Waste drains away

It has been established that some #200m has been spent annually on installation and reinstatement of road ironworks for the UK roads. The authors consider that this indicates the need for improved design standards in order to meet sustainability objectives. Work carried out at Nottingham University has highlighted the inadequacy of current ironwork reinstatement specifications. The difference is demonstrated between the in-situ stiffness of road ironwork and the surrounding pavement structure thought to be the main reason for installation failures. A number of materials are mentioned that are developed to improve the flexibility of the surfacing surrounding ironwork chambers. The selection of such materials needs to be modelled to suit the specific site and ironwork location in relation to wheel tracking load and design life required. A complete installation can be assessed in terms of performance using the falling weight deflection (FWD) in order to evaluate in-situ deflection learning capacity of chamber construction and pavement structure. It is considered that a method is needed to optimise whole-life cost of ironwork installation to reduce current maintenance budgets.