD
Operational weight of shield
Operational weight of trailers and equipment
.Total installed power
Number of shove rams
Total capacity of shove rams
.Hydraulic pressure of system
Stroke of shove ram s
Forward speed of shove rams
Nurn ber of face excavators
Rip out force of excavators
Number of shield working platforms
Load capacity of segment erector
C~paC:ityof materials handling crane
Capacity of gantry crane
Weight of segment
Weight of road deck culvert unit
Weight of road deck side unit
Solid volume of excavation
:
:
,
:
:
:
Production Statistics
Best production achieved in 8 hour shift
Best week's production achieved
Best sustained production achieved over a 4 week period
Mobile segment
conveyor
:
750 Ton ne
250 Tonne
700kW
30
10.000 Tonne
400 Bar
1.5M
75 MM/MIN
3
50 Tonne
3
4.0 Tonne
2.0 Tonne
12.5 Tonne
3.2 Tonne
12.0 Tonne
6.0 Tonne
131 M per ring
3.24M
44.40M
162.00 M
Segment handling
crane
\. "tM"
~.:.~r~
'f\':.:..~~,;.'!-/;/ "._::;:~' ..~'J
.'
Fixed chain
conveyor
L.
4
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
.....
rJ ......
_',
Retractable
belt conveyor
.-.
....
'~04
'/
......
•.
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25-90 m
NOVEMBER1981
ROAD TUNNEL; SUEZ
design stage and the scheme finally
selected was a three-price
pre-cast
concrete structure comprising a culvert unit and two side slabs extending over two rings i.e., 2.4 metres
long. The programme was based on
the concept of driving the tunnel on
three eight hour shifts and separating the face operations entirely from
those concerned with the assembly
of the road deck. The length of the
trailer enabled the distance between
the end of the road deck and the
tunnel face to be varied from 30 to 90
metres wit~out
interruption
to the
general advance of the shield, Figure
,
i1
5.
PRIMARY LINING
The primary lining of the main
tunnel comprises ordinary pre-cast
concrete
segments,
two top segments and one key, making a flexible
ring when bolted together. The ordinary segments have a reinforcement
content of 0.18 tonnes/M', weigh 3.2
tonnes each and are 1.2 metres long.
The initial design calculations
had
indicated
that
as the
ground
settled around the tunnel the vertical
diameter could decrease by 20mm
and that when the overburden
is
subsequently removed by the dredging and widening of the Suez Canal
the vertical diameter could increase
by 110mm. A proprietary pre-formed
pad of latex cement 12mm thick,
285mm wide and 1,200mm long is
fitted at the cross joints of the segments. These pads are a design feature and will accommodate
not only
the movement anticipated in the tunnel lining, but, also limit the contact
and bursting stresses in the segments. Because of the wet conditions
originally
anticipated
at EI
NOVEMBER 1981
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Figure 5.
Shatt three
water
barriers
were
incorporated
in the basic design of
the primary lining and were retained
initially at Shallufa. The first water
barrier is a neoprene gasket which
forms a continuous
band around
each segment.
The second barrier
comprises
a 40mm diameter semicircular groove in the concrete which
THE JOURNAL
forms a circu lar joint sealant duct
when the rings are fully assembled.
A flexible resin sealant was specified
for injection into this duct. The third
barrier is a caulking groove.
Both concrete moulds and steel
fabricated shutters were considered
for the pre-cast segments. Notwithstanqing their size, concrete moulds
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
5
lTHE CONSTRUCTION
showed a considerable overall price
advantage over the steel shutters
and an order was placed with
Messrs. C. V. Buchan for the supply
of seven rings of parallel-sided
moulds and seven rings of tapered
moulds for the curved section of the
tunnel.
PROGRESS OF DRIVE
In January, 1977, open-cut excavation
commenced on the west
approach to the tunnel which
included - at that time - a short
length of cut and cover tunnel. Sinking was also commenced for the
pilot shaft adjacent to the west bank
of the canal approximately 600
metres from the west portal. The
6.00 metre diameter shaft was sunk
as a caisson for the first five metres
until the hard mudstone' made it
necessary to remove the choker ring
and commence under-cutting and
lining in the normal way. The shaft
lining was caulked and grouted as
the work progressed. The pre-cast
segments used to line both the pilot
shaft and the pilot heading were
imported from the UK making it
possible for an early start to be made
on these works:The shaft was bottomed up at a depth of 43 metres in
May 1977. The late President Sadat
inaugurated the pilot heading on
September 15th, 1977, nine months
after work had commenced on site.
The pilot shield was a 3.66m diameter hand shield fitted with a single
back hoe excavator for mucking out
to a conveyor loading two cubic
metre mine cars.
The favourable ground conditions
exposed by the open cut excavation
made it possible to eliminate the cut
and cover sections and an open cut
excavation with battered sides was
substituted on both west and east
approaches. To provide a reaction to
the initial thrust required to launch
the shield, it was necessary to place
approximately 7,000 cubic metres of
concrete in the west portal structure
and the centre section of the ventilation building. Concreting on this section commenced at the end of 1977
by which time open cut excavation
was well advanced.
The firm dry mudstone encountered during shaft sinking continued
to be encountered in the pilot heading which had been advancing satis~
factorily on a single shift basis at 2'123 rings per eight-hour shift. Accordingly, early in 1978 the designer
reduced the scope of the waterproofing measures by limiting the use of
neoprene gaskets to three areas
where it was expected that water
might be a problem, namely, the
west and east portals and the main
,6 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
OF THE AHMEDHAMDI
drive 'where it passed through the
pilot shaft. A cheap but effective preformed plastic strip was used to prevent grout entering the sealant ducts
by fixing it into the gasket groove on
the segments.
By May 1978 the pilot heading had
advanced approximately 330 metres
and a good co-relation had been
observed at that chainage between
the material at the face and the nearest borehole to it on the east bank. It
was agreed under these circumstances to term inate the pilot heading at that point.
During April 1978 the first sections
of the main shield arrived on site and
by the end of July the portal works
on the west bank were ready to act
as a reaction for the shove rams of
the main shield. Due to fabrication
and delivery
problems it was
October 1978 before the 1,300 tonnes of steelwork comprising the
shield and trailer were finally erected
and ready for acceptance trials. During -this period large stocks of segments and road deck units were produced and concreting of the ventilation buildings and portal area on the
west bank was continued. The concrete segments for the primary lining
were cast in moulds set up in two
parallel production lines in openended sheds each 60 metres long.
Concrete was delivered to the
moulds by tractors equipped ,with
high
discharge
buckets which
enabled them to empty direct into
the moulds. An average production
rate of five complete rings per day
was achieved. Stripping of the
moulds was completed 24 hours
after casting and a curing compound
was sprayed on the concrete. The
segments were then transferred to
rail mounted flat bottomed bogeys
using portal cranes. The segments
were cured in tanks where after four
days total immersion in water an
average of 80 per cent of the characteristic strength was achieved. After
curing the segments were stored in
the open in complete rings where an
epoxy tar was applied to the ,outer
surfaces and areas of minimum
cover as an additional protection
against chloride attack. The latex
cement pads for the cross-joints and
the neoprene gaskets were also fit,ted in the storage area. The road
deck culvert units were cast upright
at the rate of three per day using a
production line of six steel shutters.
After casting the entire mould was
protected by a wet hessian screen for
four days prior to striking.
During the two month commissioning period 'of the main shield
which commenced in October 1978,
35 rings were built in the portal area
in order that the shield could shove
itself forward until it was buried. In
late January 1979three-shift working
commenced on the tunnel drive until
Ring 340 in the middle of June that
year when a major breakdown occurred due to the failure of a Kingpost
bearing support in the bottom
excavator. Four weeks were required
to carry out the repairs. Full advantage of this time was taken to
remedy various operational faults
which had developed during the first
few months of continuous working
with the shield and back-up equipment. One of the principal sources of
delay was the muck conveyor
system. The mudstone tended to
break into large lumps which caused
considerable wear and tear to the
belts and idlers in the conveyor runs.
The problem was overcome by
strengthening the conveyor supports, particularly at the transfer
points where the damage was
mainly concentrated. The modifications proved very effective in practic~ and the average weekly downtime of the conveyor system was
reduced from 40 per cent to 7 per
'cent. At the same time access to the
face was improved by removing the
upper working platform but retaining
the breast plates. This modification
greatly increased the digging speed
in the upper section of the face.
Following the repair to the lower
excavator and the refurbishing of the
conveyor system driving recommenced at Ring 340 during the last
week of July and from that date the
average rate of progress to completion of the drive in April 1980,
throughout 42 consecutive weeks
increased to 24 rings per week or 29
metres advance. Compared with the
rated performance of the overall tunnelling system of six rings every 24
hours this output represented a sustained availability of 66 per cent.
Peak output rose to 36 rings on
several occasions. A typical cycle
comprised: mucking 1%-2 hours;
building 50 minutes; shoving 30
minutes.
Working round the clock caused
many problems to the setting up of a
planned
maintenance
system.
Throughout
the
com missioning
period and crew-training, fitting staff
were mainly employed making onthe-spot modifications and adjustments which took away valuable
maintenance time. The problem was
greatly eased, however, once the
construction routine and confidence
with the equipment had been established. It was then possible to complete two rings in 6%-7 hours and
NOVEMBER 1981
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=S=UE=Z=======~
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f
the time remaining in every eighthour shift when the target output of
two rings had been achieved was
given over to routine maintenance as
a standing procedure. Figure 6
shows the shield at the east portal.
DREDGING AND CANAL
Early in 1977 it transpired that it
would be possible for the first stage
of the dredging of the Suez Canal
above the tunnel to be completed
prior to the main drive. On the basis
that,the pre-dredging would be carried 'out one year before tunnel construction calculations demonstrated
that the dredging could relieve the
adverse effects of ground movement
by producing a reduction of approximately 35 per cent in the calculated
movement of the tunnel. This was
estimated to have the additional
effect of reducing contact stresses
and a consequent reduction in bursting stresses in the lining. The
benefits arising from pre-dredging
were considered to be worthwhile
and the first stage was carried out
ahead of the main drive. First stage
dredging took place to widen the
canal above Ring 760 to 900 during
1978. In December 1979, soon after
NOVEMBER 1981
the main shield passed Ring 760, it
was noted that the ground at the
tunnel face was tending to break
away more easily in the upper part of
the face and more frequently. This
tendency to break back to the bedding planes and at minor fissures
continued and it soon became apparent that unless a fault was being
transversed the ground might be
demonstrating the possible effects of
a stress release due to dredging. At
Ring 809 a large fall from the crown
necessitated a brief halt to the drive.
A re-examination of the bore-hole
logs confirmed that fault conditions
were not present which supported
the assumption that the ground conditions presently being experienced
were possibly due to a stress'release
accentuated by a local increase in the
frequency of silt bands which were
indicated in the bore-holes. The drive
was re-started and continued successfully until the ground conditions
reverted to normal in the vicinity of
Ring 890 which marked the limit of
the dredging operations. Once the
tunnel crews became accustomed to
the ground conditions they achieved
a peak outout of 26 rings in a week.
The total time required to transverse
the loose ground amounted to five
weeks, during which period
shield advanced 90 rings.
the
GROUTING
A key operation In the quality of
the ring build and rate of a tunnel
advance is the back grouting of the
primary lining. At Ahmed Hamdi the
width of the annulus to be filled was
130mm which required approximately 6 cu. metres of material per
ring for the immediate filling of the
void. The void was filled initially with
a dry crushed dolomite of 10mm
maximum size injected by an Aliva
260 Pump into the ring through
50mm diameter holes in the segments whilst the shield was being
shoved. Subsequently, the dolomite
was cement grouted without causing
any leakage problems in the tailskin.
Cement grout was mixed in a twin
drum mixed on the road deck from
where it was pumped to the injection
point normally up to four rings
behind the shield. The final grouting
of the crown was completed up to 50
rings behind the tailskin.
CONTROL OF SHIELD
Steering of the shield and the control of roll did not prove a major
problem. The shield was fitted with a
bead giving an additional 20mm
clearance to assist with its control.
Initially, roll control jacks were fitted
at the leading edge of the shield.
These proved cumbersome to use
and they were eventually replaced
by a greatly improved system employing a hydraulically operated blade
fitted on either side of the shield
body similar to a more conventional
plough. During a brief period in the
first section of the drive the shield
was operated without a bead whilst
the modification to it was carried out.
During this time the control of the
roll became extremely difficult and
the problem was only overcome
when the modified bead was refitted.
A laser guidance system was used as
a quick means for checking the
attitude of the shield. Normal checking of the roll and inclination of the
shield was carried out on every shift
by engineers using conventional
methods. The road deck units were
brought from the casting yard on a
special trailer designed to carry one
complete road section comprising
one culvert unit and two deck slabs.
The trailer was towed into the tunnel
by a county tractor where the overhead crane on the shield trailer
removed the units and placed them
into position. The two road slab units
were then positioned by the overhead crane to complete a 2.4 metre
length of road capable of carrying
construction traffic once the plastic
THE JOURNAL OFTHE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 7
filler in the shear key had"set.
NADIR SUMP
. A .nadir sump was constructed by
sinking a small shaft from within the
tunnel. This sump is lined with 3.5
meter diameter cast iron segments.
Construction was facilitated by the'
!-lse of special steel segments in the
Invert of the primary lining which
were removed when shaft sinking
commenced at the conclusion of the
main drive.
TEMPORARY
VENTILATION
.Temporary ventilation was' provided by two fans outside the west
portal feeding air to temporary ducts
connecting to the permanent ducts
in the road deck. These fans were
capable of supplyi ng 98 cu. metres of
air per second.
CONCRETE
Three batching plants provided
concrete for the works. On the west
bank and Econbatch P55 was used
exclusively for all in situ work whilst
a P35 provided the requirements of
the pre-cast yard. On the east bank a
single P35 plant was sufficient for all
the in situ work. Coarse and fine
aggregate supplies for the east bank
were taken by lorries across the
canal on a ferry powered by four
Harbourmaster units. All cement
deliveries were debagged on the
west bank for both batching plants
and blown into storage silos for
immediate use. Cement was drawn
off the main silos of the P55 at the
west bank and conveyed a 10 tonne
bulk trailer to the east bank. Tests
had demonstrated that it was not
possible to achieve 42.5 N/M concrete using locally manufactured sulphate resisting cement and cement
was imported from Germany for use
in the pre-cast units only. A very high
quality washed dolomite aggregate
was used in all the concrete. Problems with the high ambient temperature were avoided by the use of
refrigeration units which cooled the
mixing water to 50°C when required
and maintained the temperature of
the mixed concrete below 30°C.
dary" lining required it to act as a
watershed for any small leakage
through the primary lining. The dry
state of the primary lining made it
possible to eliminate the original
requirement for a watershed. This
produced a design where the secondary lining is bolted directly to the
pre-cast concrete segments leaving
only a small gap for minor drainage.
The material used for the secondary
lining is a locally produced laminated plastic or Formica which was
supplied in sheets of thicknesses
ranging from 4-8mm depending on
their final location in the tunnel. In
the roof of the exhaust void a plain
utilitarian finish is used whilst a yellow tinted matt finish material is
employed on the tunnel walls and
the facings to the walkways.
TUNNEL APPROACHES
The total length of the crossing
including approach ramps is 4.2
kilometres. Traffic approaching the
tunnel will be regulated and checked
at the vehicle control areas situated
at the commencement
of the
approach ramps in the west and east
"banks of the Canal. The main control
room is situated at the west portal.
Remote control television cameras
and air sampling equipment will
enable the operators in the control
room to study conditions in the tunnel and operate as nec"essaryall the
tu nnel services including the "lights,
fans and emergency services.
CONCLUSION
The history of the design and construction of Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is
unusual because it is perhaps one of
the few examples in the world where
a major tunnel has been completely
resited to take advantage of favourable ground conditions. Great credit
is due to the Egyptian authorities
who, despite the initial delay to the
project, agreed to extend the site
investigation and ultimately re-site
the tunnel.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel has
been promoted by the Ministry of
Development and New Communities
and their permission to publish this
paper is gratefully acknowledged by
the author."
Client: The Ministry of Development
and New Committees
Consultants: TAMS/ACE, an American Egyptian Joint Venture
Contractors: OSMAC JOINT VENTURE. The Arab Contractors Osman
Ahmed Osman & Co. Ltd. Tarmac
Overseas Ltd
Designers: Sir William Harcrow &
Partners
VENTILATION
The tunnel has a fully transverse
ventilation system which entailed
the construction of inlet and exhaust
shafts at both the west and east
portal areas. Fresh air is ducted from
the inlet shafts via fans into the ducts
beneath the road deck. The air is
then forced into the road area and
extracted via grilles in the pre-cast
concrete suspended ceiling which
forms the base of an exhaust duct in
the crown of the tunnel.
SECONDARY
LINING
The initial concept for the secon-
8 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
NOVEMBER 1981
,
I
I
L
THE AUTHOR
After graduating from the University of London in 1966 Dr. Ingold
was involved in the design and
construction
of several
rural
motorway
projects. He is currently
employed
as
Chief
Engineer,
Ground
Engineering
. Ltd., and also manages Geotextile
Consultants
Ltd, with
responsibilities
for both geotechnical
and geotextile
consultancy,
In
1980 he was awarded the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy by Surrey
University for his work on reinforced clay and earlier this year
was appointed Visiting Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
Queen's University, Belfast.
Or. Ingold
Dr. Ingold,
who joined the
Institution in 1969, is the author
of over 30 technical publications
including three papers published
in this journal, the most recent in
July, 1981.
THE PAPER
To maintain the integrity of a
pavement
it is necessary
to
ensure adeq~ate drainage of both
the pavement structure and formation. If this is not achieved
then the pavement may suffer
rapid deterioration
under the
action of pumping
caused by
dynamic traffic loading. Consideration is given to common modes
of ingress of water, such as
upward flow from artesian aquifers and springs as well as soil
suction which may prove critical
in cohesive sub-grades with high
water tables. An often neglected
mode of water Ingress is surface
infiltration though the pavement.
For moderate
rates of surface
infiltration
analytical
assessments indicate that the sub-base
should act as an efficient interceptor drain provided that the
initial permeability
of the subbase is maintained for the design
life of the pavement. This can
only be achieved if the sub-base is
protected from incursion of fines
from the formation which would
reduce permeability
and thus
drain efficiency.
NOVEMBER 1981
GEOTECHNICAL
ASPECTS OF
PAVEMENT
DRAINAGE
T. S. Ingold, BSc., MSc., PhD., DIC., MICE.,
MASCE., MSocIS(France)., FGS., MIHE
INTRODUCTION
isms
associated
deterioration.
Mention of the word "drainage" is
for many engineers synonymous
with a system of coping with storm
water run-off. Although such drainage is necessary for the adequate
operation
of a highway
under
adverse weather
conditions
subsurface drainage, especially of the
formation, is vital if the integrity of
the pavement is to be maintained for
the full design life. This philosophy
was advanced and staunchly advocated by McAdam (1820) who stated
DESIGN AND DETERIORATION
"it is the native soil which really
supports the weight of traffic; that
whilst it is preserved in a dry state it
will carry any weight without sinking. if water passes through a road to
fill the native soil, the road, whatever
may be its thickness, loses support
and goes to pieces", The precautions
to guard against water ingress and
its attendant problems were humorously su mmarised
by Cedergren
(1914):- "There are three things
necessary to get a good road bed
and they are drainage, drainage and
more drainage." Before considering
how this might be achieved it is
useful to examine the current design
method and some basic mechan-
with
formation
Design of pavements in the United
Kingdom
is based on the CBR
method, thus once a design life and
traffic loading have been decided
then, with due regard for frost action,
the thickness of the pavement is
largely a function of the California
Bearing Ratio (CBRI of the subgrade
at formation level. The CBR for a soil
is a function of the soil type and the
groundwater
conditions,
this
is
reflected in Road Note 29, DoE
(1910), from which Table 1 is reproduced.
As can be seen the position of the
water table has a very marked effect
with the CBR value being decreased
by between 20 per cent and 10 per
cent for water tables less than
600mm below formation level. However it has been pointed out, Black
and Lister (1919), that these values
are based on results from laboratory
and field tests on soil at its natural
moisture content, namely the moisture content that occurs in natural
soil at a depth of one metre or so
where normally there is little seasonal change in moisture content.
TABLE 1
Plasticity
Index
%
Type of
Soil
Heavy Clay
Silty Clay
Sandy Clay
Silt
Sand (poorly gradedl
Sand (well graded)
Well graded sandy gravel
10
60
50
40
30
20
10
-
Non-plastic
Non-plastic
Non-plastic
CBR %
For depth of water table below
formation level
more than 600mm/600mm
or less
2
2
2.5
3
5
6
1
2
20
40
60
1
1.5
2
2
3
4
5
1
10
15
20
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWA V ENGINEERS
9
GEOTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PAVEMENT" DRAINAGE
Any deviation from these water table
and moisture content conditions can
have a drastic effect.
Deterioration;
The overall mechanism of subgrade
and hence pavement deterioration is
very complex; however, one major
factor is the presence of water. In the
case of cohesive subgrade soils one
effect of water can be illustrated
though the work of Dennehy (1978)
who concludes that for a wide range
of British clays there is a linear loglog relationship between remoulded
undrained shear strength, Cu, and
moisture content. It can be shown for
example that the undrained shear
strength of a silty clay with a plasticity index of 30 per cent would drop
from approximately 115 kN/m' to 46
kN/m' for an increase in moisture
content from 14 to 17 per cent. The
significance of this becomes apparent on inspection of equation (1),
Black (1979), which relates the numerical value of CBR to remoulded
shear strength and indicates in this
case a reduction in CBR from 5 to 2
per cent.
CBR=Cu/23
(1)
The latter value is less than that
indicated in Table 1 for the high
water table condition. This possibility is borne out by Black and Lister
(loc.Gir) who have shown that for
unsealed sub-base standing in very
wet weather the CBR drops to
approximately 2 per cent. For soils
with plasticity indices in the range of
10 to 40 per cent this value is considerably less than those prescribed. It
was concluded that for poorly
drained soils of low plasticity the life
of the pavement could be reduced by
50 per cent compared to pavements
constructed during average weather
conditions.
The effects of water on noncohesive formations is two-fold, first
the presence of standing water is
associated with positive pore water
pressures which cause a reduction in
effective stress and therefore the frictional shear strength of the formation. Secondly, and more importantly, the dynamic traffic loading
gives rise to extremely high transient
pore water pressures which literally,
jet water into the s~b-bas~ and .formation. This pumping action gives
rise to physical ejection of sub-base
and subgrade'soil particles th rough
cracks and joints leading to undermining of the pavement. This action
is also manifested in cohesive sub.
grades whe~e th.ere is frequentl.y fine
material which IS caused to migrate
into the more coarsely graded sub-
10 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
base. This may be associated with
complete blockage of the sub-base
which then ceases to act as a drainage layer. Under these conditions
surface infiltration is not drained
away and consequently softens the
subgrade causing rapid deterioration.
DRAINAGE
DESIGN
AND APPLICATION
Ingress of water into the subgrade
may arise from one or a combination
of the four following major sources:(i) Upward flow from artesian aquifer
(ij) Upward flow from springs
(iii) Surface infiltration
through
pavement
(iv) Suction in cohesive subgrades
with high water tables.
Natural artesian conditions are
comparatively
rare,
however,
pseudo artesian conditions can be
induced in cuttings where the formation level is below the level of the
original groundwater table. If such a
formation is underlain by a high
permeability aquifer that is adequately recharged then upward flow
into the formation will result. This
condition can be controlled by the
use of a full width horizontal drainage blanket draining into shallow
side drai ns or alternatively deep
trench drains alone. In extreme cases
it may be necessary to use a combination of these techniques. Flow
from springs beneath the formation
may also be controlled by horizontal
drainage blankets which need only
be applied in the vicinity of each
spring. These blankets can be
extended to side drains for direct
discharge or discharge may be
effected by carrier drains from the
isolated blanket. Water, apart from
gaining access to the formation
through vertical upward flow may
ingress through vertical downward
flow through the pavement itself.
This surface infiltration should ideally be intercepted by the sub-ba'se
layers acting as horizontal drains.
Failing this infiltration should be
taken by deep trench drains which
are commonly employed with the
aim of depressing the water table
below formation level. As will be
seen this fu nction of trench drains is
particularly important beneath cohesive formations where soil suction
can feed on groundwater tables that
have not been depressed sufficiently
tar beneath formation level.
Artesian Aquifers and Springs
Potential uplift pressures and flow
beneath a pavement may be control.
led either by the installation of deep
trench drains or the provision of a
horizontal drainage blanket. In either
case it is first necessary to measure
FORMATION
£
DRAIN
t.
FORMATION
LEVEL
I
I
2.5 m
10m
t= -' ~
- ---
- ----
1- _ .....
Figure 1. Control of artesian aquifer using deep trench
drains.
NOVEMBER 1981
I
,
~
r
i
I
I
I
or deduce the artesian
pressure
head. This may be achieved
by
installing a standpipe or piezometer
which should be installed
in the
aquifer and allowed to equalise. The
simple
standpipe
arrangement
is
illustrated
in Figure 1 which shows
an example with an excess pressure
head of 2.5m of water. The formation
width
is generally
predetermined
thus the only permitted variable is
the depth of the trench drain. In the
example in Figure 1 it can be seen on
construction
of a flow net that the
first trial drain depth of 2.5m is
inadequate
since
the
maximum
uplift is still 0.7m of water, thus it
would be necessary to repeat the
flow net construction
with progressively deeper drains until the zero
piezometric
line is depressed to an
acceptable
depth below formation
level.
The
alternative
solution,
namely the use of a horizontal drain-
age blanket with shallow side drains
again involves the construction
of a
series of flow nets. Figure 2 shows
that the construction
of such flow
nets is somewhat complicated by the
fact that the permeability of the blanket material, kb, differs from the permeability of the subgrade, ks' As is
clearly shown in Figure 2a and 2b the
effect of increasing the ratio kb/ks is
to reduce rise of the water table.
Thus in principle it is more economical to use a thin blanket of drainage
material with a high permeability,
as
opposed to a thicker layer of lower
permeability.
Surface Infiltration:Surface water infiltration which percolates through the material of the
pavement as well as cracks and open
joints may be intercepted by the subbase acting as a drainage layer or by
the normal french drains which give
sub-surface
drainage.
Guidelines
(AFTER
THIS
CEOERGREN
a := A kbi
1967)
0
a
2.5
ks
--
c
(2)
For the sub-base of thickness t illustrated in Figure 3 the cross-sectional
area of flow, A, is simply t per unit
run of pavement. The hydraulic gradient, i, may be approximated
to the
sub-base
crossfall.
A maximum
value for the flow rate
per unit run
of pavement is obtained from the'
products of q, the infiltration
rate,
and W the drained width of the pavement. Thus equation (2) may be rewritten in the form of equation (31.
FLOW NET
!II.
issued by the US Federal Highways
Administration,
FHWA (1973), suggest that the infiltration
rate may be
obtained by multiplying
the rainfall
rate for a one year storm of one hour
duration by a coefficient which varies between 0.50 and 0.67 for concrete pavements and 0.33 to 0.50 for
pavements
with asphalt surfacing.
This is equivalent to a global pavement permeability
of approximately
5 x 10-'cm/sec which is some four
orders of magnitude
greater than
that published by Russam (1967) for
a "good surtacing".
Thus it would
appear that a useful assessment of
surface
water
infiltration
first
requires a reliable assessment
of
global
pavement
permeability.
Assuming this is achieved the capacity of the sub-base to transmit infiltration flow to the french drains may
be assessed using Darcy's law, equation (2).
...
6
kbt = qW/i
".'
>~
,"
~
':;~".~.~::,~~
II'
.......
..,
0_
-"
.• ; PERVIOUS
-.
'"
u.
.~."
A()UIFER (EXCESS HEAO.O'20)o.o
.1
....
ft ...
~.u.
..
(a)
-I
o
....
--~
FOR THIS FLOW
NET
k
.Q. 0 20
~ 0 18
h
ks
61-~c'
,"
---
'---
:-",~"
-t"
t
~. _
•.:, :_
...... ° '':,' ~- ~ ,'PERVIOUS
~
Where the product kbt is the transmissibility
of the drainage layer. It
follows that a required transmissibility may be obtained by a thin layer of
high permeability
or a thicker drainage layer of lower permeability.
It is
interesting to note for example, that
for a pavement
12m wide with a
crossfall
of 1:40 and a sub-base
thickness of 300mm the calculated
permeability
for an intermediate
infiltration rate of 1 x 10-6 cm/sec is
approximately
2 x 10-3 em/sec.
This required value of permeability
may be compared with that of the
sub.base
using the Hazen (1892)
formula
for uniform
sands which
relates
permeability,
in units
of
em/see, to the ten percent grain size,
d10, measured in mm, equation (41.
kb
OJ
......
,1-
~ •• :."
__
L
1
~.:::
AQUIFER (EXCESS HEAD-O'20).
.-:
'
11: ..•
',~.
Ib)
Figure 2. Control of artesian
drainage blankets.
NOVEMBER 1981
aquifer
or springs
using
horizontal
THE JOURNAL
(3)
=
(dlOV
Later
investigations,
(1953), showed that this
could be used for soils
uniform sands in which
could be an error factor
0.5 to 2.0. The resulting
OF THE INSTITUTION
(4)
Loudon
expression
other than
case there
in the range
calculated
OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
11
J
GEOTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PAVEMENT DRAINAGE
values for sub-base to the OpT
Specification for Roads and Bridge
Works (1976) are 5 x 10-3 cm/sec and
5 x 10-1 cm/sec respectively for the
fine and coarse grading envelopes.
Comparison with the required value
of 2 x 10-3 cm/sec implies that the
finer grading gives an adequate permeability and the coarser grading a
permeability that is two orders of
magnitude larger than required. This
situation appears to be satisfactory,
however, as will be considered in the
following sections this high permeability is only likely to be maintained if
fine material from the subgrade is
prevented from entering the subbase.
strength, measured in terms of the
CBR value, and the magnitude of the
suction for various soil types, Figure
4. Secondly the suction, s, is affected
by the overburden pressure, p. If the
overburden pressure is zero then the
suction is simply equal.to the pore
water pressure, u, however when
overburden is applied the suction is
modified as shown in' equation (5)
Black (lac cit). This is the basic equation used to relate suction and pore
water pressure. The value of s is
always negative and that of p posi,tive, thus if ocp is numerically
greater than s the porewater pressure will be positive and if the
reverse is the case it will be negative,
Croney (1977).
Soil Suction and
Cohesive Subgrades:If one end of a capillary tube is
immersed in water the water will rise
in the tube to a static equilibrium
position elevated some height h.
above the free water surface. The
pressu re in the water at this elevation is negative and has a mag-'
nitude, hs ~w, where ll" w is the unit
weight of water, with the negative
pressu re varying linearly from this
maximum value to zero at the free
water surface. If the diameter of the
capillary tube is reduced then the
magnitude of hs increases. This
behaviour is analogous to fine
grained soils which have the ability
to generate suction where the magnitude of the maximum suction head
increases as the soil becomes finer
and hence more plastic, however
soils exhibit two important deviations from this analogy. First the
magnitude of the suction affects the
strength of the soil, the greater the
suction the greater the soil strength.
This was quantified by Black (1962)
who defined relationships between
1-
u
=
s
+ ocp
(5)
The coefficient oc, which defines
the proportion of the overburden
pressure which is effective in changing the porewater pressure, is mainly
dependent on the plasticity characteristics of the soil:oc = 0 for PI < 5
oc = 1 for Pl > 40
oc = 0.027PI - 0.12for 5 =::; PI ~ 40
The application of the foregoing is
'best illustrated by example. Assume
that a total pavement thickness of
450mm has been derived for a he'avy
clay subgrade with a PI of 40 percent
,on the basis of a CBR value of 2.5
percent. The problem is to determine
to what depth the groundwater table
must be depressed below formation
level to maintain the assumed CBR
value. From Figure 4 it is seen that
the required CaR relates to a suction
of 137cm of water, that is a suction
pressure of -13.7 kN/m. Taking the
unit weight of the mate!ial of the
rl
w
l ~ 1 l l ~I l ~q1 l l ~ I I l
~URFACING
a
ROAD BASE
,
.,.,
+
.. ", ' ...
.ii~~..:.,~<':~.~:... SUB-BASE::. ,>.: ......'.:' ':"t".>
..
'
....
C ROSS FALL i
pavement to be 20 kN/mJ the value
of p is 9 kN/m2 and for a PI of 40
percent, oc = 0.96. Thus from equation (5) the value of u is -5.06 kN/m2,
whence the water table must be
depressed at least 0.506m below formation level. If the water table is
allowed to rise above this level then
the magnitude of the pore water
pressure u and hence the magnitude
of the suction will fall below the
value required for a CBR of 2.5 percent. Barring artesian conditions the
water table may be depressed by the
use of parallel trench drains. The
performance of such drains is best
assessed in site trials however an
approximate'
notion
of
drain
geometry can be obtained using the
dimensionless analysis developed
by McClelland (1943).
FILTRATION
Earlier consideration was given to
the sub-base acting as a drain intercepting and discharging surface
infiltration. For what may be a conservative infiltration rate it was concluded for the example cited that the
permeability of sub-base conforming
to the fine grading envelope of the
DTp specification was just adequate,
at a value of 5 x 10-3 cm/sec, to cope
with infiltration. Sub-base conforming to the coarse grading envelope
appeared to be more than adequate
at 5 x 10-1 cm/sec. However, other
factors need to be considered. For
both sub-base gradings there will be
water in contact with the subgrade
during infiltration. Even when infiltration has ceased it will take time for
water to drain from the sub-base. An
estimate of the time for 50 percent
drainage may be made using an
expression derived by Strohm et al
(1967). For the finely graded sub.
base this indicates 50 percent drainage in five days compared with just
over one hou r for the coarsely
graded sub-base. During these
periods the pavement would be
prone to pumping thus if the grading
of either sub-base is not compatible
with that of an aggregate filter to the
subgrade then there could be clogging of the sub-base. The possibility
and consequences of this can be
evaluated.
~
.0 >'
Figure 3. Sub-base as interceptor drain.
12 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
Aggregate Filters
To examine the extent of the problem it is convenient to first reconsider the basis of aggregate filter
design under steady state flow conditions. An aggregate filter has a
coarser grading than the soil it has to
NOVEMBER 1981
~
1
I
10
):)
.Z
(ARE
BARBER 1959)
9
8
7
...'-'
,
SILT
f/I
:I
'-'
6
"...
!::
-'
iii
.a:
'"a:
:I
....
4
~
'"
z
'"'-'
10
a:
'"
Q.
a:
ai
U
3
PI 80
o
5
PERCENT
10
15
BY WEIGHT PASSING 63
20
25
IJN SIEVE
Figure 5. Effects of various fines contents
on permeabilitv.
2
AFTEn
I
o
180
SUCTION
(CM
RUSSAM(19G7)
300
240
360
OF WATER)
Figure 4. Relationship between eBR and suction for
soils of various plasticities ..
filter. Limitations have to be put on
how much coarser this grading is to
control piping or migration of fines
from the soil, in this case the subgrade into the filter. Similarly to
maintain acceptable permeability the
grading of the filter or sub-base must
not be too fine with respect to the
soil it is filtering. A synthesis of
empirical design rules is set out
below in terms of various grain sizes
for the filter, 0, and the soil, d. The
various subscripts e.g. 015 refer to
the 15 percent size etc.
For sands and silts:
D1s1dB5
< 5 (Piping Criterion) ..:.... (6)
D1s1d15>5 (Permeability Criterion)
(71
DsoId50< 25 (Grading Criterionl
NOVEMBER1981
(8)
For clays:
015
< 0.4mm
0001010
*
20
:.. (9)
(1 0)
Since pumping may be [nvolved in
the migration of fines application of
these criteria, which relate to steady
flow conditions, may be far from
conservative. For example in design.ing well screens where there is likely
to be turbulent flow the grading of
the aggregate filter must be much
closer to that of the soil. This is
typified by the recommendations of
DIN 4924 with requires 050/d50= 4 as
opposed to the maximum value of 25
cited in equation (8). Thus at best it
appears, according to equations (6)
to (81 that fine sub-base might filter
nothing finer than a clayey sandy silt
with a clay content no greater than
10 to 15 percent or, according to
equation (9), a whOlly clay subgrade.
THEJOURNAlOFTHE
The coarse graded sub-base would,
by these standards, not filter a subgrade finer than a silty sand with
literally no clay content. If the subgrade soil is of a finer grading than
that indicated by the above limits,
there is a high probability of migration of fines which could have a
dramatic effect on permeability as
illustrated in Figure 5. As can be seen
an increase in fines content of say 4
percent would decrease permeability
to a value between 10-5 ern/see to
10-4 cm/sec depending on the
nature of the fines. This is approximately one to two orders of magnitude smaller than the required
value of 2 x 10-3 cm/sec derived
from the earlier example. These
reduced permeabilities would not be
consistent with adequate drainage
and would therefore tend to lead to a
"bath tub" condition in which the
sub-base and subgrade become
saturated over long periods and as
such become subject to the perils of
softening and pumping. This possibility has been demonstrated experi-.
mentally by Snaith and Bell (1978)
who subjected a model granular subbase over cohesive subgrade to
dynamic loading for a 24 hour
period. The sub-base, which was a
single sized 20mm aggregate used in
Northern Ireland, was placed over a
sub-grade soil having sand, silt and
clay contents of 58 percent, 24 percent and 18 percent respectively with
a dB5particle size of O.7mm. At the
end of the test period a loss of fines
amounting to 4 percent by weight
INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 13
I GEOTECHNICAL
ASPECTS OF PAVEMENT DRAINAGE
was observed in the subgrade. This
equates to an approximately 4 percent increase in the fines content of
the sub-base. One possible solution
to this problem is the introduction of
a "choker" or intermediate filter
layer having an intermediate grading
to that of the subgrade and sub-base.
Alternatively consideration may be
given to a filter fabric, which itself
must conform
to certain filter
criteria.
and non-woven fabrics subject either
to steady laminar flow or alternating
turbulent flow. The woven filter fabric is characterised by its mesh opening size M measured in millimetres.
A similar characterisation for nonwoven fabrics proved more difficult
due to the random size and distribution of holes, however, this problem
was overcome by introducing a hole
size distribution curve similar to particle size distribution curve used to
define the grading of an aggregate
filler. On this basis Ogink (1975) concluded that a non-woven could best
be characterised by the 90 per cent
pore size, 090, again measured .in
millimetres. Using these characteristic pore or mesh opening sizes Tei ndl
defined a coefficient, B, given in
equation (11), that could be .related
to the coefficient of uniformity,
d60/dlo, of the soil to be filtered,
under conditions of alternating turbulent flow.
Fabric Filters
In broad terms there are two basic
,fabric structures, woven and non.woven. The former has a structure
established using conventional manufacturing techniques where warp
and weft fibres of synthetic filaments
or tapes are woven to give a fabric
with a regular hole size. Conversely
the non-woven fabrics are formed
from an irregular assemblage of
synthetic fibres or staple which are
bonded together to form a fabric
having a random distribution of
pores, or holes, of various sizes. The
character of non-woven fabrics vary
considerably from the comparatively
thick needle punched felts to the
thinner resin or melt bonded fabrics.
Although there are filter design rules
available for both woven and nonwoven fabrics these generally relate
to unidirectional steady state flow
which/again is not wholly relevant
where pumping may be involved.
However some light has been case
on the subject by Teindl (1979) who
investiga~ed criteria for both woven
Woven fabrics
B :; M/dso
""
(11 a)
Non-woven fabrics
B:; 090/dso
(11 b)
Reference to Figure 6 ind icates that
any design for turbulent flow conditions is complicated by the fact that
the fabric has to be designed to
positively restrain all soil particles
above a pre-selected grain. size.
Application of the method is best
illustrated by example. Assume it is
required to design a filter for a clayey
silty sand that will exclude any parti-
2.S
(AFTER
TEINDL
1979)
d 85
cles coarser than coarse : silt,
(0.06mml. Further assume that the
soil to be filtered has a coefficient of
uniformity of 2.5 with dso:; 0.1mm
and d15 :; 0.06mm. It follows from
Figure 6 for the dls line that B is
approximately 0.5, thus for a nonwoven fabric, say, the required OgO is
Bdso == 0.5 x 0.1 :; 0.05mm. This can
be shown to be approximately one
fifth of the 090 required for steady
state laminar flow conditions, thus if
the filter fabric had been designed
for steady state flow only it would
not be effective under alternating
flow condition such as those that
might be associated with pumping.
A less esoteric illustration of the
effects of various filter fabrics at the
subgrade/sub-base interface comes
from the work of Snaith and Bell (loc
cit) who extended their dynamic load
tests to include such filters. Their test
results are summarised in Table 2
where it has again been assumed
that the percentage loss of fines
from the cohesive subgrade approximately equals the gain in fines in the
sub-base.
From these preliminary findings it
would appear that the lightweight
non-woven fabric is ineffective with
2.0 per cent fines passing. The thick
non-woven, where there is likely to
be a three dimensional filtering
effect performed well with no fines
passing into the sub.base. A similar
effect was achieved with both woven
fabrics however the lightweight
woven was observed to allow a
small percentage, 0.3 per cent, of
fines to pass. These findings were
later questioned by Ayres and
McMorrow (1980) who tested undisturbed clay from the lower lias and
found no fabric currently marketed in
Europe that would prevent the passage of clay fines.
1
CONCLUSIONS
j.s
CD",
....
z
~
~
...
dso
....
w
0
u
d
0-5
o
I
2
COEFFICIENT
OF
UNIFORMITY
Figure 6. Filtration criteria -
14 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
3
d60/dlQ
alternating
flow.
Water can gain access to subgrades
through a variety of mechanisms
and in all cases has an adverse effect
on the long term performance of the
pavement. This problem is particularly acute in cohesive subgrades
where
comparatively
modest
increases in moisture content give
rise to large reductions in undrained
shear strength and CBRvalues. If the
sub-base or subgrade is allowed to
become
saturated
then
under
dynamic traffic loading a pumping
action can be induced which causes
rapid deterioration of the pavement.
There is some evidence that the
global permeability of pavements is
unacceptably large and that the
resulting surface infiltration may not
NOVEMBER 1981
~
1
J
~
,=================
I
TABLE 2
Filter Type
-
Pore Size
- I M/0
mm
90
No filter (control)
Lightweight non-woven
Thick non-woven
Lightweight woven
Lightweight, double
fleeced woven
be adequately intercepted by the
sub-base acting as a drainage layer.
This situation is aggravated if the
grading of the sub-base is not compatible with that of an aggregate
filter capable of resisting migration
of fines from the subgrade under
dynamic hydraulic loading. Results
of preliminary research indicate that
the use of suitable filter fabric at the
interface of sub-base and cohesive
subgrades can significantly reduce
migration of fines. However, later
research has shown that for subgrades with a much higher clay content mig ration of clay fines cannot be
prevented. There is obviously need
for further research to define construction techniques to minimise the
deleterious effects of water on
dynamic
pavement-subgrade
interaction. As well as extending
work on fabric and aggregate filters
it might prove useful to investigate
the effects of thicker and more
permeable sub-base layers with the
aim of reducing dynamic stresses at
the pavement-subgrade interface
and the sensitivity of sub-base permeability to the incursion of fines.
Alternatively there may be the poss.
iblity of reducing pavement cracking
and hence potentially high infiltration by the use of an impermeable
fabric overlay to the road base.
REFERENCES
(1) Ayres, D. J. and McMorrow, J.
1980 The Filtration Behaviour of
Construction
Fabrics under
Dybamic Loading Discussion
Geotechnique 30 No. 1. pp87.88
Barber, E. W. 1959'Subsurface
Drainage of Highways, Highways Res. Board r;jull. 209.
(2) Barber, E. W. 1959 Subsurface
Drainage of Highways, Highways Res. Board Bull. 209.
(3) Black, W. P. M. 1962 A Method
of Estimating the California
Bearing Ratio of Cohesive Soils
from Plasticity Date Geotechnique 12 No.4 pp 271-282.
(4) Black, W. P. M. 1979 The
Strength of Clay Subgrades:Its Measurement by a Penetrometer TRRL Report 901.
(5) Black, W. P. M. and lister, N. w.
NOVEMBER1981
Increase in sub-base
fines content %
-
0.15
4.0
2.0
0.0
0.3
-
0.0.
0.05
-
1979 The Strength of Clay Fill
Subgrades: Its Prediction. in
Relation to Road Performance
TRRL Report 889.
(6) Cedergren, H. R. 1967 Seepage,
Drainage and Flow Nets John
Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.
(7) Cedergren, H. R. 1974 Drainage
of Highway and Airfield Pave.
ments John Wiley & Sons Inc.
New York.
(8) Croney, D. 1977 The Design &
Performance
of Road Pavements HMSO
(9) Dennehy,
J.P.
1978
The
Remoulded Undrained Shear
Strength of Cohesive Soils and
Its Influence on the Suitability of
Embankment Fill Proc. Conf. on
Clay Fills Inst. Civ. Engrs. pp 8794.
(10) Departmentofthe Environment!
Road Research Laboratory 1970
Road Note 29 HMSO
(11) Department of the Environment
1976 Specification for Roads
and Bridge Works HMSO
(12) DIN 4924 1972 Filter Sands and
Filter Gravels for Well Screens
Deutschen Normenausschuss,
Colog ne:- Beuth-Vertr.
(13) Federal Highway Administration FHWA), 1973 Guidelines for
the Design of Subsurface Drainage Systems for Highway Structural Sections, FHWA U.S.A.
(14) Hazen, A. 1892 Some Physcial
Properties of Sands and Gravels
with Special Reference to Their
Use in Filtration '24th An nual
Rept. Mass. State Board of
Health.
(15) London, A. G. 1953 The Computation of Permeability from Simple Soil Tests Geotechnique' 3
No.4 pp 165-183.
(16) McAdam, J. l. 1820 Report to
the London Board of Agriculture
(17) McClelland B. 1943 Large Scale
Model Studies of Highway Subdrainage Proc. Highways Res.
Board, Vol. 23.
(18) Ogink, H. J. M. 1975 Investigations of the Hydraulic Characteristics of Synthetic Fabrics
Delft Hydraulics Lab. Pub. No.
146.
(19) Russam K. 1967 Sub-soil Drainage and the Structural Design of
Roads TRRL Report LR 110.
(20) Snaith, M. S. & Bell, A. L. 1978
The Filtration Behaviour of Construction Fabrics Under Conditions of Dynamic Loading. Technical Note Geotechnique 28 No.
4 pp 466-468.
(21) Strohm, W. E., Nettles, E. H. &
Calhoun, C. C. 1967 Study of
Drainage Characteristics of Base
Course Materials Highway Res.
Rec. No. 203 pp 8-28.
(22) Teindl, H. 1979 Filter Kriterien
Von Geotextilien Ph.D. Thesis
Innsbruck Univ.
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THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 15
FINANCIAL CONTROL
BY THE ENGINEER
R. Pollock, BSc., MICE., MIMunE., MIHE and I. Gabriel, BSc., MIMunE., MIHE
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: EXISTING FRAMEWORK
We will start by asking two difficult things of the reader.Thefirst
thing is that you should be honest
with yourself in appraising how
much of what is written appliesto
circumstances within your own
experience. The second is that
you should keep an open mind to
any suggestions which are made
in pursuit of a sounder framework
of fi nancial control on the
engineer's part within the highway construction industry.
The Paper is in two parts. The
first outlines the relevant section
of the framework of the highway
construction industry as we see it
and highlights some of its shortcomings. The second suggests
changes which we feel will contribute to eliminating shortcomings
in the present framework of financial control.
General
Contractors exist to make money
and this they do with varying
degrees of success in a currently
more and more difficult market.
Projected profit margins may be
cut and estimating pencils sharpened in an attempt to maintain
turnover to the point where on
any single site the error in
estimating can outstrip the projected profit margin of the contractor: This means that even if no
events took place which caused
disruption to the contractor's
planned activities he would still
carry a loss on the particular job in
question. Viabil ity then apparently depends on the contractor's
ability to maximise profits from
any non-competitive sections of
his turnover, for example in the
negotiation of rates for addi-
Central Regional Council in 1975
working with the Direct Labour
Construction Section and was
Deputy ResidentEngineeron the
most recent M9 motorway contract.
He became a member of the
Institution in 1980.
TJ-tE AUTHORS
Mr Pollock is currently Senior
Resident Engineer (Roads)with
Robert
Matthew,
JohnsonMarshall. and Partners and is
based in Tripoli. He began his
career in 1970 with the then
Argyll CC working on the design
and the supervision of roadworks
schemes. In 1974 he moved to
South Africa, first as Resident
Engineer on several contracts
associated with the construction
of an integrated iron and steelworks and thereafter with a contractor on the site preparation
contract for La Mercy International Airport.
In 1976 he joined the Central
Regional Council and was Resident Engineeron the most recent
M9 motorway contract.
He was elected to the Institution in 1978.
Mr Gabriel Is currently a Senior
Engineerwith GrampianRegional
Council. He began his career in
1971 with Stirling CC where he
was involved on road and
bridgeworks design and construction. He transferred to the
16
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
tional work further to a competitive tender. Given this situation it
is no surprise to find, that in order
to survive commercially, an
expertise has been developed
within contractors' organisations
to seek monies from the fine print
of a contract and by the embellishment of the cost effect of disruptions to site events. The letter
of the contract looms larger now
in relation to the spirit than previously and there can surely be no
doubt that this stated expertise
exists
to
varying
degrees
amongst most contractors involved in tight competition to keep
their firm's head above water no
matter the point, in terms of contract values, at which they are
involved in the spectrum of
things.
The present state of affairs may
not necessarily, when taken overall, disadvantage clients finan-
THE PAPER
Mr Pollock
Mr Gabriel
The Paper sets out the authors'
understanding of that part of the
highway construction industry
relevant to cost recoveryand profit-making on sites. The sensitivity of negotiations which concern
these is high-lighted by using a_
simple mathematical model. The
authors' solution to establishing,
effective financial control, which
is outlined, requires that small
changes be made to the current
framework of project management and to the attitude and
application of resident engineers
and agents working within it.
lt is hoped to present this Paper
to a meeting of the North of
Scotland Branchof the Institution
early in 1982.
NOVEMBER 1981
r
cially as the margi ns currently
achieved may be no more than
those which would result from
contracts where effective project
management was instituted by
the "engineer". Looking to the
future and the hoped for recovery
in the economic climate of our
country it should not be presumed that the expertise which
has been built up by contractors
in more difficult times will disappear, regardless of the higher profit margins obtainable in winning
bids in an expanding market.
We feel that the main effect of
the current state of affairs is that
the resident engineer's function
has slipped out of phase with the
commercial pressures surrounding the environment in which he
works leading variously to feelings of bewilderment, suspicion
and frustration on his part and
that of his staff. This leads in turn
on a downward spiral to the
deterioration of site relationships.
On the one hand we have the
contractor with the singularity of
purpose generated by the "profit
motive" and on the other the resident engineer trying in the midst
of his reservations about the contractor's integrity to be "fair and
reasonable".
CLAIMS
Let us look at the resident
engineers/engineers assessment
of a fair and reasonable solution
to any submission from a contractor requesting additional monies.
There are two basic types of
submission for extra monies:
0) Those based on inadequacies
in the contract documents; and
(2) Those based on site events.
There are three distinct stages
in evaluating
the additional
monies due:
(1) Establishment of agreement as
to contractual entitlement;
(2) Establishment of agreement as
to the facts of the matter; and
(3) Establishment of agreement as
to the financial implication of
these facts.
The only certain contact the
resident engineer has with the
contractor's estimated costs is the
rates entered in the Bill of Quantities. These rates are made up of
elements of active base-cost i.e.
labour and plant, passive basecost i.e. materials, recurring and
non-recurring site on-costs e.g.
stores and office staff, head office
office overheads and profit markup. To this can be added miscellaneous adjustment consistent
with what the contractor felt was
to his best advantage at tender
stage. The overall effect of the
manipulation of these elements is
NOVEMBER 1981
to take out front sums, to front
end rate load, to key rate load as
appropriate.
The. situation is
further complicated by the resident engineer's ignorance of
which rates are based on subcontract quotes and by the knowledge that certain rates are composites, e.g. the excavation of
unsuitable material.
The tender foreseen active components of unit base-costs i.e. the
ratio of hourly cost to hourly output for labour and plant are therefore capable of being retrospectively adjusted to the limits of
credibility in any negotiation with
no fail-safe available to the resident engineer in checking any
assertions with bill rates.
SENSITIVITY OF
ASSESSMENT
Let us look at the financial sensitivity of the interplay of the four
main parameters in a negotiation
for increased base-cost further to
delay, disruption or restraint. For
the purposes of showing this sensitivity the additional money recovered by a contractor further to
delay, disruption or restraint can
be expressed by the equation:
M (money) '" (TA - TI11 h L
L = liability of client to pay
A = actual output
tf = tender foreseen output
h = tender foreseen hourly cost
Q '" quantity of work
U = tender foreseen active unit
basecosts = %
M = additional money due further
to delay etc.
If work is not executed by the
contractor as quickly as was foreseen at tender stage a guide to the
degree of delay, disruption or
restraint will be the % ratio i.e. the
ratio of the actual output to the
tender foreseen output. Work
done at half foreseen speed,
thereby taking twice as long,
would have an Air/ratioof 0.5 and
so on. The absolute increase in
time taken to complete any task
between TA; (the time at actual
outpull and T11; (the time at tender
foreseen
outputl.
would
be
eval uated at h; (the hourly tender
foreseen cost). The remaining
parameter is L; (the degree of
liability) expressed as a percentage; which is accepted by the
engineer.
For the resident engineer there are
four questions to be answered.
(1) How accurate is his knowledge of
actual outputs?
(2) How accurate is his knowledge of
tf7
(3) How accurate is his knowlege of
h?
(4) How accurate is his method of
assessing L7
The financial sensitivity of accepting wrong values for these parameters can be shown as follows:
For L = 100 per cent
II •
(!I',l - '1'u)b.
• (f - ftlh
-
(~-
~)
... " ot t.".
- 100
b";;".t _~
<h - tro)
_ 100
<~ - ~)
- 100
<1' -
_ 100 (~
1)
- 1)
This equation enables the plotting
of Figure 1 which shows the percent
of active base-cost which a contractor is due consistent with varying.
A/tf ratios, for example at 0.5 the
contractor is due 100 per cent of his
original active base-costs and so on.
Now let us suppose that wrong
values are taken for parameters A, tf
and h either in ignorance of by
abuse, how does this affect the value
M?
There should be two contributing
elements to M
{11 That derived from altering the
A1tf ratio and applying this new ratio
to the contractor's asserted tender
forseen active base-costs.
(2) The difference between the contractor's asserted tender foreseen
active base-costs and true tender
foreseen active basecosts.
let 0Il (tho Output IlaUo pactor) ~
vhe:rw
tf.
ueerte4
ie A* is the factor of manipulation for
A values, a 5 per cent reduction
giving 0.95 and so on
tf* is the factor of manipulation for tf
values, a 10 per cent increase giving
1.10 and so on.
lot
u.
(tho 1In1t
wbl'lre M8.,rled
Con
1!,ot1. 'actor)
~ ~.
un! t.
ie h* is the factor of manipulation
for h values
tf* is as before
The proportion of stated base-cost
due the contractor for any stated A/tf
ratio
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 17
The first element of contribution
therefore:
is
Expressed as a percentage of true
base-costs:
• 100(0" - 1)
Expressed as a percentage of the'
true base-costs:
The second element of contribution
should be
The reality is that the coniractor is
paid his true base-costs as part of the
Bill Rate.
Because of this only the first element of contribution is relevant. In a
negotiation therefore there is no link
made between Uc.U.O and U.O and
no account of this link is therefore
taken in any oncost recovery negotiation.
The actual general solution is that
of the first element
ll~.O.Cl- O.Cl- 1l.Q(0~- 1)
FIGURE
1
% BASECOST
AGAINST
Aftf
RATIO
and this is represented graphically in
Figure 2.
The general solution for obtaining
any particular percentage of true
base-cost
is therefore
readily
obtained by reference to Figure 2
and 40 per cent is shown as an
example.
Using Figure 2 the values indicated
in Figure 3 were read off. This is a
table
indicating
the
OVERRECOVERY FACTOR (Fl consistent
with certain errors or manipulations
in the values of A, tf and h for the
true A/tf ratios indicated. It should be
noted that if a project has gone fairly
well with a true A/tf ratio on scraper
work of 0.9 say that in negotiations
concerning cost recovery where L =
100 per cent a 5 per cent adjustment
or error in A, tf and h ie A * = 0.95, tf*
= 1.05, and h* == 1.05 results in a 109
per cent over recovery by the contractor in relation to the sum of
money he was properly due.
SETTLEM ENT
600
% OF TRUE
BASECOST
The reality of negotiation is that
the contractor has the target of
achieving his projected margin for
the site and is aware of his true costs.
Any gap has to be closed at least and
the flexibilities inherent in our current framework are manipulated to
achieve this end whenever possible.
Should the contractor be confronted with stiff resistance to his
assertions he can press hard in the
full knowledge that truly weak cases
can be dropped prior to an order for
discovery in arbitration, that is to say
should any case find its way to arbitration it will certainly be bonafide.
RECOVERED
DUE TO
DELAY Etc. 500
LOa
300
200
PART 2: POSSIBLE CHANGES
100
G1
01
03 O~
05 06 G7
OB
09
10
Allf RATIO(TRUE]
%
1001
..!. -
1 ]
Altf
GIVES -
Allf
%
a-a
OJ
0.1
900
0.2
LOa
03
04
0-5
0,6
0,7
0,8
233
150
100
66.6
L2. B
25
09
11
1.0
18 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
a
The intention of this part of the
Paper is fivefold.
(1) To define financial control as we
see it;
(2) To state its purpose;
(3) To describe the benefits to the
industry which accrue from it;
(4) To suggest in detail how we feel
it can be achieved; and
(5 To call for action on the part of
those members of our profession
who find themselves in positions
of influence and who are in sympathy with our aims.
FINANCIAL CONTROL
We deem a site to be financially
controlled when the project management systems instituted by
the resident engineer result in
him having a high degree of
awareness of the facts surrounding site events and of their financial implications. Financial control
NOVEMBER 1981
•
~
I
is therefore readily distinguishable from cost expenditure
reporting and forecasting which is
the art of informing the client how
much of his money you have
spent or foresee being spent.
MAIN PURPOSE
The main purpose of financial
control is to enable methodical
assessment of monies and time
extensions properly due a contractor to be made from a wellinformed and objective base.
BENEFITS
Let us suppose that'a Project
Management System could be
instituted whereby the resident
engineer had a full and accurate
FIGURE
knowledge of site events and their
implications on other work and
also let us suppose that their
financial effect could be fairly and
reasonably assessedby reference
to the contractor's tender build
up. The benefits as we see them
are as follows:
(1) Since there would be no
embellishment possible a fair
day's pay for a fair day's work
would only be gained in open
competition by applying sensible
margins at tender stage.
(2) Estimating would
have to
become more accurate throughout
the industry. Currently if one contractor becomes more accurate with
his estimating, it is possible that he
loses turnover by virtue of pricing
himself out of the market.
PLOT OF GENERAL SOLUTION
2
% OF TRUE BASECOSTS
HOW CAN ALL THIS BE ACHIEVED?
380
31.0
300
% • 1 OOUe I -'
-
OR. AliI
-,
I
260
220
'60
"0
'00
60
20
D"
0'2
0,3
0,'
0,5
0,6
0,7
O.B
O.g
1'0
Allf RATIO
NOVEMBER 1981
(3) Innovation
in
construction
techniques would be encouraged.
(4) As there would be a greater
degree of awareness by the resident
engineer and his staff of site events
and of their financial implications
there would also be greater understanding of the contractor's problems and his requests for any additional monies and time extensions
due.
(5) Co-operation and respect would
be enhanced or generated between
the contractor's and the resident
engineer's staffs.
(6) The calibre of resident engineers
would improve due to pressure from
the contractors and this by the law of
supply and demand would lay the
foundation for satisfying permanent
careers.
(7) The client would be kept realistically informed of site events and
their cost and time extension implications.
There are three fundamental requirements for sound financial control:
(1) That site records should be
detailed and accurate;
(2) That these records should be
appraised as work proceeds; and
(3) That the resident engineer
should be aware of the contractor's
tender
foreseeable costs and
outputs.
Let us take each of these in turn:
(1) There are five components
interacting in any site event to produce the finished work: plant,
labour, materials, ground conditions
and weather. It is obviously essential
to record these for every event as
accurately and methodically as possible and the manner in which this
should be done is by asking the
following questions of each event as
it occurs: who, what, where, when
and why? The last letter of each word
gives us the key word "Otteny" our
name for this system which can be
explained as follows:who (labour) is doing?
what (activity) with what (plant and
materialsl?
where (location)?
when (start and finish time)?
and why (did they do it at all)?
It is in asking why who? why what?
why where? why when? and why
bother? that the resident engineer
develops the proper degree of
awareness of site events.
(2) To gain more financial control
further to the application of "Otteny"
we move to the second of the three
fundamentals - appraisal. There are
four different appraisals necessary:
(a) appraisal of the current works
programme;
(b) appraisal of the contents of site
records;
lc) appraisal of the supply of materials; and
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
19
(d) appraisal of works progress and
production outputs.
Let us take each of these in turn:
(a) Appraisal of the current works
programme. This should encompass
the following:
(j) a comparison of the programme
in relation to any tender stage programme and any previous programme;
(ii) examination
for the logical
sequencing of the works and for
omissions;
Wi) a search for unrealistic production outputs;
(iv) a search for unreal istic material
supply requirements
relative to
approved sources;
('II an examination of the variability
of production outputs for any type of
work, for example, the preparation of
a lean mix production histogram or
FIGURE
I
A
IF
All!
=
If
h
+5
+5
I
OR =
0.95 = 0.90
1.05
WOULD RECOVER
%
Uc =
WOULD BE OUE
%
105
105
= tOO
FACTOR IF)
ABSOLUTE
'I.
1.0
11
a
cc>
~1
0.9
23
11
2.09
:2
08
39
25
1.56
14
0.7
59
43
1.37
~6
0.6
85
57
1. 27
18
0.5
122
100
1. 22
22
0.4
177
150
1.18
27
0.3
270
233
1.16
37
0.2
455
400
1.14
55
0.1
1011
900
1. 12
111
A = -10.
NOTE
If = O. h = O.
h
A
I
WOULD
a . 84
GIVE
SAME
RESULTS.
= 0 80
.
lJ2.
WOULD RECEIVE
%
WOULD BE OUE
%
FAC TOR (F )'
1.0
25
0
0:0
25
0.9
39
11
3.55
28
0.8
56
25
221.
31
0.7
78
l.3
1.81
35
0.6
108
67
1.61
~1
0.5
150
100
1.50
50
0.4
212
150
1.{'1
62
0.3
317
233
1.36
8f.
0.2
525
400
1.31
125
0.1
1150
900
1.28
250
-16
IF
OVER - RECOVERY FACTOR (F)
3
-5
sub-base histogram;
(vi) an examination of the variability
of production outputs in obviously
different conditions, for example,
drainage outputs in winter and summer, or in wet cuts and imported
fill s;
(vii) a search for critical events if the
critical path is not shown or agreed
with; and
(viii) an examination of contractually
sensitive areas, for example, where
very high output is needed to maintain program me requiring high
resource allocation and giving rise to
large delay and disruption sensitivity.
The approval of the contractor's
programme as is required by the
Conditions of Contract gives the resident engineer an early opportunity
to discuss and contribute to the
+5
All!
=
OR
=
1.05
20 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
1.05
I. OC
ABSOLU TE
%
sound planning of the works and this
opportunity must be taken.
(b) Overall appraisal of the content
of site records to ensure that all the
required information has been accurately and methodically recorded.
This acts as a fail safe to the inspector's efforts and facilitates a quick
response as regards any changes
which are required to the original
format of the records in the light of
site events.
(c) Appraisal of materials movements on site and deliveries of
materials to site and materials availability and the effect of these
on works progress. It is of interest to
note that clause 35 of the fifth edition
of the Conditions of Contract does
not require the contractor to report
materials delivered to site although
materials are one of the basic
resources in works planning.
(d) Appraisal of works progress in
relation to the current programme
coupled with a study of actual outputs achieved both absolutely and in
relation to previous similar operations. This information can be
agreed with the contractor whenever
possible but in any event facilitates
realistic reporting of site events and
their implications to the client.
Responsibility for the appraisals
should rest with one member of the
resident engineer's staff, whom we
would call the Production Control
Engineer. Armed with the information from the appraisals every
attempt should be made in discussion with the contractor to progress
the works as expeditiously as possible in all the circumstances prevailing. This we feel will minimise any
additional costs to the contractor
consistent with the policy that prevention is better than detection and
the use of this approach is consistent
with a diluted and continual version
of clause 46 of the fifth edition of the
Conditions of Contract.
(3) Having discussed site recording
and appraisal systems we move to
the third and last fundamental
requirement for sound financial control on site - knowledge of the
contractor's tender foreseeable costs
and outputs. The implementation of
the site recording and appraisal systems outlined achieves the following:
(11 Flexibility in "A" values is
limited ..
(2) The overall need for cost recovery is limited.
(3) The ability to assess the "L"
value more accurately is gained.
Without the knowledge of the contractor's tender foreseeable hourly
costs and outputs two of the main
flexibilities mentioned earlier remain
i.e. in the tf and h values.
To solve this problem we envisage
that contractors should be required
to lodge their tender build ups, at
NOVEMBER1981
tender stage, in safe-deposit boxes
arranged by the "engineer". After
award of the contract, made without
reference to the lodged build ups,
the unsuccessful tenderers' documents would be returned to them
unopened. The successful tenderers
build up would be retained in a safedeposit box for occasional joint
reference by the "engineer" or resident engineer in the presence of a
nominee of the contractor when confirmation of the contractor's assertions in any negotiations became
necessary. This procedure would
allow contractors to retain the flexibility they currently have in structuring the Bill Ratesto give their desired
projected cash flow and item weighting at the same time as maintaining
confidentiality.
In this Paper we have:
(a) Outlined briefly our understand-
ing of the industry in which we make
our living;
(b) Indicated the four significant
parameters in a negotiation and
highlighted the sensitivity of ignorance or abuse of them; and
(e) Outlined our solution to the problem, with a Production Control
Engineer
maintaining
accurate
recording and appraisal systems and
with the resident engineer and
"engineer" having access to the contractor's tender build up.
LETTERS
private drain also carried highway
surlace water does not automaticafty mean that the highway
authority becomes responsible for
its maintenance, though the highway authority would have to pay if
surcharge from the highway damaged the pipes.
2. This could be a good ploy if you
want to avoid charging the works
to the highway budget, but under
s.19 of the 1976 Act (as also under
s.259 of the Public Health Act)
there is a right of appeal against a
notice to the magistrates, and one
of the grounds of appeal is that
some other person ought to contribute towards the expense of the
works. By s. 19(6) the court can
apportion expenses as it thinks fit
(i.e. without regard to strict legal
liability), and by s.19(7) the court
must have regard to the degree of
benefit to be derived. The court
might decide that if the highway
authority benefited from approved
highway drainage, it should pay
aft or part of the costs, whereas in
an action in nuisance based on the
common law duty to keep open
ditches so as not to cause nuisance on the highway, the highway authority cannot be forced to'
contribute.
From: Mr E. M. Kennedy
(Member), Stone, Staffordshire ..
Drainage
Sir - I have two questions to raise
following the publication of the Legal
Notes article in the June, 1981
Journal.
1. The writer refers to combined
drains as drains serving more
than one set of premises. It was
always my understanding that a
combined drain was one which
acted as both surface-water sewer
and foul sewer, and I am sure that
it is in this respect that the
question was originally posed.
2. In the questions about the clearance of water-courses your writer
makes no mention of Section 97
of the Land Drainage Act, 1976.
This section gives county councils
powers under Section 18 of the
Act to serve a notice on a landowner requiring him to carry out
the necessary work to restore a
proper flow of water in a watercourse.
I would be interested to know the
views of your legal correspondent.
WE writes:
7. If an old combined drain means a
pre-October 1st, 1937 pipe carrying both foul and surface water, the
highway authority will be able to
connect a highway drain into it
under s.21 of the Pubfic Health Act
1936 if it is 8 public sewer, but not
if it is private. Whether it is a
public sewer or a private one will
depend on its individual history
(e.g. who constructed it, where,
why, under what powers, and in
what capacity?) in the light of s.20
of the 1936 Act. .Assuming there is
a right to connect, the fact that a
NOVEMBER 1981
CONCLUSION
We would suggest that there are
three types of person:
those who make things happen
(aware and controll;
those who let things happen (aware
and allowl; and
those who do not know things have
happened.
We would like to work in an indus-
From: Mr S. T. Atkins, (Member)
Lecturer in Transportation, Southampton University.
Misjudgement?
Sir - I have been dismayed to see
the inclusion of a leisure page in
recent editions of the journal.
I can understand that new pub.
lishers, unfamiliar with the work of
members, may find the principal
contributions to the journal somewhat dry, and may wish to enliven
the journal with items that they can
at least comprehend and presumably consider interesting. In my opin-
try
which
requires
resident
engineers to be the first type and we
trust that those in sympathy with our
aim, whether working for contra.ctors
or "engineers", may be influenced
by this Paper to press for the institution of the small but significant
changes necessary in the framework
of the industry and to the attitude
and application of those working
within it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge
the encouragement and assistance
given to them in the preparation of
this Paper by their staff and
superiors in Central Regional Council
Roads Department.
The Paper is published by permission of the Director of Roads, Central
Regional Council but the views
expressed are nevertheless entirely
the authors' own.
ion, however, they misjudge not only
the technical .content, but more
importantly the purpose of the jour.
nal which surety must be to disseminate information of the theory and
practice of highway, traffic and transportation engineering.
The inclusion of a leisure page
does not aid this function, but simply
demeans both the journal and the
Institution. I sincerely hope that this
will be a short-lived experiment
Yours sincerely,
S. T. Atkins
From: Mr M. I. Pinard
(Member), Sir William
Halcrow and Partners,
Jakarta, Indonesia.
Goods Vehicles
Countries.
in Developing
Sir
Geographical
distance,
coupled with the vagaries of the
postal system, have prevented me
from an earlier comment on the
Paper by Mr P. B. Green "Goods
Vehicles for Developing Countries"
(The Highway Engineers; March,
1981) in which he stated:
If goods
were carried in vehicles
which have lower axle loads, more
goods could be carried during the
lifetime of the pavement, and pavements would last longer. To developing countries, lower axle loadings
would offer savings in road expenditure, reduce maintenance costs and
allow the benefits of road development to be enjoyed over a longer
time.
Whilst this approach may be
economically desirable from the
limited viewpoint of road development, per se, it may well be undesirable from the total transportation
development
viewpoint.
This is
THEJOURNAL OFTHE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 21
LETTERS
cont'd
because when road system designs
are optimised
by considering
only
trade-ofts ~etween axle loadings and
initial construction and maintenance
costs,
whilst
ignoring
costs
associated with goods transport, the
resulting designs may not minimise
totar transport costs. Minimisation
of
total transport costs to the national
economy is the concept now widely
used in most developing countries
as the fundamental
basis of road
transport systems planning.
It would appear that in determining optimum
axle load limits
a
balance should be sought between
two important
transport
planning
considerations.
On the one hand are
benefits that may accrue to society
from more economical
transportation of goods brought about by the
use of larger vehicles; on the other
hand are costs that may have to be
borne
for bridge
and pavement
strengthening
required to accommodate heavier axle loads? The overriding objective should be to determine
axle-load limits which minimise total
costs to the economy.
It is interesting to note that in two
developing
countries where vehicle
weights
and dimensions
studies
were recently conducted
(Guyana
and Indonesia) increases in axle load
limits above prevalent seven to eight
tonne limits were, in fact, recommended. This was because higher
limits were found to result in incremental
transport
benefjts
that
exceeded incremental pavement and
bridge strengthening
costs, thereby
providing
a net economic
gain to
these countries.
In conclusion,
it would seem that
there does not appear to be an a
priori justification
for lower
axle
loads in developing
countries
as
suggested by Mr Green. Rather, the
choice of appropriate axle-load limits
should be based on the concept of
total least cost which entails consideration of all the costs to a country's
national
economy
of transporting
goods. When applied to developing
countries where axle load limits tend
to be kept unrealistically
low, in
order to minimise pavement deterioration,
this approach
is likely to
result in higher rather than lower'
optimum
limits.
Yours faithfully,
M. I. Pinard
My paper outlined
certain advantages in limiting the
maximum axle loads permitted on
roads and Mr Pinard has, quite Correctly, indicated that other factors
must also be considered and has
cited the conventional wisdom of
minimising total transport costs.
This extends the arguments beyond
those presented in the Paper. A full
. analysis of the total transport costs is
Mr Green replies:
22
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
beyond the scope of this response,
but certain points may be of interest
The total transport cost analysis is
sensitive to the road pavement cost
and life. For example, and based on
Road Note 37, if a road pavement
with a surface dressing finish is to be
constructed on a sub-base with a
CBRof 4 per cent, an increasein base
and subgrade thickness from 440mm
to 540mm (+2.3 percent) will
increase the road life from 0.5 to 2.5
mil/ion cumulative numbers of standard axles in one direction (+400
per cent). The track cost per standard
axle is much higher for the pavement
with the lesser life. Theoptimum size
of axle load to minimise total transport costs is lower for roads which
have pavemunts with low volume
lives than for pavements which are
designed for larger cumulative traffic
volumes. It is not unusual to design a
new rural road in a developing country to have an initial pavement life of
10 years. With an annual traffic
growth rate of 7.5 percent the road
would accumulate ~m standard
axles in one direction if it carried
initial goods traffic of 32 vehicles per
day, each vehicle being of 76 tonnes
gross weight, each vehicle having
two axles and each vehicle being
fully loaded. If half these vehicles
were empty the pavement would
carry an initial traffic of 57 goods
vehicles per day. This statistic would
be greater if lighter vehicles were
used. These are the volumes of
goods vehicles traffic which may be
expected in many rural areas. in
developing countries. On such roads
the optimum size of axle load to
minimise total transport costs may
well be below 70 tonnes.
The total transport cost comprises
road costs, usually provided from a
public purse, and road user costs,
which are a private outlay. In this
case the road user costs can be
classed as private costs even though
some of the road users may be public authorities or public commercial
organisations. Total transport costs
do not usually allow for the benefits
derived by areas served by roads for
the provision of administrative, lawkeeping, medical, education, postal
and emergency services. Nor do the
total transport costs allow for the
costs of depriving areas from these
services. The governing body of a
developing country may deliberately
be prepared to accept the higher
freight costs of lighter vehicles in
order to reduce unit road length
costs so that, with the limited funds
available, services may be spread to
a greater area of the country. Also, in
developing countries, rural goods
vehicular traffic does not always
operate on made-up roads. It can
penetrate into areas using local and
rural roads whose surfaces may be
only of gravel or earth. Thesepavements soften during the rainy sea-
son. It may take but one heavy axle
to punch its way through this surface
to ruin the road and perhaps to
deprive the area served by the road
from communications and services
for some considerable time.
In many developing countries the
problem is not in providing but in
maintaining the infrastructure. This
prOblem may be due to reasons of
finance, administration or both.
Heavier axle loads impose a greater
burden on maintenance than do
lighter' ones.
My Paper was not intended to
advocate limiting the maximum axle
loads for goods vehicles in develop'ing countries, but to indicate certain
advantages of so doing. Thesecomments are intended to indicate that
the conventional total transport cost
analysis may not reflect all the costs
in developing countries particularly
in rural areas. Certain advantages
could be gained by limiting axle
loadings.
From: Mr W. P. Winston,
(Fellow). Consulting
Engineer, Banstead,
Surrey.
Oil Supplies
Sir
As one who has been working in
the oil industry I find the Malthusian
Paper by Mr Wayne, "Energy for
Future
Transport"
The Highway
Engineer, May, 19B1, calls for comment since it raises the spectre ofthe
demand for oil and gas exceeding
supply.
Mr Wayne's claim that oil and gas
are fossil fuels is a popular misconception. There is no accepted explanation of how oil and gas were
formed in the earth's crust, but it is
unlikely that this happened in the
places where they are now fou nd. Oil
and gas exploration
is going on in
many parts of the world, in Western
Europe it is widespread, with drilling
in depths of up to 8000m. Thus, even
in highly developed
countries, the
technical aspects of finding oil tend
to keep known reserves not far ahead
of consumption.
On costs the Paper states that
easier
oil fields
are now being
worked
out with the result that
exploration and production costs will
rise, as will the price of the oil itself,
This stage, Mr Wayne suggests, has
already been reached in the North
Sea and in consequence
USA oil
companies
may leave. For a North
Sea investment
the practice is to
prepare a cash flow analysis year-byyear for the field's life. Table 1 is a
summary of one such analysis. The
"net cash flow" is the profit.
>
Table 1
Cash flow analysis summary for
North Cormorant 1976-2000, central
case.
NOVEMBER 1981
Inflow. Receipts from Production;
100 per cent
Outflow: Operating costs
5.4%
Capital costs
9.3%
Interest
0.7%
Royalties
11.7%
Supplementary Petroleum
Duty
13.2%
Petroleum Revenue
Tax
34.9%
Corporation Tax
13.8%
Net cash flow
11.0%
100.0%
Source: Offshore
Engineer.
1981 p.31.
May
The primary consideration is the
amount of oil/gas which can be
abstracted for the financial outlay.
There is no evidence to suggest that
"easier" (i.e. larger) fields are being
worked first for this would mean that
all the large fields had been found.
Table 1 shows that operating and
capital costs amount to 14.7 per cent
of the' outflow and that taxation is
considerable.
Indeed, it may be
heavy taxation, rather than exploration and production costs, which
cause some companies to move.
The Paper quotes as the most
recent
consumption
figures
for
motor spirit and derv those for 1972
at 22%m tonnes. More recent UK
figures are given in Table 2.
Table 2
Consumption Million Tonnes Oil or
Oil Equivalent.
Vear Total Oil and Motor Aviation
gas all uses Spirit Turbine
and derv Fuel
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
.1980
113
114
117
120
124
113
22
22
23
24
25
25
3.8
4.0
4.2
4.5
4.7
4.7
Source: Department of Energy Bulletin Energy Trends. April
1981. (The figures for 1980
are provisional)
The consumption of motor spirit
and derv is about 20 per cent of the
total consumption of oil and gas for
all purposes; aviation turbine fuel
accounts for about 4 per cent. The
availability of oil for transportation
should be evaluated in the context of
the use of oil and gas for manufacturing, industrial and domestic purposes.
Since the Paper is a revision of one
published in 1973 it might be as well
to examine what has happened since
then. One event is that the UK
offshore oil industry has come into
production
and the country has
become self-sufficient
in oil. This
achievement in less than 10 years is
dismissed
in the Paper on the
grounds that at most it has added
about 4 per cent to known world
reserves. This astonishing industrial
development is. no justification for
complacency. What it does demonstrate is the necessity to look beyond
the macro-economics of oil/gas production to the micro-economics.
The micro-economics are shown
in Table 1, which is for a North Sea
production platform programmed to
produce to 2000 with peak production in 1986/87. The North Sea gas
gathering system now being planned is programmed to come into
production in about 1985, for peak
production in about 1995 and to continue
until
at least 2006. The
Morecambe Bay gas field, with a life
of 30 years, is programmed to come
into production in 1984. Development of the North Sea's Lomond
Field has been postponed. So the
micro-economics of oil/gas production in the UK are beginning to
extend to 2010 and beyond with peak
production late this century. The Petro/eum Times, May, 1981, forecasts
that the UK will remain self-sufficient
in oil until 1990 and is likely to
remain so until at least 2000. Projections further ahead than that are
difficult.
It is suggested that the macroeconomics of world oil and gas production need to be seen in conjunction with the micro-economics
of
production in the various countries
and regions of the world. The situation will naturally vary between one
country and another and this must
affect energy policies. In many parts
of the world there is considerable
activity: the longest off-shore pipeline, 425km is reported to be in the
Gulf of Thailand. The great activity
both in the North Sea and worldwide illustrates
how large scale
industrial
development
can
be
undertaken very rapidly when there
is a need for it.
The spectre of world demand for
oil exceeding supply remains, but
the outlook is not entirely gloomy.
This does not justify complacency
but it does affect planning. It is suggested that aviation
should
be
allowed to develop. It uses proportionally little oil and there is no alternative form of fast, long-distance
transportation
it also appears
premature to halt road investment.
But when we prepare projections for
30 years or more ahead it will be
prudent to remember we are not
om iscient.
Yours faithfully,
W. P. Winston
Mr Wayne replies; I welcome any
comment especially anything questioning
my conclusions.
"Fossil
fuels" (Latin fossil is - dug up) may
be a misnomer for both coal and oil,
but the term is generally understood.
M r Wilkes' figures for North Sea oil
are interesting, but we must consider
the world situation. We must not be
parochial. North Sea oil is indeed an
astonishing achievement. I did not
"dismiss it" by quoting Lord Kearton. The figures for gas are also
interesting, but give no promise of
long-term, cheap liquid fuel.
My real point is that oil will never
"run out". More will yet be found,
but world prices must rise until oil is
no longer competitive with electricity, which will come from the cheapest of many sources. Oil will not be
cheap from 8000m down or through
a 425km pipeline. As oil becomes
more expensive we will go from the
Oil Age to the Electricity Age, for
which we are unprepared.
This is a huge subject which I
compressed into a 7Yz page article in
"The Highway Engineer", obviously
omitting much detail. Please, will
somebody
prove me wrong
by
showing how the world will get
cheap oil in the 21st century? It is not
enough to say "How nice if the other
fellow stopped using oil".
r.r~~~-~~~~~"""~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
December 10th-11th, 1981
See page 31 for further details
HAVE YOU BOOKED YET?
Don't Forget To Do So
NOVEMBER 1981
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
23
EAST MIDLAND BRANCH HISTORY
-
The first 20 years
I
N 1959 one or two Institution
members
living
or working
approximately within the area
bounded by Peterborough, March,
Cambridge and Huntingdon wished
to attend Branch meetings. To do so
involved journeys up to 70 miles
each way when attending the East
Anglian Branch meetings in Norwich
- or even further at Ipswich -...:likewise attendance at the Midland
Branch meetings in the BirminghamLeicester area involved similar long
journeys. On more than one occasion those few enthusiasts who
attended winter meetings experienced hazardous return journeys in
fog, snow or icy road conditions.
Subsequently, one of the members discussed with the Secretary,
the late Noel Jenson, how the Institution would be involved and to learn
what procedure should be followed
in forming a new Branch.
An investigation was made into
the support available for a new
Branch, and into the potential
amount of successful recruitment of
new members; contact was made
with county and borough surveyors,
the Ministry of Transport at Bedford,
leaders of appropriate hig hwayorientated industry (producers and
contractors) and local civil eng ineering consultants within the proposed
area of the new Branch. All promised
maximum support to the few who
were doing the ground work.
As permission was necessary from
adjacent Branches to form a Branch
out of part of each of their territories,
Mr. J. S. Trott, Chairman, East Anglian Branch, and Mr. C. A. H. Croxford, Chairman, Midland Branch
were consulted; also help was
sought from the late Mr. C. J. MacDonald, County Surveyor of Norfolk
and a Past President of the Institution. Mr. Jenson dealt with the London and South Midland Branches.
Each Branch involved
readily
agreed to cede territory, and the then
Institution President Mr. (now Sir)
James Drake, County Surveyor of
Lancashire, lent his support.
Having convinced the Institution
that there was an early potential of at
least 100 Branch Members, on March
14th 1960 Mr. Jenson met some of
the likely members of the Branch
Committee in Huntingdon - to explain the procedure to be followed in
setting up the Branch, which by then
was to cover the counties of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, parts
of Essex, Hertfordshire, north Bedfordshire with Northamptonshire,
24 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
veyor,
Wisbech,
is the
Branch Secretary."
~~I... ~•
i•
and the now extinct and quaintly
named counties of the Soke of Peterborough and the Isle of Ely, It is
interesting to note that th is meeting
at the George Hotel was followed by
a luncheon for 11 people, at a total
cost of £8 6s. 6d. including three
bottles of wine!
M r Jenson agreed, on behalf of the
Institution, to the formation of an ad
hoc Branch Committee and later set
out the terms on which the Branch
should be founded and drew up a
map and description of the Branch
Boundaries.
On May 2nd 1960 the nominated
Committee met, and decided to form
the East Midland Bran'ch; formal
application was made to the Secretary and permission was granted;
the Journal of June 1960reported:"The Council
were pleased
to
grant permission for the formation of
a further Branch, which came into
being
in early June.
The area
covered by the activities of the new
Branch,
styled
the
East
Midland, comprised the Counties of
Cambridge, Huntingdon,
Isle of Ely,
Northampton
and Soke of Peterborough, and the north-eastern
half
of Bedfordshire
and parts of Hertfordshire and Essex. The inaugural
Chairman is Mr. H. S. Taylor, AMICE,
AMIMunE,
MlnstH.E.,
County Surveyor of the Isle of Ely and Mr. A. G.
Tasker, A MfnstH. E., Divisional
Sur-
Honorary
Mr J. D. Alcock became the
Honorary Branch Treasurer.
In the meanwhile a Branch programme had been circulated, the
Committee having decided that, as
far as possible, there would be a
Branch meeting or visit each month,
and that the venues should follow a
rota composed of the principal
towns in the Branch territory; in this
way all members, and potential
members, would have equal opportunity to attend.
It was also decided that the AGM
should be held at Huntingdon, sited
approximately at the centre of the
Branch area. Generally meetings
were herd in county halls or similar
venues in order to minimise costs.
The inaugural meeting was held
on Thursday, June 16th, 1960 at
Biggleswade Bypass, then under
construction, where Mr. S, W. Lynn,
County Surveyor of Bedfordshire,
welcomed the 12 members and 12
guests who attended.
The importance of the new Branch
was recognised in the Isle of Ely
when the Chairman of the County
Council, the late Alderman A. S. Rickwood, CBE, opened the Branch
meeting at March, in December
1960. A future Institution President,
Mr W. R. Thomson, DBE, then Worcestershire's County Surveyor, gave
a Paper on "Motorway Design and
Construction", to 56 people.
Amongst the notable new members elected that year were Mr. T. H.
Longstatfe, OBE, late Huntingdonshire County Surveyor, in memory of
whom' part of the A141 east of Huntingdon is named "Longstatfe Way";
Mr. A. W. K. Tucker, currently Deputy
County Surveyor, Cambridgeshire
CC, a past chairman of the Branch;
and Mr. D. J. Bright. Ministry of
Transport, later to become Assistant
Branch Secretary.
Twenty-two
members attended
the first AGM held in March 1961
when proper elections were held for
the first Branch Committee. Bill
Taylor was re-elected Branch Chairman. In the same month the first
Annual Dinner Dance took place at
"The Lion"; tickets were 14 shillings
each and a capacity number of 70
attended. (A fish course would have
cost a further 1s. 3d.; but it was
thought that a ticket costing 15s. 3d.
would deter some members from
attending. A fish course was served
however, being paid for by two
benevolent members.)
NOVEMBER 1981
I
I
.4
~
Members of the Branch in 1961 at the visit to. Barton coating plant. From left
to right the late George Oversby.Powell, "Ossie" Atherton, John Alcock, Cecil
Atherton, Dick Dowling and "Bill" Taylor.
At the 1962 AGM Mr. A. K.
Richards, ORE., Ministry of Transport, was elected Chairman and
Branch Membership was 110. The
Annual Dinner Dance could no
longer be held at "The Lion" as the
number of people wishing to attend
was beyond its capacity.
The event was moved to the motel
at Alconbury, price 22s. 6d. where a
member provided a champagne
reception. In 1962 Mr. E. H. Stevenson generously agreed to give a
silver medal to the winner of the
Branch essay competition, in addition to the cash prize. Mr. Barry.
Warmisham, then a Divisional Surveyor in Hertfordshire, won it with
his Paper "The Value of Training and
the Local Authority". A second prize
had been added and this was won by
Mr. Jim Dabson of Bedfordshire.
In February 1962 Sydney Lynn,
presented a most amusing paper on
"Time-lapse Photog raphy in Highway Work" to 31 members and 12
guests. The Dinner Dance at Huntingdon was attended by 91 people,
and the AGM by 132 members. The
essay prize, £5 10s. plus the silver
medal, was won by Mr. J. Clements
with a Paper on "Accidents and
Safety", and presented by the Chairman Mr. A. H. Maynard.
A record number of 122 members
. and guests attended the 1965Annual
Dinner Dance; Branch membership
had now reached 148 members.
During the long illnesses of the
Honorary Secretary and the Assistant Honorary Secretary, Mr. R. A.
Brooking temporarily took over in
their stead.
Acting on the proposal of a
Branch member, the Institution's
NOVEMBER 1981
Council formed the Association of
Highway Technicians, and all Association members were invited to
attend East Midland Branch meetings and visits, except where numbers were limited. A Technician
member, Mr. R. Newey', Stirling,
Maynard & Partners, who had been
one of the principal Technicians
involved in setting up the Association, gave a Paper in November on
"The Practical Approach to Traffic
Studies". Also in that month Messrs.
L. G. H. Heaseman, Sydney Lynn and
Bill Taylor, described to 124 members and guests "Road Construction
and Maintenance in parts of the
USA" following their tour of some of
that country's highway systems ear-
Iier that year.
At the 1966 AGM Mr. E. H. Stevenson, a founder member of the Institution, became Branch chairman. In
presenting the Branch accounts,
John Alcock's statement balanced at
£381 11. O. In 1961 the comparable
figure had been £30 O. O. In the
summer, the late Mr. S. Morgan
invited members to St. Ives Sand,
Gravel and Concrete Works (50
attended); John Alcock to Baston Pit
and Tarmacadam Works (60) and Mr.
G. W. Saunders, to Stewarts and
L10yds at Corby (55). Both John
Alcock and Bill Saunders are still
members of the Branch Committee.
The first joint meeting at Peterborough with members of the North
Midland Branch of the Civils was
well attended by Branch members.
in December 1961 the chairman,
Mr. R. E. C. Dorling, county Surveyor
of Huntingdonshire,
received the
Chairman's collar and badge, presented by John Alcock on behalf of
Messrs. Amey Group. Name plates
of all the earlier chairmen were
included on the collar. Jim Clements
again won the Essay First Prize, and
silver medal.
In 1910 the Branch organised the
fi rst of its Conferences at. Churchill
College on "Traffic Engineering",
this was attended by 180 delegates
and members. Alan Tucker became
Branch Chairman and Jim Clements
retired as Branch and Social Secretary; he was succeeded by George
Joiner who carried out these duties
for the following nine years. Recognition of the national theme "The
Countryside in 1910" was given in a
Paper by Dr. Perrin of the County
Naturists Trust, and "Robbie" Robinson gave one of his well-known talks
on "Surface Dressing".
In 1911 Alec Tasker who had been
Branch Secretary since 1960, and
had carried out his duties most con-
1
The Branch AGM was held at Huntingdon in March, 1966. Back row: "Bill"
Taylor; Arthur Maynard. Front row: Bob Lacey, Sydney Lynn and George
Oversby.Powell. (All had been, or were to become, East Midland Branch
Chairmen) ..
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 25
Visit to Lindford Pit, in Ju!y, 1978. From left to right: Denis Dearlove, George
Joiner, John Gregory-Cullen, ARC Manager and Norman Burrill.
scientiously
and
fastidiously;
ago, we tend to forget the National
resigned and was succeeded by the
Emergency of that year. The fuel
Assistant Honorary Secretary, Mr.
crisis which hit us caused the cancelDenis Dearlove. The Branch Chairlation of the December meeting at
manship was taken over by John
Bedford and the January, 1974 one
Alcock who had been Branch Treaat Cambridge as neither heat nor
surer for a number of years;' and
fight were provided in the evenings
George Joiner Branch Treasurer and
at the Shire Hall.
Social Secretary succeeded Jim CleAt the 1975 Annual Dinner Dance,
ments in the latter post. The Branch
the Chairman, Mr. J. G. Thompson,
protested to the Institution on subgave us a memorable and very witty
scriptions rates being raised by 50
speech. "Bill" Saunders, Tarmac
per cent without consulting the
Ltd., who succeeded him led some
Branches!
heart-searching discussion on the
In 1972, Alec Tasker, became
subject of "Why should we seek
Branch Chairman and the Branch
Affiliate Membership of CEI?" After a
Golf Section was inaugurated, with
long period of discussion, the Branch
Mr. P. Meacock as Honorary Secretagreed to support Council in Its
ary, in a one day tournament at
application, provided that, if a CharSutton Park, Bedfordshire. At its
ter was necessary, it did not change
October meeting, Messrs. Tarmac . materially the form of the Institution.
Ltd. presented the Branch with a Golf
(In 1979 the Institution came an
Trophy - the Robin Martin Cup.
Affiliate Member of CH)
The Ladies' Evening at Slepe Hall
Jointly with the East Anglian
in 1973 proved more popular than
Branch a successful Conference was
ever with over 170 people attending.
held in Churchill College, Cambridge
Although 1973 is only eight years
on "Transportation - Where are we
26 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
going?" At a joint meeting with
HTTA members at March over 60
people heard the then Institution's
senior Vice-President, Peter Deavin,
DBE, give a Paper on "The
Economics of Highway Engineering", he was supported by his Assistant County Surveyor, Terry Kitt. This
was the first Branch/HTTA meeting
at which the HTTA Branch Chairman
Bob Alderson took the chair.
In the notice of the 1977 meeting to
visit the Humber Bridge the advice
was "Take suitable footwear and
clothing with you, but safety helmets
will be provided". As nothing was
said about wea ring this gear, the
sight presented as members assembled must have been horrible to say
the least.
The Branch Chairman was host at
the 1978 Noel Jenson Memorial Lecture, held in Cambridge, and
attended by the late Mrs. Jenson.
In 1978 the author who had served
on Council and the Branch Committee since the Branch's formation
retired from both of these bodies,
but continued to serve on the HTTA
Council.
Arrangements for the 1979 Annual
Dinner Dance were almost ruined by
a heavy fall of snow the night before
which affected the numbers attending. The author and his wife were
guests of the Branch, and Chairman,
Norman Burrill, presented him with a
salver to mark his 20 years of service
to the Branch and the Institution.
Afterwards he was asked to write the
Branch history!
At the 1980 AGM George Joiner,
who joined the Institution in 1953,
became the first Companion to be
elected Branch Chairman.
The Institution celebrated its 50th
anniversary in 1980 and the Branch
held a Receptio n, buffet and dance at
Wickstead Park on September 26th
1980 to mark the occasion.
Membership has now grown to
approximately 275 and the Branch is
fortunate in that, in the foreseeable
future, there is available a succession of worthy potential chairmen to
continue the successful leadership of
the past, which has rotated approximately at three yearly intervals
between the contractors/manufacturers, local and national government and ministry and consultants.
In the end, the continued success of
the Branch Iies as it always has done,
in the strong and active support of its
membership.
The writer wishes to acknowledge
the help and encouragement given
by past Chairman John Alcock, and
Honorary Secretary Denis Dearlove
in compiling this history.
HST.
This is a shortened version of a more
detaifed Branch history which the
author, "Bi/l" Taylor has kindly given
to the Institution for its archives.
NOVEMBER 1981
I
LEGAL NOTES
Accidents on private land
What if the victim was trespassing
at the time? Suppose the highway
engineer accidentally (or deliberately) trespasses onto private land
whilst out inspecting or surveying
and is injured. Does the fact that he
had no right to be where he was
debar him from claiming? On principle it ought to, because of the old
What is the legal position of the
rule that a right of action cannot arise
highway engineer who is injured on
out of wrong-doing (I was electroprivate land?
cuted by faulty alarm, claims burgAny accident in the course of
lar), and that used to be the law, but
employment these days could give
the Privy Council decision in the
rise to a prosecution under the
Australian case of Commissioner for
Health and Safety at Work Act, but
Railways Y. Quinlan (1964) AC 1054
seeing a contractor fined an hour's
sent the pendulum the other way,
net profit is little consolation or comand although a late-night knicker
pensation for a broken leg, especially
snatcher who trips over the rockery
if you break the other one falling
and breaks his nose on the clothes
down the steps coming out of court.
post is still unlikely to be awarded
It is open to magistrates when they
damages, an innocent trespasser or
convict to order the defendant to pay
one with a good excuse, such as a
compensatio"n to the victim, but the
highway engineer genuinely trying
limits are too low to cover any but
to make life less dangerous for his
the most minor injuries, and even
fellow human beings, can be confithose magistrates who are aware
dent that if he loses, it will not be just
that they have the power to award
because he had no right to be on the
compensation are often reluctant to
land.
If the accident was caused by the
use it because of a wish to keep out
defective condition of the private
of the civil or private side of the law.
Many individuals have their own _ land or of buildings on it, the
occupier or in some cases the owner
personal accident insurance policies,
may be liable under the Occupier's
sometimes unwittingly because such
Liability Act 1957 or the Defective
cover is often tacked onto an ordiPremises Act 1972. The question is
nary householder's buildings or conwhether the occupier took reasontents policy. Some employers insure
able steps to make his premises
their staff against personal accident;
reasonably safe for the sort of people
several English local authorities have
who would be expected to go there.
personal accident cover for all staff
The occupier is entitled to assume
whose work is more than usually
that people in particular occupations
hazardous - committee attendance
will exercise care and skill appropexcluded - and national conditions
require all local authority staff to be
riate to their job.
So if the highway engineer is
insured against assault in the course
inspecting a building for stability and
of the job. Much personal accident
shins up a rusty drai npipe instead of
cover however is very restricted using a ladder, or traverses a glass
under some policies it pays to lose a
roof without duck boards, he will
limb altogether rather than have it
have no claim if the drainpipe parts
disabled permanantly - and inflacompany with the wall or the roof
tion has reduced the value of
parts company with him.
benefits in many cases.
Much of the law on occupier's
Whilst insurance is a useful aid, a
liability is no more than commonstraight claim for damages will often
sense. The surveyor must expect
be more to the financial point, even if
barbed wire and brambles in rural
the claim is settled without going to
areas, and if farmyard manure or
court. A claim will succeed however
quarry slurry doesn't agree with his
only if the victim can show that the
Gucci loafers, he has only himself to
defendant was in breach of a legal
blame.
duty. If the accident is nobody's fault,
Where the injury or damage is
no-one will be able to make a claim
caused not by the static condition of
against anybody. Just because you
the private land but by an activity"
are injured on someone else's land
going on there, the victim can claim
doesn't automatically give you the
both under the Occupier's liability
right to sue him, any more than the
Act and for negligence at common
mere fact that you are injured in the
law. In each case the test is virtually
course of your job gives you a right
the same: did the occupier take
to recover damages from your
reasonable care to ensure the safety
employer ..
NOVEMBER 1981
of his visitors? But the highway
engineer's job is such that the accident may well take place in premises
like a factory or a contractor's yard
where the employer may well also
be in breach of statutory duty, e.g.
regarding the inspection or operation of a hoist or the fencing of
machinery. Whilst at the moment of
impact with a crane hook or a fork-lift
truck the victim may not appreciate
that he may have three or more
different legal grounds of action, the
defences available to the defendant
may differ significantly, and some
private legal advice may well be
worth while.
Vehicle accidents on private land,
for example in an office car park or a
contractor's
yard
or
on the
engineer's own client's site, will usually be covered by the offending
driver's
employer's,
employer's
liability insurance: not necessarily
his motor policy, because Road Traffic Act cover is usually (not always)
confined to impact on a road which,
• though defined in the Act so as to
include a road to which the public
has de facto as well as de jure
access, will not always include private property. Even a third party
visitor to a private car park would
usually be on his employer's business, but there is one area where
recovery could be difficult, and that
is the non-injury accident in a private
car park caused by careless driving
by a retired octogenarian, or an
impecunious housewife with no
separate assets, neither with anything more than compulsory third
party injury cover, or by a thief driving a stolen car, who will not be
insured for anything.
Even if negligence can be proved
however, that does not necessarily
mean that a claim will succeed.
Many private car parks and yards
"prominently display notices to the
effect that the occupier will not
accept responsibility for loss, injury
or damage to visitors or their property however caused. Obviously a
visitor cannot plead such a notice as
a defence, but provided the notice is
prominently and appropriately displayed, the occupier can, and the
wording may be such as to protect
his employees as well. Even so, however cleverly or lengthily worded, the
notice will not render anyone
immune from being sued for death
or personal injury: since the Unfair
Contract Terms Act 1977 no-one has
been able to contract out of liability
for that. whether in a notice, a document. or any other way.
WE
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 27
•
TRANSPORT IN THE 19805
The Fifth of Six Letters to a Politician
THE AUTHOR
'
Sir Colin Buchanan was Professor
and Director of the School of Advanced Studies,
University
of
Bristol from 1973 until his retirement in 1975, and co-author of
"Traffic in Towns" (The Buchanan
Report) pUblished in 1963. This
Report formed the basis for much
of the work carried out in this
field in the UK between then and
the mid-1970s.
Sir Colin Buchanan began his
distinguished
career as a civil
engineer and has specialised in
town planning and transport matters since shortly after the last
war. He is a consultant to his own
firm, Colin Buchanan and Part.
ners, and in 1968 was a member
of the Roskill Commission on the
siting of the third London Airport.
This subject forms the basis of a
new book by him "No Way To
The Airport"
(price £2.95) was
published in September, 1981 by
Longman Group Ltd., Longman
House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex.
I
N September 1980, Professor
Sir Colin Buchanan, CBE, gave
his views - in the' form of six
letters to a pOlitician - on "Transport in Britain - The Important
Issues." The letters were read at a
special evening lecture held at the
University
of Newcastle upon
Tyne arranged by the Institution's
North-Eastern
Branch
and
attended
by members
of the
Northern Counties Joint Transportation Group; the Transport
Engineering Division. Newcastle
University and the Tyne and Wear
Chamber of Commerce.
Dear Politician,
The subject of this, my fifth letter, is
public transport. There are three
main topics: long-distance passenger transport by rail; rural bus
services; and the whole of the urban
transport field. In all three cases the
same kind of problem has arisen,
namely declining demand for services, fares spiralling
upwards,
financial
difficulties
for
the
operators, and the question of public
subsidy
being
constantly
and
heatedly debated. In a/l three cases
the cause of these difficulties is the
same, namely the competition of the
28
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
Sir Colin used the first letter to
define transport and to emphasise
the country's dependence on it
and roads. In the other letters he
looked at transport and energy;
transport and the environment,
roads and traffic and public transport and airports. All the letters,
since
they
skilfully
blended
humour, controversy, and wisdom could only have served to
enlighten his aspiring politician
who had, at the outset, expressed
an interest in specialising in transport oroblems.
The fifth letter is published
here, and the final one will be
published in the December issue.
motor car coupled with shifts of
population over many years to the
outer areas of towns where the more
spread-out form of development
itself positively encourages motor
car use.
Now for reasons of space and time
I am not going to discuss the first
two topics, except perhaps to say in
respect of rural bus services that I
need convincing the position is as
bad as it is ohen alleged to be. Ilive
in a very rural part of the world; the
main buses run almost empty except
at the peak hours; the mini-bus
rarely has more than two or three
passengers; yet I d ubt whether
there is any serious deprivation by
immobility even for elderly or infirm
persons, and this may be largely due
to the remarkable voluntary transport service provided by those pillars
of society, the older middle-class
ladies, who, with their little cars, are
ever ready to help.
Now to urban transport. I start by
repeating the advice contained in a
previous letter, namely that you do
not jump on the bandwagon which
bears the motto "Ban cars! Everyone
on buses and trainsl"
This is
because the motto is misconceived
and futile. As I have tried to explain,
the car is an extremely useful, versatile form of transport, well suited
to a very large proportion of the
journeys which are made during the
course of everyday life. Public transport, which means buses and trains
and nothing else, is. a much more'
specialised form of transport which
carries people in bulk and is therefore. of value only along "corridors"
where enough people want to go the
same way to provide an economic
load. If you remember this you won't
go 'far wrong, and you won't seek to
stretch pUblic transport to do jobS
which it cannot possibly do.
However, there is a nasty quirk to
be borne in mind: public transport
cannot do everything that cars can
do, but cars can do just about everything that public transport can do
1
,I,
provided
there is enough
road
space. Well of course there isn't
nearly enough road space in the
crowded parts of cities for the cars to
take over, and no prospect of providing enough, and it is rather fortunate
that it is in the crowded parts of cities
and the approaches thereto that the
bulk passenger loads exist, and so
public transport has a real job to do.
But it doesn't sort itself out nicely
and neatly like that - the car!>are
always prowling around, like a steadily growing pack of hyenas, always
ready to nudge their way in and
collar part of the bulk load leading to
further clogging of the streets,
reduced public transport services,
and increased fares as the operators
seek to recoup their losses. The
threat from the cars is always there.
Do you realise that in spite of af! our
economic difficulties, and in spite of
increased vehicle taxation and the
rocketing price of petrol, the car
population is expected to increase by
up to 60 per cent by the end of the
century?
NOVEMBER 1981
.
I
Now I may have misled you into
thinking that the only reason why the
cars cannot take over the whole job
is because of the difficulty of providing enough road space. That is certainly a main reason - if YOU,provided the road space there wouldn't
be any city left - but it is more
complicated than this, the main point
being that when you get large concentrations of people you find that
about 25 per cent at least are unlikely
ever to be car owners through lack of
means, fear, health etc. 50 the case
for maintaining public transport is a
strong one, on a different scale from
the position in rural areas where selfhelp schemes can achieve a great
deal.
50, to recap as far as we have
gone, the public's perception of public transport is one of deteriorating
services and rising fares, while managements see declining demand and
ever rising costs augmented by
wages tending to move ahead of
inflation rates.
So what is to be done? If you are
expecting a cut-and-dried answer.
from me I am afraid you will be
disappointed. All my experience suggests that long term trends, especially declining trends - departures
of property values from 'one area to
another, decline of a newspaper, faIling patronage (e.g. of cinemas),
shifts of population out of central city
areas, even the decline of a species
- are very, very difficult to hold, let
alone reverse. Even so, there may be
some points I can make. First it is
worth remembering that in most of
our towns and cities public transport
is the bus. In only a few places is the
bus supplemented by sections of the
main line railway system performing
a commuter-type function, and in
still fewer is there an underground
railway system as well as buses and
main railway lines. So it must follow
that the organisation and' management of bus services is the key factor
in public transport.
The great thing about the bus is its
versatility. It can be made in so many
different sizes, and it can provide
flexibility of service - so easily
switchable
from one route to
another, so easy (subject to the
unions of course) to augment the'
service when required. It strikes me
as a very good b'asis to work on, and
there is evidence that some bus companies with new techniques of market analysis have been able to reshape services without substantial
loss of custom. But, and this is a
point which for some mysterious
reason people tend to overlook, the
bus is a 'road vehicle and it must
have road to run on. Just picture any
city you know and imagine there to
be no traffic on the roads at all
except buses - what a wonderful
,service could be provided along the
corridors I But of course there is a
great deal of other traffic which has
an equal claim to use the roads - so
we come back to the point I made in
an ear/ier letter, namely that to free
the buses requires a combination of
some road improvement and some
squeezing out of traffic (mainly car
traffic) which has no real need to be
there. This way, by this kind of cooperative action, we could I believe
greatly improve the bus services. But.
co-operative actions are not so easy
to 'achieve these days.
One of my great regrets concerns
the proposal which my colleagues
and I prepared for Edinburgh. After a
great deal of thought we proposed a
number of special bus routes - nar.
row
two-lane
roads
threaded
through, for buses only. But it never
got anywhere, not in that opinion, ated city, and finished up as far as I
remember bogged down in arguments with "experts" at the University who had bees in their bonnets
about light railways. I don't think I
was much of a success in Edinburgh
- right name, wrong accent, and too
English a sense of humour.
Mention of light railways brings
me to a frequently debated point.
Why don't many more cities and
large towns go in for underground
railway systems? It seems such an
obvious way to avoid all the difficul.
ties of building roads on the surface.
The answer in a few words is that it is
usually so expensive to go underground that the investment doesn't
pay. There are better ways of spending the money. The latest example
we have to go on is the Tyne-Wear.
Metro, sections of which are now
carrying traffic. Most of this project is
in fact on the surface -, old, underused suburban lines have been taken
over and formed into a big loop
linking the centre of Newcastle to
Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, while a
new bridge over the Tyne serves an
extension along the south bank of
the river to Jarrow and South
Shields. Only under the centre of
Newcastle is there new construction
in deep tunnel.
If you go and look at the scheme I
think you will agree with me that it is
a remarkable, indeed (for these days)
incredible achievement.
As you
would expect in these days of public
participation it has been the subject
of a barrage of criticism from before
the word go. There have been terrible financial difficulties with escalating costs. In 7976 the Government
(which was paying 70 per cent of the
,cost) all but withdrew its support.
There seem to have been many argu.
ments about the taking over of the
old British Rail suburban lines for'
incorporation in the scheme, and
indeed about who should operate
the project when finished - British
Rail or the local Passenger Transport
Executive?
But the project is now emerging
from the morass of difficulties and I
think one must pay tribute to those,
especially the engineers, who have
had the courage and tenacity to hold
on through all the trials and tribulations. There can be no doubt that it
will be a great asset to the whole
sprawling area, and it is surely
remarkable that it should have been
achieved in the 900th anniversary
year of, the Charter of the City of
Newcastle upon Tyne. But as a lesson for other towns? Well, I wonder
what you would do if you were Secretary of State for Transport faced
with funding most of the cost at a
time when the bill for essential
renewals and modernisation for British Rail alone threatens to swallow
most of your capital budget, and this
before you have started consideration of BR's operating losses? I have
an idea that you would not see a
bright green signal for new underground railway systems, not even for
further extensions of the existing
system in London.
What about financial subsidies to
help public transport? Well, subsidy
has become rather a dirty word of
late, and I think most politicians
would prefer to see public money
spent on something positive, like a
new interchange station, than to use
it to keep fares down. I should certainly be very cautious, if I were you,
about the idea of 100 per cent subsidy, i.e., free public transport in
cities, which floats up to the surface
every now and then with monotonous regularity. All this does is to put
the burden on everybody, including
a lot of people who for very good
reasons, do not use public transport.
But some subsidising of fares may
be a perfectly reasonable and justifiable policy and may well achieve
benefits
which
exceed
those
achieved by capital projects. We hear
a lot about the subsidies going to
public transport in Europe and the
USA. Certainly much higher subsidies are paid in Paris and Amsterdam than in London or Birmingham,
but I doubt whether they can justify
this any more than we can justify our
lack of subsidies.
I do not think you should expect to
be able to take a stand one way or
the other, saying "Yes, public transport should be subsidised", or "No,
it should not". The important thing, if
there is only a limited amount of
money avaifable, is to ask the question, "Will the public get better value
if we spend this money on, say, a
new station, or if we use it to keep
down fares?" That is the kind of
question that needs to be asked, and
the answer will depend upon the
circumstances. I should add that
Continued on page 30
~
NOVEMBER 1981
l_
THE JOURNAL
OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
29
Transport in the 1980s
continued from page 29
much progress is" being made in
evolving
methods of evaluatioh
which will give a sound indication of
where the public.interest lies. Only in
this way will we get a sensible
balance between subsidy and other
expenditure on public transport, and,
for that matter, between public transport policies and other transport
policies.
Before I finish I ought to add a
word about the organisation of public transport, since some problems
certainly stem from the organisation,
and changing the organisation is a
favourite pastime of politicians. In
very broad terms f am inclined to
think that the lesson of the fast 25
years is that huge organisational
changes in almost any sphere hardly
ever payoff. They sofve one set of
problems but these are repfaced by a
new and quite unforseen set. Has
there reaf/y been any worth-while
gain from the reorganisation of local
government? I wonder.
Welf there are some people who
say we should plan the demise of the
large public transport bus operator
by abolishing licensing regulations
and having a free-for-aJl. This, they
say, would refease an immense
wave of small private operators who
would rapidly sweep all opposition
away, including possibly British Rail.
To a person like myself, with a fang
memory, this would be like going
back to the "private buses" of the
7920s - it has been tried before. It
would also be sure to increase traffic
congestion to the point I witnessed
in Caracas a few years ago where
over half the public transport trips
were made by mini-bus. But the Govenment seems to have something in
mind in the way of relaxing the
FOR
LORRY
licensing regulations and introducing an element of competition,
though it is puzzling that the competition seems to be visualised as between the giants of the bus industry
(London Transport, National Bus
Company, etc.) and a handful of private operators, rather than between
the giants themselves. And why was
there talk of trial areas in Cumbria
and Cornwall, instead of in Tyneside
and Manchester?
Doubtless all will soon be reveafed
as the age of competition dawns,
and bus passengers get the thing
they really want - lower fares. But,
for myself, I would be cautious about
chopping and changing the organisation yet again, which is not to say
there are no aspects of public transport planning that need modification. One example is the virtual
exclusion of British Rail from local
authority transport plans because of
the central government public service obligation grant. Already this
seems to be leading to unjustifiable
differences between bus and rail
fares. Then again, we have three
broad types of bus organisation the Passenger Transport Executive,
the municipal operator, and the
National
Bus Company/Scottish
Group. If I were a Minister I would
want to know which was the most
efficient Arrangement, and what
steps should be taken to move the
other two to a similar set-up. But let
me repeat my earfier advice that
what is needed is stability of policy,
not convulsions, and least of all
changes made for the sake of party
political advantage.
Yours sincerely,
MANAGEMENT
GUIDELINES
SCHEMES ASSESSMENT
IMPLEMENTATION
I
.1
GUIDELINES
for
Accident Reduction
and Prevention
Your copy of this 48 page book, price
£4.50 may be obtained from the
Institution,
3 Lygon Place, Ebury!
Street, London SW1.
Please send me
GUIDELINES.
r
copy(iesj of.
My cheque for
:
is enclosed.
NAME
..
ADDRESS
.
(Please use block capitals).
-
PROCEDURES
-
The Institution has produced a major new'publication Guidelines for "Lorry Management
Schemes - Assessment - Procedures - Implemention." which sets out the three stages
leading to the introduction of a lorry management scheme. The publication will be of very great
practical value to all those concerned with lorries.
The book costs £6.50 and can be obtained by completing and returning the form below:
The Secretary,
The Institution of Highway Engineers,
3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street
London SW1
Please send me
copy(ies) of "GUIDELINES". My cheque/PO for f..
enclosed. (Please use block capitals)
is
NAM E
.
ADDRESS
..
30 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
NOVEMBER 1981
,
Institution News
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
NEXT MONTH
The Institution's one and a half day
National Conference will be held in
the Jarvis Conference Suite, 66 Portland Place, London, W.1 on Thursday
and Friday, December 10th and 11th,
1981,
It will take for its theme the allimportant one of value for money
"Our Transportation
Assets - Can
We Use Them To Better Effect?" The
1980s show every sign of being a
decade of severe economic retrenchment and the Conference will point
to some of the ways in which the
worst effects can be lessened.
D. Wrathall, County Area Surveyor,
North Yorkshire CC and C, C, Wallis,
Tarmac Roadstone Holdings Ltd.
The Implementation and Evaluation
of Lorry Control Schemes.
C. V. Underwood, County Surveyor,
Derbyshire CC and R. K. Turner, Controller, Planning and Traffic Services,
Freight Transport Association.
December 11th, 1981:
The Demand For Public Transport,
Dr F. V. Webster and Dr p, H. Bly,
Special Research Branch, TRRL.
Exporting Our Highway Engineering
Expertise.
Programme:
December 10th, 1981
Is There An End To The Road7
A. D. W. Smith,
Kent CC.
nance,
County
Surveyor,
The fdentification, Improvement and
Maintenance of The French National
Road Network.
P. Leger, L'lngenieur
Pants et Chaussees.
en Chef des
The Practical Impact of Reduced
Investments in Highway Mainte-
Panel Question and Answer session
led by F. A. Sharman, Sir William
Halcrow and Partners and H. W. A ..
Francis, CBE., Cementation International Ltd. '
The Conference will reflect the
need for both the public and private
sector to be aware of the significance
of transport infrastructure operation
and expertise in the country's futu re
economy.
The Conference fee is £45 for
members of the Institution, £55 for
non-members (both fees inclusive of
VA T). The fee covers preprints of the
Papers, a copy of the Institution's
journal to be published early in 1982
containing the full Conference proceedings, coffee, tea and a buffet
luncheon on December 10th and coffee on the morning of December
11 tho
There is a reduced fee for student
members and for retired Council
members.
An application form to attend the
Conference
was included
in the
August/September
issue of the journal. It should be completed
and
returned to the Institution, together
with an appropriate cheque, no later
than Friday, November 20th, 1981,
Delegates travelling to the Conference by British Rail and intending to
stay in anyone of london's 23 Grand
Metropolitan hotels can take advantage of the special rail and accommodation discount rates which are
being offered by both bodies in connection with the Conference. Details
will be sent to you when you return
your completed form.
The Conference will be followed
by the Institution's Annual Luncheon
at the Grosvenor House, Park lane,
London W.1.
A NEW MAN AT
THE MINISTRY
Following the Government reshuffle
on September 14th, 1981, the Rt Hon
David Howell, MP, was appointed
Secretary of State for Transport. He
succeeds the Rt Hon Norman Fowler,
MP, who had held the post for the
past 2Y:1 years and now becomes
Secretary of State for Social Services.
Mr Howell, who is 45, is MP for
Guildford, Surrey, which he has represented since 1966.
He graduated from King's College,
Cambridge in 1959 with a first class
honours degree in economics and
joined the Economic Section of the
Treasury. In 1960 he became leader
writer and special correspondent of
'The Daily Telegraph" and during
that period also served as Chairman
NOVEMBER 1981
of the Bow Group and Editor of its'
journal "Crossbow". He was Director
of the Conservative Political Centre
from 1964 to 1966.
Under the government of Edward
Heath, 1970-74 he held posts as Parliamentary
Secretary, Civil Service
Department,
1970, lord
Commissioner of the Treasury (1970-71); and
Parliamentary
Under-Secretary,
Department of Employment
(197172).
He
became
Parlia mentary
Under-Secretary,
Northern
Ireland
Office in 1972 and Minister of State
in 1973, moving to the Department of
Energy in 1974 as Mi nister of State.
Following the General Election in
May, 1979 Mr Howell was appointed
Secretary of State for Energy.
Rt. Hon David Howell
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
31
NEW POST
FOR PAST
PRESIDENT.
Geoff
Potter,
the
Institution's
Immediate
Past
President,
has
become
a Partner
in the civil
engineering
firm of Frank Graham
and Partners. He took up his new
post on November 1st. and will, initially, be involved in the design work
on the North Devon Link.
Mr. Geoff Potter
Geoff Potter has been DirectorGeneral of ACMA since 1978 and
also held posts as County Surveyor
of Leicestershire and of Berkshire.
He has served on a number of
important bodies connected with the
civil engineering
profession, including the
Economic
Development
Committee for Civil Engineering and
the Council and Executive Committee of the European Asphalt Pavement Association.
QUALIFICAliONS
The Institution provides two avenues
for members to enhance their professional standing.
Diploma in Transportation
.
Engineering
.
This Diploma has been running since
1974 and is a respected qualification
in the field. Com mencing this year it
is run jointly with the Institution
of
Municipal Engineers.
Candidates are expected to hold a
degree or equivalent before permission can be given to sit the examina'tion
which
comprises
three
set
Papers of three hours duration as in
past years, and a fourth Paper of four
hours concerned with a project. This
last Paper provides an opportunity
for candidates to demonstrate
their
ability to deal with the many faceted
problems involved in transportation
engineering.
In 1982 the examina-
32
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
tions will be held on April 6th-7th in
London and probably Newcastle.
Becoming a Chartered Engineer
As an Affiliate
of the Council of
Engineering Institutions, tilis Institution can recommend candidates with
a suitable background
for registration as chartered engineers. These
routes require an equivalent deg ree
of skills to those demanded by the
Institution
of Civil Engineers. There
are two routes:
1. For persons
with
acceptable
academic qualifications,
training and
experience. A postgraduate
qualification such as a one year MSc
course
in a relevant
subject
is
unl ikely to offset the lack of an
engineering first degree. In addition
candidates
must have enjoyed
a
level of responsibility
acceptable to
the CEI for a minimum of two years,
following
appropriate training. Candidates are required to send a full
report of their career which must be
signed by their two sponsors who
must be chartered engineers. Candidates who it appears might satisfy
the requirements will be interviewed
by a panel comprising of at least two
chartered engineers. As soon as is
practical, interviews will be set up,
normally within a reasonable range
of the candidate's
base. Those successful at this interview are then put
forward
to CEI for consideration.
(The rejection rate at the IHE interview has been about 50 per cent and
of those put to CEI not all have been
accepted.)
2. Mature Candidate Route for persons over 40 without academic qualification
but able to show exceptional ability. Candidates must prepare a report - in not more than two
years
illustrating
their
comprehension of the engineering
principles in their chosen subject. The
report is then assessed by a senior
academic and if thought to be of
sufficient merit the candidate will be
interviewed
by two IHE members
and a nominated assessor from CEI.
No one has yet succeeded in this
route through IHE.
The sponsoring of students for CEI
examinations is in abeyance pending
clarification
of the future role of the
Institution in education and training
in the light
of the Engineering
Council.
MEETINGS
UNTIL THE END
OF THE YEAR
Headquarters
December 10th-11th, 1981:
"Transportation
Assets - Making
The Most of What We Have."
National Conference at 66 Portland
Place, London W1. Papers by: A. D.
W. Smith, P. Ledger, C. C. Wallis, D.
Wrathall, R. K. Turner; C. V.
Underwood, F. V. Webster and P. H.
Bly.
December 11th, 1981:
Annual Luncheon at Grosvenor
House, Park Lane, Wl. President's
reception 12.15 for 1pm.
Transportation
Workshop:
November 19th, 1981:
"The Traffic Appraisal Manual."
Speakers: W. Gallagher and
A. Wilson. Meeting at 5.30pm at
the Weir Lecture Theatre, Royal
Institution of Naval Architects, 10
Upper Belgrave Street, London SW1.
Admission by ticket only
Applications to the Technical
Adviser, at the Institution of Highway
Engineers,
East Anglian
November26th,1981:
All day meeting with the Institute of
Asphalt Technology at the Angel
Hotel, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
commencing at lOam.
December 2nd, 1981:
"Current Developments in
Bituminous Materials," Paper by T.
Hoban. Meeting at Assembly House,
Norwich at 6.45pm.
East Midlands
December 4th, 1981:
Bedford Dinner Meeting, Talk by
Miss P. A. Steel. Meeting at Bedford.
Midland
December 15th, 1981:
Joint meeting with the ICE East
Midlands Association.
Northern
November 24th, 1981:
"Local Government Planning and
Land Act." Paper by M. Senior.
Meeting at Civic Centre, Carlisle.
December 10th, 1981;
"Roman Public Health Engineering."
Paper by Professor Isaacs. Meeting
at Civic Centre, Carlisle.
Northern Ireland
November 23rd, 1981:
"Recent Investigations
of Road SubBases and Sub-Grades in Northern
Ireland." Paper by Dr A. L. Bell and L.
M. McCullagh. Joint meeting with
the Municipals at 5,45 for 6.30pm at
Lecture Theatre LG25, David Keir
Building, Queen's University,
Belfast.
North.Eastern
November 26th, 1981:
Annual Dinner/Dance at the Civic
Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle
upon Tyne at 7.00 for 7.30pm.
December 2nd, 1981:
"The Two Wheeled Road User."
Paper by Messrs A. W. Donkin and J.
A. Kerman. Joint meeting with the
Northern Counties Association, ICE;
and the Northern District. IMunE at
the University of Durham Science
Laboratories.
North Western
December 9th, 1981:
NOVEMBER 1981
I
,I
VISIT TO PRIESTMANS
OF HULL
~.
"Dalton By Pass. An Investigation
Into an Area of Abandoned
Haematite Workings." Paper by E.J.
Arrowsmith. Joint meeting at County
Hall, Preston at 5.00 for 6.00pm.
Central and Southern Scotland
December 1st, 1981:
"Highway Design and the
Environment." Panel group
discussion led by J. Parry and R.
Beaumont. Joint meeting with the
Dumfries and Galloway Civil
Engineering and Architectural
Society at the County Hotel,
Dumfries at 7.00 for 7.30pm.
, ~Ib~'
I
December 15th, 1981:
"Stability of Rock Slopes." Paper by
Dr. C. G. Talbot. Joint meeting with
the South of Scotland Branch, HTTA
at the Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling at
6.30for 7.00pm.
North of Scotland
December 7th, 1981.'
Joint meeting with Aberdeen
Association ICEat Athol Hotel.
December 8th, 1981.'
"Development of Military
Engineering." Paper by Col. D.
Maclean. Joint meeting with the
Highland and Islands Branch, ICEat
Eden Court, Inverness.
Southern Branch
December 8th, 1981:
"The Use of SCRIM and Applied
laboratory Facilities." Paper by B. l.
Parker. Meeting at Welcome Inn,
Petersfield, Ham pshire at 5.30 for
6.00pm.
South Midland
December 2nd, 1981:
"Traffic Survey Techniques under
Difficult Site Conditions." Paper by
Messrs P.W. Pawsey, R. C. Kellaway
and D. A. Tucker. Meeting at Kings
Arms Inn, Cookham, Berkshire.
South Wales
December 2nd, 1981:
"Certification of Temporary Works
for Highway Structures." Paper by
Messrs A. Symmons and G. M.
George. Joint meeting with ICEat
University College, Swansea.
Yorkshire
December 3rd, 1981.'
"Young Engineers' Forum" Meeting
at Royal Baths Assembly Rooms,
Harrogate, North Yorkshire at
6.00pm. Hot pot supper at 8.30pm.
NEW
SUPPLIER
Charles Clarke, Editor of "Highways
and Public Works" has taken over
from Embankment Press Ltd of
Wembley, Middlesex the supply of
publications such as the Records,
NCHRP reports, syntheses of highway practice and publications of the
US Transportation Research Board.
Enquiries should be addressed Mr
Clarke at 48 Maple Way, Gillingham, .
Dorset, telephone 07476 3115 or at
his Middlesex office 01-904 2246.
NOVEMBER1981
Yorkshire Branch members seen here at Priestman's factory at Hull. Second
and third from the right are, respectively, the Branch Chairman, Tony
Longden and the Branch Secretary, Tom Venning.
mechanised workshops, in which the
Members of the Yorkshire Branch
construction and assembly of the
attended thei r first meeting of the
constituent parts of the machines
1981-82 session on Tuesday Sepwere seen. The afternoon ended with
tember 22nd, 1981, when they visa second film showing the comited Priestman factories at Hedon
pany's recent work in the supply and
Road, Hull. There they saw large
erection of marine cranes in the
items of road making and civil
engineering
machinery
such as . North Sea oilfields.
The group posed in front of one of
mechanical excavators ranging from
Priestman's early machines con31. to 2 cu.yd bucket capacity,
structed shortly after the first world
mechanical grabs of up to 40 cU.ft
war, and this made an interesting
capacity and dredging and marine
contrast to its modern counterparts.
cranes.
Adjacent to this 60 year old machine
Under the Chairmanship of Mr
was an even earlier one, both of
Tony long don (second from right in
which are kept on show for visitors.
the photograph)
the visit comMr Paul Andrew, Priestman,s Marmenced with the showing of a film
keting Manager conducted the party
on the variety and use of the comaround the works.
pany's products, and a tour of the
CONFERENCES
SEMINARS
November
17th, 1981: "The Position
of the Engineer in Civil Engineering
Contracts." Seminar Chaired by Sir
William Harris at ICE. Further details
from ICE at Great George Street,
london SW1.
November
25th,
1981: "Recent
Developments in Hig hway Surfacing." One day seminar organised by
the
Institution
of
Municipal
Engineers at Connaught Rooms,
Great Queen Street, london, WC2.
Further details from Miss Ma rgaret
Stone on 01-834 5082.
December 8th, 1981: "Future Trends
in Sewage Treatment."
One day
seminar organised by the Institution
of Municipal Engineers at Cavendish
Conference Centre, 20 Duchess
Mews, off New Cavendish Street,
london, W1. Further details from
Miss Margaret Stone on 01-834 5082.
December 17th, 1981.' "Car Parking
Standards in Development Contro!."
Conference at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and
Technology. Details from UMIST.
Tel: 061-2363311 ext. 2713.
March
23rd-25th,
1982:
"Aerodynamics and Ventilation of
Vehicle Tunnels." 4th International
Symposium at York. Enquiries to
AND
1981-82
Symposium Organiser, 4th ISAVVT,
BHRA Fluid Engineering, Cranfield,
Bedfordshire.
March 30th-April
1st, 1982: Road
Traffic Signalling. International Conference organised by the Computing
and Control Division, Institution of
Electrical Engineers in association
with, amongst others, this Institution. Venue lEE, Savoy Place, london
WC2.
May 10th-14th,
1982: "Roads For
Economic and Technical Progress."
IRF Congress in Sofia, Bulgaria,
organised by the IRF, the Ministry of
Transport, Peoples' Republic of Bulgaria and other Bulgarian transport
organisations. Details from IRF, 63
rue de lausanne, CH1202, Geneva,
Switzerland.
May 17th-18th, 1982: "Criteria for
Planning Highway Investment in
Development Countries. Conference
sponsored by ICE and the Commission of The European Communities
at Cafe Royal Conference Centre.
london, W1. Details from the Civils.
June
23rd-25th,
1982: "Bearing
Capacity of Roads and Airfields."
International Symposium at Trondheim, Norway.
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 33
HIGHWAY AND
TRAFFIC TECHNICIANS
ASSOCIA TION
Chairman:
G. V. Walters, TEng(CEI), FHTTA
ENGINEERING
COUNCIL
Much of the article about the new
Engineering Council in last month's
issue of the Journal, in the Institution
Section, is applicable to technicians
and should be read in conjunction
with the following.
For ERS Registrants
Technician Engineers and Technicians
registered
with
CEI's
Engineers' Registration Board will be
transferred to the Council's register
and it' is intended that the current
titles will remain.
Technicians will not have to be a
member of an institution to be registered but the position as regards use
of designatory letters is unclear.
"Nominated Institutions"
The Council will authorise "nominated institutions" and other organisations (for example, Industrial
Traini ng
Boards)
to
accredit
academic courses, training programmes etc.
It will also nominate chartered
institutions and other bodies to certify that engineers and technicians
seeking registration meet its standards.
Council Membership
The first members of the Council will
be appointed by the Secretary of
State for Industry for a three year
term. Thereafter the Council will
select its members according to
guidance in the Charter and its Bylaws, yet to be drawn up. The Charter
puts several constraints on the
choice of members, two thirds of
whom must be chartered engineers,
but the inclusion of technician
engineers is not specified and the
Association will lobby for the insertion of appropriate safeguards in the
Council's By-laws.
The Association
As reported in the July Journal the
Association has been instrumental in
34 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
Secretary:
Miss Judith
Walker BSc
drawing together a number of other
technician institutions in an attempt
to influence the Government's decisions. Although the Charter has now
been published this does not mean
that all details have been settled and
there is scope for further intervention, either through the Engineers'
Registration Board or by the concerted action of the independent
technician institutions. It has certainly become clear during negotiations between the profession and the
government
that the chartered
institutions do not have as a priority
the interests of technicians and that
there is a need for strong, representative technician institutions.
The Association will endeavour to
ensure that technician institutions,
and
in
particular
HTTA,. are
appointed "nominated institutions"
by the Council and continue to playa
full part in determining standards for
the profession.
SHORT COURSES
IN ASPHALT St.
HIGHWAY
TECHNOLOGY
A series of short courses is run each
year by the Construction Department
of SELTEC (South East London College). The courses cater for a wide
range of interests within the industry
including local highway authorities,
contractors engaged in surfacing
work, testing organisations and consultants. Fees are nominal (£7 per
week). Accommodation
can be
arranged.
Laboratory Technicians, for instance, may find the Asphalt Quality
Control Technicians course and the
Bituminous
Road
Technology
courses useful if they are involved in
testing bituminous materials.
The Flexible Construction Supervisors Courses (November and February) provide a basic grounding for
direct labour control and the super-
VIsIon of private contractor's work.
Whilst the two Road Maintenance
courses on procedures (March) and
highway
materials
(June) are
intended for Senior Technicians and
supervisory staff. There are also so
cou rses on the Marshall Method
(March) and Design Mix h.La. (February).
Enquiries should be made to Mr H
W Lori mer, SELTEC, Worsley Bridge
Road, Lower Sydenham, London
SE26 5BD.
1982
SUBSCRIPTIONS
The reVISion of the level of
SUbscriptions due on January 1st.
1982 means that members'
Bankers Orders need to be
amended
or the difference
between the old and the new rates
. remitted to the Association.
Members who are thought to
have Bankers Orders have been
sent a letter asking them either to
inform their Banks directly. of the
new rate or to send a cheque to
cover the difference using the
printed forms.
Please always quote either your
full name or membership number
in any correspondence or instructions via your bank. The Association's bankers are Midland Bank,
22 Victoria Street, London S.w.1.
(40-07-131. Account
Number
00447854.
Members
without
Bankers
Orders are asked to use the forms
which
will
appear in the
December 1981 and January 1982
issues of journal to accompany
their cheques. Individual subscription notices are not issued.
Resignations to be effective for
next year must be received by
December 31st, 1981 or the full
1982
subscription
becomes
payable.
NOVEMBER1981
MEMBERSHIP
CERTIFICATES
I
TilE HICIIWIIY AND
THAI'I'IC 'ITCIINl< :IANS
ASS()[;JA'l'll,)N
'J'/J;S i., to e.'flij}' ,hill
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II'<lS d,'aNI "
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f:fIlu' H(~hll'<l}' allll
Tr~Ui( 'J '{'(Imiriellls .'!ss(]c;"rhm
TIE COMPETITION
• This is the HTTA tie, but we would
like to change it, perhaps by incorporating the Chairman's Badge of
Office (on the right).
Would you like to submit a design?
The designer of the new style will
receive the first prototype tie,
framei:!.
Entries by January 30th, 1982 to
the Secretary.
011
__
LfLi.\}1 ;r:UfJl----
'
• The Association membership
certificates have been redesigned.
They are now printed in gold and
black with details written in script.
Any member who would like a
replacement certificate in the new
style should apply to the Secretary.
The cost is £1.00.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BRANCH
The Branch held their Annual Golf
Outing on Friday September 4th,
1981, at the Portadown Golf Club,
Co. Armagh. In perfect conditions,
both overhead and underfoot. 32
members and guests did battle for
the prizes which were donated by
local contractors, to whom once
again we are greatly indebted for
their generosity.
One of the Branch's lady members
entered this year, and very successfully too as the list of prize winners
will reveal.
The following took the honours:
Members: 1st S. J. Brown, 2nd
Angela Coffey, 3rd P.Trimble, 4th W.
Kilpatrick. 1st nine C. Redmond, 2nd
nine V. Sinclair. Guests: 1st G. Bresland, 2nd R. Connolly, 3rd J. Webb,
2's Club: G. Bresland, R. Connolly, V.
Gallick, W. Kilpatrick, S. Templeton &
C. Redmond.
The prizes were handed over by
the Branch Chairman, Mr. Sam
Lyons, who thanked all who took
part in what has become a very
successful outing: special thanks to
our sponsors, Portadown Golf Club
for letting us use their course, Cecil
Redmond and W. Kilpatrick for
organising the event and the catering staff of the Golf Club for providing an excellent meal.
SEVERNSIDE BRANCH
During the afternoon of Wednesday
June 10th, 1981, a party of 14
Severnside Branch members met at
the Severn Bridge.
Mr. Derek Sutton, Avon County
Council, welcomed the members
and accompanied them on an informative guided tour of the bridge
structure, starting with the provision
of access into the bridge deck whereupon the individualities of regular
inspections/maintenance
were
explained. Upon re-emergence into
daylight, the party stepped over the
side to a maintenance gantry to
observe the underside of the bridge
deck. Finally, as the visit drew to an
end, members were afforded the
opportunity of views around the
Severn Estuary from atop the Eastern most tower.
A worthwhile visit, which hopefully will be repeated at a later date
for those members unable to attend
on this particular occasion.
NOVEMBER 1981
THE JOURNAL OFTHE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS 35
'-.
CHILTI!RNS BRANCH
On June 23rd Members of the Chilterns Brani::h visited the Royston
Bypass site, by kind permission of
the Hertfordshire .County Surveyor,
Mr. M. F. Hardy.
The party were welcomed by the
Resident Engineer, Mr. M. Palmer,
who outlined the history of the
scheme with the aid of maps, drawing and photographs. He said that
although the possibility of a bypass
had been mooted some years ago it
was only in 1977 that detailed proposals had been drawn up. The
bypass consisted of 4km of dual
carriageway, 24km of single carriageway, three roundabouts, one
priority junction and four bridges
(one of which was being built under
a separate contract by May Gurney
and Co. for British Rail).
The dual carriageway section is
from the A505 at Baldock Roadto the
roundabout at the junction with the
A10. From the A10 to the junction
with the A505 to the east of Royston
there is single carriageway with land
acquisition and earthworks for dualling at a later date. There are roundabouts at the bypass junction with
the A 14 and the A505 Baldock Road.
Members looked at photographs
which had been taken at various
stages of construction.
e
The party was then driven round
the site in two Land Rovers. The
eighteen metre cutting in chalk at the
eastern end of the scheme with side
slopes of up to one in one provoked
a lot of questions as did the methods
used to transport this material and
the compaction of it at the western
end of the bypass. The site showed
adjacent areas being filled with
chalk, then left for at least a day so
that the pure water pressure could
dissipate before compaction took
place.
On returning to the site offices the
discussion continued before Mr. A.
Povey Richards, on behalf of the
party, thanked Mr. Palmer for
explaining the scheme and showing
members around the site.
SOUTHERN. BRANCH
18th November. Visit to Kingsnorth
Power Station, Rochester, Kent.
Members are also invited. Further
information from David Burrows,
Hassocks 3425 (office).
Appointments
C. A. Rlcherdson,
TEnll. ICEI) FHTTA hes returned to
the UK to take up a post as Sen ior Engi neerlor Messrs.
Sand belg on the Driffield
By-Pass.
ljaz Ur Rehman. Tech ICEIt MHTTA has been prom.
oted to Manager
of the Central laboratorias
of tha
General libyan
Company
for Road Construction
and
Maintenance.
A. Williams.
FHTTA has moved to Fugro IHong Kongl
ltd. as laboratory
Manager.
HTTA NEWS -
e
I
3
G. G. laah. FHTTA has moved f,om Devon to join
John Burrows & PlntS in Botswana.
Chow Sun Kwok. MHTTA has been appointed
Inspector of Works with Mon. Hay & Anderson {Hong Kong}.
M. Wagallll, FHTTA has taken a post as Chiellaborat.
ory Technician
with West Midlands CC on the Birmingham e irport extensfon.
L. Hallett, FHTTA and D. Morllan.
FHTTA have both
been appointed
Senior Engineers with Mid.Glamorgan
CC.
Election of members
Total
fELLOW
WearheriJI,
Membership
D. M.
to date -
Lecturer,
Cement
j
2.496
&
Concrere
Association
TRANSfER fROM
Salimu, L C.
ASSOCIATE MEMBER TO MEMBER
Ass. Res. Engr., MCMK Consulting
Engi neers, Zambia
ASSDCIA TE MEMBER
Chenery. G. A.
Sen. Techn .• Suffolk CC
fawole.
T.
Sen. Tech. Off., Akintobi,
Oyene'
kan 8< Assoc.
Hughes, C. H.
Draughtsman,
National
Railway.,
Zimbabwe.
STUDENT
Foreman, D. J. C.
Techn. DOE INIl Roads
Gibson, P.
Trainee. South Yorkshire
CC
Trainee. DOE (Nil Roads
Godfrey, B.
Varah, Susan
Trainee. South Yorkshire
CC
TEC HIGHWAY COURSES
A list of colleges offering
TEC highway technology,
traffic engineering or transportation courses is available from the Secretary.
Pleasetelephone for a copy.
.
ro
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It's a BP surface dressing binder
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So find out more. Write for full
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