Hard Shoulder Research Articles

The Salinity of Motorway Soils. II. Distance from the Carriageway and Other Sources of Local Variation in Salinity

(1) The variation of soil sodium concentration with distance from the carriageway on central reserves and verges was studied on a number of motorway sites. At further sites the interaction of effects of distance with other aspects of motorway construction and management was investigated. (2) On the standard 4 m-wide central reserve, soil sodium concentration at the centre was usually 50-70% of the value 0.5 m from the carriageway, and curvature of the motorway had no detectable effect on this pattern. (3) On central reserves exceeding 7 m in width, there was a zone at least 2 m wide in which sodium concentration was less than 70% of the value 05 m from the carriageway. In some wide (9-10 m) reserves concentration in the central zone was only about 10% of that at the margins. (4) The establishment of shrubs on central reserves increased the soil sodium concentration by about 50%. (5) Provided there was a hard shoulder between verge and carriageway, the sodium concentration at 2 m from the margin of the verge was between 30% and 40% of that at the centre of the central reserve. Beyond this distance sodium concentrations on the verge were very low. (6) There were effects on soil sodium levels related to the direction of the traffic or the orientation of the road which cannot be simply explained.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE JALO-KUFRA ROAD, LIBYA

The article gives design and construction details of the 625 km desert expressway located in the Libyan desert. The highway designed to have a single 7.3 m wide carriageway, has a design speed of 110 km/hr and overall formation width of 11.5 m including hard shoulders. Although much of the route was on a basically straight alignment, artificial curves were introduced every 10 km to relieve driving monotony. Subgrade strengths were determined from a range of CBR tests carried out on samples taken adjacent to the alignment and also from barran areas. Flexible pavement thickness design was based on expected axle load requirements using predictions of traffic data based on the expected growth of freight transport in the area. Full details are given of bituminous mixture, pavement design and construction methods used. (TRRL)

IMPROVEMENT OF THE RUNWAY AT MANCHESTER AIRPORT.

Keywords GREATER MANCHESTER COUNCIL IMPROVEMENT, RUNWAYS, AIRPORTS, MANCHESTER AIRPORT, CONSTRUCTION, STRENGTHENING, EXTENSIONS, ASPHALT, MARSHALL, HARD, TAXIWAYS, SHOULDERS, INSTALLATION, LIGHTING, SYSTEMS, TRAFFIC, LENGTH, PAVEMENTS, PAVED, RIVERS, DIVERSION, EMBANKMENTS, FORMATION, FLIGHT, STRIP, LAYERS, MARL, BOULDER CLAY, BOULDER, CLAYS, GRITSTONE, DRAINAGE, THICK, CONCRETE, UNREINFORCED, BRIDGES, CHANNELS, WEIRS, STILLING, PONDS, AIRCRAFT, BEDS, ARRESTERS, LOCALISERS, AREAS, INSTRUMENTS, LANDINGS, SYSTEMS, PLANNING, DESIGN MANCHESTER, RIVER BOLLIN UK... Show All

Some observations on the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content of surface soils in urban areas

The PAH content of surface soils in the vicinity of heavy vehicular traffic near the Midlands motorway interchange M6-A38(M) has been measured. The top (0 – 4cm) of soil at a distance of 1m from the hard shoulder of the M6 contains 20,000 μg/kg of PAH comprising pyrene, fluoranthene, chrysene, benz(a)anthracene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(e)pyrene and coronene. Typical concentrations of PAH in surface soils (0 – 4cm) at a distance of 600m from the interchange are in the range 4,000 – 8,000 μg/kg. These values are more than double the PAH surface soil concentrations found on the edge of the conurbation at Sutton Colfield of 2,300 μg/kg. Linear multiple regression analysis of the results shows that besides the importance of distance from the traffic source, the organic content and the pore space ratio properties of soil also influence PAH concentrations. An estimate is made of the contribution of atmospheric fall-out to the surface soil PAH content. The calculation is based on the known empirical relationship between soil organic content and PAH water solubility.

Long term concentrations of nitrogen oxides along a highway: Preliminary communication

The experimental lay-out of an automatically operating network along a highway is described. A data set is obtained which contains hourly records of wind-speed, winddirection, temperature at 8 and 2 m height, NO and NO 2 concentration at 2, 12 and 27 m distance from the hard shoulder of the road and traffic counts. The highway has four lanes and a traffic density of 30,000 veh. day −1. The dataset can be used to estimate the contribution of road traffic emission to ambient air pollution levels, to evaluate simple dispersion models etc.

Remote Monitoring of Motorways Using Closed-Circuit Television

Abstract Three 1-hour films of moving traffic on the M1 motorway were used to present synthetic closed-circuit television pictures. Twelve police officers from a traffic division and 84 civilians monitored one or three simultaneous films, looking for vehicles parked on the hard shoulders. Over 75 per cent of incidents at or nearer than 440 yards were reported, compared with under 45 per cent of incidents at or beyond 660 yards (p<0·01). Incidents at 220 yards were detected on average more rapidly than incidents at 440 yards (p<0·01). Observers monitoring a single film reported incidents at 220 yards reliably more rapidly (p<0·02) than observers monitoring three simultaneous displays. This in turn gave reliably quicker reporting (p<0·05 or better) of incidents at 440 yards than the other conditions in which three films were monitored but only one was visible at a time. The police officers were better at the task than the civilians. More detailed analyses suggested that in monitoring more than one film, looks should be long enough to detect distant incidents, but not so long that the reporting of near incidents on other films is unduly delayed. Civilians who monitored single films for 3 hours showed a slight improvement by the third hour