JOURNALOF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAYENGINEERS Vol

JOURNALOF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAYENGINEERS
June 1977
Vol XXtV
No.6
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JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERS
and The Highway and Traffic Technicians Association
VOLUME XXIV
Number 6
JUNE 19n
CONTENTS
Institution
AlONT
news
3
COVER STORY
The 47th Annual General Maeting of
the Institution will be held in London
on Fridav, July t st, t9n.
In this issue of the Jou mal wlll be
Iound the RepOn and Accounts for
1976 and, for Corperate Members, a
bellol card for elections to Council.
Also included is a Questionna ire
Form on the change of name of the
Institution.
Council is hoping lor a big respense
to both issues and it would ask you to
use you r vote on these two impenant
items and return the ballot CBrdand the
Iorm to the Institution in the envelope
provided {UK onlv),
Candidates
Highway
for Election
and Traffic
to the Institution's
Technicians
Council
-
19n
7
news
10
The Case of the Left.Hand Bend
D. Stewart, esc, OipTE, MICE, MIHE
12
The Cash Value of Traffic Changes
R.J. Bridle, eSc(Eng), FICE, FIHE
Midland
Branch
Symposium
-
Upon the Environment
18
Report
22
Legal Notes
25
New plant, equipment
and materials
27
President: T.O. Wilson, SSe, FICE, FIStructE, FIMunE, FIHE
Secretary: Miss P,A, Steel, SA
All editorial communications should be addressed to The Editor, The Journal of the
Institution
of Highway Engineers, 3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street, London SW1.
Telephone 01-730 5245-7. Membership subscriptions are dealt with by the Institution
and not by the publishers.
The Highway Engineer is published monthly for the Institution of Highway Engineers by
Whitehall Press Limited and circulated to all members of the Institution and to members
of the Highway and Traffic Technicians Association. It is available on subscription Isee
belowl.
!IABCI]
,
The Institution (limited by guaranteel is responsible neither for the statements made nor
for the opininns expressed in this journal.
JOU RNAL SU BSCRIPTIONSI
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NG
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Subscriptions:
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Subscription
Enquiries:
Subscription Department, Whitehall
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JUNE t9n
01 Highwav
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t977
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
~henthe cn\PS
afe do~n ·
2
THE HIGHW A Y ENGINEER
JUN EO1977
~.
Institution
News
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 1977
The Annual General Meeting of the'
Institution will be held.at 4.30pm on
Friday, July 1st, 1977at the Institution'
of Structural Engineers, 11 Upper'
Belgrave Street, London, SW1. The
nearest underground and main line
station is Victoria...
Formal notice of the Meeting and
Council's Report for 1976-77,together
with the Accounts for 1976 are
included in this issue of the
Journal and members are' requested to keep this information
so that they can bring it with them
to the AGM. Balloting Papers for
nominations to Council are .also
enclosed.
The Annual GeneralMeeting will be
followed by the inauguration of the
incoming President for 1977-78. The
PresidentialAddress will not, however,
be given on this occasion but will be
presented at the Institution's National
Conference to be held in London in
December, 1977.
HAVE YOU PAID YOUR
SUBSCRIPTION?
Subscriptions are due on January 1st in
any year. If you have not paid any.or all of
your subscription pleasedo so as soon ~s
possible. You should have received a
statement showing the amount outstanding.
No Journals/Branch Circulars
If any member has more than £1
outstanding on his subscription at the'end
of next month he will ceaseto receivethe .
Institution's services.
Prompt payment helps to keep the
, subscription level steady.
PLEASE HELP.
LOCAN CUP GOLF
'COMPETITION - 1977
The Local Cup Golf Competition will be
held on Monday, September 12th, 1977at
Minchinhampton Golf Club, Nr Stroud,
Gloucestershire. This is a new' course
complete with new club house.. '
The South-Western Branch is the host
this year and on Sunday, September 11th
they havearranged a social evening at the
Hare and Hounds Hotel, Westonbirt, Nr
Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Arrangements
are also in hand for the ladies, on the day
JUNE 19n
of the match, to visit a pottery works at
PrinknashAbbey and then to c.ontinue'on .
to Cheltenham to see the shops and
. places of interest. They will return to the
Golf Club for tea..
' ,.
The Competition will, as in previous
. years: be a four ball stableford, with each
. Branch. entering up to four' pairS. The
Branch .producing the best. aggregate
score from any three of its ,pairs will be
. this years winner. Mementoes' .will" be
,. awarded to all members of the 'winning ,
Branch team and tankards will go to the
~ir. returning the best score during the
competition.
Full details, together with, entry ':form,
will 'be sent to Branch golf 'secretaries
laterthis month.
'
.
.This beautiful part of., the 'country
promises to make this annual event yet
again a most enjoyable occasion.
Mr John Carter (left) retiring Branch'
.'
Chairman, congratulating' the incoming
Chairman,
1977-78, Mr Brian
'. .
..
,
. Itermode
: .. -
..
JOURNAL ARTICLES
The Institution's Publications Comminee
, hopes thai the Papers and articles which
it selects for inclusion in the Jour'nal are
of interest to readers. Feedback'indicates
that they are. Finding eno,ugh" good,
'balanced material to fill eleven issues a
year IS, however, a probJem, and its
solution is one in which you can assist.
'The Committee would welcome Papers
and articles from both members and nonmembersof the' Institution which it .would
then consider.for publication.
The.ideallength should be around 5,000
words: (exclusive of illustrations) 'but
shorte~Papersare especiallywanted since
it is hoped' to' include more editorial
material in the Journal each'month.' .
.Paperson all aspects of highway and
. transportation engineering' work are
wanted and the Committee would
particularly like to see more light-hearted
. articles and .storiespublished. ,
The Journal is your magazine and the'
help'of all is needednot only to'sustain its
liveiy and up-to-date approach but to help
it reflect the interests and work of its
readers, ,
:
A copy of the Institution's "Guidance
to Authors'~ .note can be obtained from
,the Institution's Assistant Editor.
SOUTH-EASTERN BRANCH AGM .
The South-EasternBranch AGM WEISheld
at the Town Hall, Tunbridge Wells, on
Thursday, . March 31st, 1977. Officers
elected .included Mr B.C.D.' Kermode,
(East'Sussex CCI, Chairman;. Mr J.A:
Bergg, {Kent CCI, Vice-Chairman'and Mr
K.E. Hill, (East Sussex CCI, Honorary
. Branch Secretary..
'
Following the election of officers and
the Branch Committee, Mr H. Bowdler, a
Pa'st President of the Institution, 'pre,
sented the retiring Branch Secretary, Mr
K.D. 'Cox, with a cheque on behalf of
Branch members and thanked him'for his'
work over the past thirteen years..
. Afterwards 65 members and guests
lir.tened to an informal talk given by Mr
D,H.l. Keeble, MC., Chairman, BMMK
and Partners,consulting engineers, on ','A
Consulting Engineer's Approach' to the
Engineering of 500km of Ro'ad in .Saudi
Arabia". The talk related to a period of 10
years, excluding the .duration of the'
Middle East war,: during 'which',time
BMMK' and Partners were comlT1issioned
to design and supervise.the .building" of
500km of road between Riyadh and Zalim.
Mr Keeble, a past Chairman of' the
Branch, illustrated his talk with ;e!,cellent
colour slides.He gave a.short introduction
to Saudi Arabia. including background
detail on its wealth, people; customs and
its need for the 'new road, He. then
described the nature of the hot. desert
with its contrast of zero r'ainfl;llland,flash
floods and hot days followed by' cold
nights whi~h cal.fse the rocks in' the
mountainous areasto break up.'
" ..
A maner of historicaf engineering
interest was to'uched' upo'n when Mr
Keeble showed how satellite imagery.had
been used in the reco'nmiissances.urvey
of the. 'road project. A- 'multi-spe.ctral
scanner on the satellite measuresthe,light
intensities of waves' reflected' from' the
earth. The values'. are .cO!lverte"d' to
computer-usable numbers .which: when
put through an electron..beam: recorder
become imagery. or photograp~ic .film
from' which prints' can' be made.. His
believed to be the first occasion that this
recent technological development..: has
been used' by consulting engineers for
purposes of road engimieril1g:.. The
.speaker felt that satellite im~gery and
photography would ,become.useful tools
to road engineersin the futu re...,..
,
In conclusion Mr Keeble described the
constructio~ and prl?blelflS associated
Mr H. BawdIer (righrJ presenting
with his cheque
'
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
Ken Cox
ENGINEERS
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LIST OF MEMBERS, 1976-77
. The list of Members 1976/77 was published at the end of 1976. Containing, as it does, the
names,' grades and addresses.of all members of the' Institution together with up-to-date
information on its background activities and administration it is an invaluable guide to the
world of the highway engineer. The new list costs £1.50 (inclusive of postage) (£5.00 to
non-members) .
If you have found the list of value in the past you would, of course, have a copy of the
latest edition and a number of copies still remains. The stock is. however. a limited one
.and members wishing to receive a copy should order as soon as possible. This can
be done by completing the order form below and returning it to the Secretary, The
Institution of Highway Engineers, 3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street, London, SW1.
•
.
iI
i
I
I enclose postal order/cheq~e/money
order for £.
Institution of Highway Engineers. Please send me
Members, 1976/77.
\
NAME
GRADE
~
ENGINEER
~
I
I
!
.
.
DATE
THE HIGHWAY
"
.
ADDRESS
4
'01
'1
p made payable to The
copy(ies} of the List of
-
1
1977
JUNE 19n
with the works which were split into fou r
contracts.
A discussion session followed and the
vote of thanks was proposed by Mr F.G.
Brown.
NEW SECRETARY FOR
SOUTH-EASTERN BRANCH
As reported above Mr Ken Cox has retired
after thirteen years as Secretary of the
Institution's South-Eastern Branch. Ken
has been a Companion member of the
Institution since 1960.
He entered the, quarrying and road
I
~
l
I
I~
, NORTHERN IRELAND BRANCH
DINNER AT ANTRIM
The Annual Dinner of the Northern
Ireland Branch was held at the Dunadry
Inn, Co. Antrim, on Monday, March 28th,
1977, and a 109 members and' guests
were present.
Dr. I.G. Doran, Consulting Engineer,
proposed the Toast of the Institution, the
.Response to which was given by the
President, Mr T.D. Wilson, Director, Mon
Hay and Anderson.
In his speech the President referred to
the possible change in title of the Institution and said that the intention to
incorporate "Transportation" in the title
GREATER lONDON AND SOUTH
MIDLAND BRANCHES DISCUSS
TRANSPORTATION'S FUTURE
The final meeting of the current session
of the South Midland Branch was held at
"The Beech Tree", Beaconsfield on
Tuesday, March 15th, 1977. It took the
form of a joint meeting with the Greater
London Branch, and two talks were given
under the general heading "Transportation - The Way Ahead". From the Chair
Mr J.S. Moorhouse, a Branch Committee
member, introduced the first speaker Mr
B.T. Collins, Director, Planning and
Transportation, Noningham CC.
Mr Collins' experiences in Nottingham
are quite' well-known and it was very
'refreshingto hear someonewho ,had tried
schemes out on the ground to find if they
worked or not rather than a speculative
talk on success or failure. Mr Collins'
experiences had not been easy ones,
there had been a period of bad press
relations, but he had survived, and his
well-illustrated talk, "Noninghamshire What Had Been Learned During the Past
Four Years", was informative and entertaining. ,
Kenneth Hill
Ken Cox
I
I
has been Assistant Honorary Secretary
since 1975.
Kenneth Hill is a Principal Engineer in
the Highways and Transportation Oepartment, East Sussex CC. He commenced
his career in 1945 when he became
Articled to Mr C. Needham, the, then
Borough Engineer and Surveyor, Malden
and Coombe. He has since held posts
with Wimbledon BC., Worthing BC.,
BansteadUDC and Hertfordshire CC.
materials industry in 1928, based in the
west of England. He came to london in
1931and was active in the supplying and
laying of highway materials until 1940
when he joined the Royal Navy. He was
demobilised in 1946 with the rank of
Lieutenant-CommanderRNVR.
After the war he became london
Manager,Roads Reconstruction ltd., and
joined Tarmac ltd. in 1961, covering the
same area. In 1963 he was made
responsible for the large new coating
plant at' Shoreham, Sussex. He retires
from Tarmac in July, 1978.
During the post-war period Ken was a
Council member of the Cold Asphalt
Association. His interests outside highway
engineering include music, drama and
rugby football.
Another Kenneth - Kenneth Hill succeeds Ken Cox as Branch Secretary.
He is a Member of the Institution having
been elected an Associate Member in
1960. He was elected to the SouthEastern Branch Comminee in 1974 and
JUNE 1977
Guests at the Northern Ireland Dinner included, from left to right: Mr W.G. Coutts,
Branch Secretary; Mr J.I. Bill; Mr J.D. McCaughey; the President; Mr G. Leckey,
Branch Publicity Officer and Mr T.A. Warnock, Divisional Roads Manager, DoE
(Northern Ireland)
The zone and collar restraint experiwould show that the Institution's work
ment had shown that signs and regula,covered the movement of people and
tions were well obeyed, but they could
.goods in all its aspects, although the
not get motorists out of their cars and
emphasis would continue to be on the
onto the buses and, therefore, if applied
operation of the road network. Members
over the whole area the economic
would be given the opportunity to vote on
disbenefits outweighed the benefits.
the proposal.
.
Removing traffic from the centre of
The Branch Chairman, Mr J. McR.
Nottingham, within the ring road, along
Buchanan proposed the Toast of "The
with the Pedestrianisation measures that
Guests", and the reply was given by the
followed had worked well, though it was
Deputy Secretary, DoE (Northern Irelandl,
not as successful within a smaller town,
Mr D. Barry.
as the problem was not as great and the
The President presented an Institution
extra distances involved began to out
Certificate of Merit to the former Branch
balance the benefits. Traffic management
Treasurer and Chairman, 1975-76, Mr
measures and "residents only" parking
J.H.G. McMullan, for services to highway
i schemes, after extensive public participaengineering.
tion exercises,had worked well. On public
Among the guests attending the Dinner
participation Mr Collins considered that
were Mr K.P. Bloomfield, Permanent
with vague proposals such as Structure
Secretary, DoE (Northern Irelandl; Mr
Plans the exercise was a waste of time,
J.D. McCaughey, Chairman of the local
with proposals such as traffic managebranch of the Structurals; Mr J.1. Bill,
ment schemes, which the public could
Vice-Chairman of the local branch of the
understand, it was very good.
Civils; Professor Long of Queen's UniverOther points which came out in his talk
sity, Belfast and the Secretary of the
were that "park and ride" did not work
Institution, Miss P.A. Steel.
THE JOURNAL
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
6
,
"
for', cOfDmuters but did 'for shoppers;
a,ltering the '19ci1tionof employment and
population had linte, overall effect on
traffic volumes;' the' "no-car" lane reduced
, 'accidents drastically' and did not impose
much ,.further delay on, cars; subsidies
,could "not 'make- a 'dramatic impact , eSpecially" at ,the, peak, and new
technology. such as fixed rail' systems
we ie rarelv.,justified.
'
The second talk" "Urban Transport
Planriing .in' the Longer Term" was given
by Mr A.D: May~ Group' Planner (Roads),
GL~
.,'"
'
, ,'Following , the, recent emphasis on
.short-term planning and ~he need to make
the best use, of what already existed Mr
May.described work being carried out at
the GLC 'on longerterm planning, Le. over
, the next 15'years. The !'lpproach was very
different from that of the 1960swith their
expectation of financial resources and
planning, on a grand scale. "
'The',.GL<::noW-had to' plan against a
backgrou,nd''of .falling ',employment and
,population, though car ,ownership would
continue to rise" in,fact th e' assessment of
trerids in 'demand was the, first step. The
second was the id~ntification of objectives'against. w.hich programmes'could be
niei3sured and the Council's, basic objec-,
tives' 'now'. covered ,economic growth;
quality of life, equity',' efficiency and
'develop'ment. The: next stages were the
prediction"of available 'finance, specification', of' alternativ,e' programmes and the'
assessment of the programmes. Mr May
had 'made ,fou'r predictions of the likely
money available over the, next, 15 years
which ranged 'from' optimistic to crisis.,
The lower levels left no choice as highway
maintenance:and public transport support
took 'the bulk :of, the budgets, because
there.'was so' little room to manoeuvre at
a!I'Ie'vels:Mr, May 'considered.that a great
deal co'uldbe said:'without the need for
complex ,models. : .
The speaker the'n joined Mr Moorhouse
on the platform for, a lively discussion
sesSion:', Mr ,F.J. Parker, Chairman,
Greater' London,' Branch, proposed' the
vote of thanks:, '
co
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Rciad~ and People
From'Mi D. Smith, FHTTA. Chairman of
the Highway, and Traffic
Technicians
Association's Mercia Branch
Sir, '~' 'Mr J.M. McCluskey's Paper
"Roads' for 'People"
("The Highway
Engineer" '-:- April, 19n) calls for some
comment.
"
\
He 'professes' an :interest in the quality
I ofthe,huilt ,environment, and attempts to
justify his', views by reference to the
quality ~f life in the built environment.
The 'two: concepts are different and
cannot' be equated, though, in certain
circumstances, they might be complementary .
Safety ,and. convenience are, quite
properly, ,two principle objectives in a
housing estate, so also is economy,
practicality ,and usability. Thus it is
perfectly legitimate for the engineer to
6
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
,compile ,what' the author, somewhat
'Planning" are clearly taken with a wide
derisively"calls a "Book of Rules". This'is,
angle tens from a point near the ground.
,a convenient and practical way of conThe "Compact Planning" examples must
dilnsing v,arious design criteria into ,a
.halie,been taken on a telephoto type lens,
format botli"easily understood and readily
emphasising the vertical and using lots of
applied, yet'retaining a sufficient degre!lcontrast.
Subtle use of light and dark to
of flexibility to allow for architectural
achieve an apparently cosy atmosphere is
licence. ' ' '" '
'shown again in Figure 19a with clever use
On safety the road user on two wheels
of shadows. What would have been the
in a'n' urban area 'has 2Y. times: the
effect on an overcast or dull day? Photoaccident risk of his/her rural counte'rpart,
graphic deception, whether deliberate or
whereas' 'car, and other drivers have an
'chance has little place in the Institution's
increased risk of 7 to 20 perc'ent:
,Journal.
Similarly' 94' per cent of pedestrian,
' Having criticised the Paper at some
accidents. arise' out of vehicular conflict,
,length, Mr McCluskey is to be congratuwhereas~,only 4 per cent of pedestrian ,Jated in seeking to examine and re, accidents occur on the footway or verge. " 'appraise some of the fundamental prin, ' Clearly safety can be readily improved,
ciples, since it is only in this way that they
by ,ensur,ng adequate ,visibility and,'
retain their credence.
encouraging' segregation of, vehicles/ .
Yours faithfully,
pedest~ians, a principle well-established '
and generally applied: Most of the layouts
David Smith
in the Paper,appear to suffer.badly in this"
respect., ,
'
Regarding speed, visibility and kerb
radii, ,30mph is a very mOderate spe'ed
The author replies: The only comment I
,from which most cars can stop suddenly,
wish to make on Mr Smith's letter relates
'and ,is, ,in any case, rarely achieved.
to his allegation that readers have been
,Stopping distances must' inevitably be
deceived by the use of trick photography.
based' on,. the worst case, of ,braking
As was pointed out in the article the
power', and' then applied to adverSe' 'two photographs comprising Figure 1
conditions .. Kerb radius is based on the
were reproduced from an edition of
turning ,swept paths of typical vehiCles
"Architectural Review" published four
using' itie:"junction,' such as sweepers,
years ago. I cannot therefore give any
',details regarding the equipment or
refuse' vehicles, emergency services etc.
.Not ,everVvehicle entering a residential
method used in taking them. All the other
area is, a mini-car with' a 30ft turning
photographs in the Paper were taken by
circle; . '
,myself using a Yashica twin-lens reflex
The' remarks on uninterru pted traffic
camera. This type of camera does not
, flows 'are,somewhat' misplaced, since the
permit the interchanging of lenses and the
number of variations to a vehicle's move- , ,focal length of the built-in lens is generally
ment (gear. 'changes, braking, a~celera, considered to be the one which gives the
'tionl not only affect vehicle wear ,and tear
most true representation of a view as
but its fuel use also, even if time costs are
seen by the human eye.
disregarded. 'The benefits of improving
It is true that I prefer to take phototraffic .flow ~canbe estimated fairly readily . graphs when the sun is shining.
and so standards serve the useful purpose
of effecting' safety, economy' and con-.
venience: ,
News Item
The reduction of lane widths and large
PLAN PRINTER
vehicles backing out are both clearly
hazards to safety and the quality of life
and the :'powerful sanction" of refusal to
Ozalid (UK' Ltd., Cowdray Avenue.
adopt ,is, quite properly applied by local
Colchester, Essex, announce the introhighway'authorities, since any substantial
duction of their newest plan printer - the
relaxation of requirements could be
Ozalid 661, a sophisticated multi-plan
reflected' in, the need for alteration or
copier, which has a capacity of nearly one
remedial 'work, the charges for which
kilometre of paper.
would fallon the rate- and tax-payer.
It has push bunon stan-up; automatic
The comment on kerbing is irrelevant
selection from four rolls of diazo material.
since its function is that of a structural ... which may be of different or same widths,
element 'of road construction, as well as
hinged roll spindles for ease of loading,
fully or semi-automatic copying facilities;
both a visual and physical restraint to the
visible and audible warnings when paper
road' user; pedestrian or vehicular.
There ;is 'a contradiction in that the
is due to run out and complementary
'metal oxide silicon integrated circuitry
author, having criticised "slavish adherence to', the rule book" later implies
(C-MOSI.
,
The machine has a facility for making
criticism of those highway authorities
who have sought to remedy aspects of
190mm test prints from selected parts of
the rule' :book considered deficient' in
the original and selected sectional cutout prints from any size of original. Prints
some 'way. Surely an example of the
intelligent"application which the Paper
are automatically cut to the correct length
and can be made shorter or longer at the
seeks to advocate?
With- regard to his criticism that the
leading or trailing edge for ease of filing or
Jourmil,' is',not full of "attractive photofor making marginal notes.
graphs",' it'would be a sad day if sound
The printer uses a new multi-stage
enginee'ring principles were abandoned in
vapourisation system to obtain optimum
favour of pretty pictures. Photographs'
development
of
prints, using the
can be miSleading. In Figure 1 of the
developer very fully and resulting in a
Paper, photographs 1 and 2 ;'Prairie
virtually pure water residue.
JUNE
Ian
':t
r
Candidates for Election to the
Institution's Council
19n
The following have been nominated
for election to the Institution's Council.
The results of the ballot will be made
known at the Annual General Meeting
of the Institution to be held on Friday,
July 1st, 1977.
A'GM papers and ballot forms are
included in this issue of the Journal.
Please use your vote.
Mr Ronald Jarman Bridle (Fellow) has
been Chief Highway Engineer, Department of Transport, since November, 1975.
After reading engineering at Bristol
University, Mr Bridle spent a number of
Committee since 1974 and is also a
member of the Institution's Construction
Board.
years in West Africa and served with
Cwmbran New Town and Cardiff City
Council., Appointments since that time
have included those of Project Engineer
for the Sheffield-Leeds Motorway, Deputy
County
Surveyor,
Cheshire County
Council, Director of the Midland Road
Construction Unit and Deputy Chief
Highway Engineer and Under-Secretary,
Highways.
Over the years he has gained experience in most aspects of highway work
and has made several published contributions in the fields of bridge, highway and
transportation engineering.
He is a member of both the Council of
the Institution of Civil Engineers and this
Institution, elected in 1975.and since 1976
has been Chairman of the Institution's
Publications Committee.
Mr Alan William Bullett (Fellow) has
held appointments with the County
Councils of Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and
Leicestershire and at present is with Kent
County Council. He has served that
authority as Team Leader, Motorway
Design, Assistant County Surveyor and as
Superintending Engineer, Kent Sub-Unit,
South-Eastern Road Construction Unit.
he was appointed Deputy County
Surveyor in 1972.
Mr Bullett was a Delegate Member of
Council from 1969 to 1974 in which year
he was elected to Council. He has served
as Vice-Chairman of the Membership
JUNE
tan
Mr Basil Glover Combridge (Fellow) is
Secretary of the Greater London Branch.
He was Branch Chairman from 1971 to
1973 and a delegate member of Council
during that period serving on the
Membership Committee and the Technical Committee. He has been a co-opted
member of the Construction Board since
its inception in 1973.
Mr Cambridge has spent his career in
highway and traffic engineering in the
struction both in the UK and increasingly
overseas. His interest in motorway construction began more than twenty years
ago when he was the Agent responsible
for the construction work on Britain's first
motorway, the Preston By-Pa!lS,
The Roads Division of Tarmac operates
an earth-moving fleet and a concrete
paving organisation, recent contracts
have included sections of the Stoke "0"
road, the M5, M8, A66 and AS.
Mr Ronald Herbert (Dan) Daniels
(Fellow) is a graduate of Birmingham
University. He was commissioned in
REME and served in the Middle East
before joining Gloucestershire County
Council where he was engaged on the
design of the Ross Spur and the Birmingham-Bristol Motorway.
He became Divisional Surveyor, SouthWestern Division, Herefordshire County
C!'uncil in 1951, in 1957 he was appointed
counties of East Sussex, Surrey and
London. He has been Project Engineer for
some of London's major highways construction achievements including the
motorway approaches north and south of
the Blackwall Tunnel. He is a Principal
Engineer with the GlC and for the last
five years has worked in its traffic branch.
Mr laurence Jack (Johnl Cox (Fellow)
holds the post of Executive Director,
Roads Division, Tarmac Construction ltd.
He was Chairman of the Institution's
West Midland Branch in 1975-1976 and
has served as a co-opted member of the
Institution's Construction Board since its
inception.
He has been with Tarmac since 1950
involved mainly in airfield and road con-
THE JOURNAL
Deputy County Surveyor, and later
County Surveyor, Breconshire County
Council.
__
On local government reorganisation he
became County Surveyor of the new
authority of Powys which comprises the
three former counties of Breconshire,
Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire.
He has'twice held office as Chairman of
the Institution's South Wales Branch.
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
7
Mr Thomas
Leslie Grant
Deuce
(Fellowl has been Chief Engineer (Construction], Planning and Transportation
Department, GLC since 1970. He is
responsible for detailed design, construction and maintenance.
He served a five year civil engineering
apprenticeship with Sir William Arrol and
Co. Ltd., Glasgow and returned there
after completing National Service in
which he held a commission in the
Airfield Construction Branch, Royal Air
Force.
Construction Board in 1972 being elected
its Vice-Chairman in 1975. He has been a
member of the South Midland Branch
Comminee since 1969 and Branch Chairman since 1975, during which time he has
also acted as Branch Delegate to Council.
Mr Elbourne was a member of the Civils
Road Engineering Board, 1971-74and also
serves on the BRF's Council and Executive Committee. He was Chairman of its
Technical Committee 1971 to 1974. From
1966 to 1971 he was a member .of the
Concrete Research Comminee, TRRL He
is also a member of the Roads and Pavements Committee of the Concrete Society
and the FCEC's Executive Common
Market and Department of Transport
Specification Comminees.
Mr James Forbes Keith (Fellow) graduated from St Andrew's University in 1949
and began his career as Graduate
Engineer, Paisley Town Council. From
1952 to 1956 he worked as Executive
Engineer, PWD, Northern Nigeria and
from 1956 to 1959 as Bridge Engineer,'
Inverness-shire County Council. tn 1959
he was appointed Divisional Surveyor,
Inverness and Aird Districts, Invernessshire County Council. He' became
In 1962 he joined West Riding County
Council in their Bridge Section and in
1964 was promoted to Principal Assistant.
He became Superintending
Bridge.
Engineer, North-Eastern Road Construction Unit in 1968 and in the same year
was appointed Assistant Chief Engineer,
Ministry of Transport where he was Head
of the Bridges Engineering Design Standards Division.
He presented a Paper on bridge
maintenance to the Institution's National
Conference in 1969. He was Chairman of
the Joint Working Party which assisted
with the drafting of the 5th Edition of the
ICE form and is a member of the ICE
Conditions of Contract Standing Joint
Comminee.
Mr Douglas Stanley Elbourne iFellow)
joined John Laing & Son Ltd. as a pupil in
1937 and has been with them ever since,
apart from a six year break for war service
as a Captain in the Royal Engineers.
He became Director of their Highway
Branch in January, 1969 and in 1974 was
appointed Divisional Director, Engineering
and Overseas Division with responsibility.
for the construction of over 100 miles of
motorway and trunk roads.
He joined the Institution in 1964 and
was co-opted as a member of the
--
\
)
Mr Frederick John (Jack)
Parker
(Fellow] was educated at Shene Grammar
School and Liverpool University. _
In 1952 he joined Scott, Wilson Kirkpatrick and Partners and was engaged on
highway projects in Cyprus and Malawi as
well as the new Hong_Kong airport and
the M6 Motorway (Lancaster-Penrith),
He joined Husband & Co. in 1965 and
was taken into Partnership in 1971.
. During this period he has been engaged
on the planning and design of major
urban highway schemes in London,
including the West Cross Route, grade
Engineer, Ministry of Transport in 1963
and was seconded to the.~ Sconish.'
Development Department with responsi.
bility for sections of M9 EdinburghStirling Motorway and of the M8
Edinburgh-Glasgow-Greenock Motorway.
He took up the post of County Surveyor,
Stirlingshire County Council in 1968 at a
time when that Authority was engaged as
Agent for. the Department's Roads
Division in the design and supervision of
construction of an extensive motorway
programme.
He has been Director of Roads, Central
Regional Council since the reorganisation
of Sconish local government in 1975.
M r Keith has been a member of the
Central and Southern Scotland Branch
Committee since 1969. He was Branch
Vice-Chairman and Delegate to Council
1975.76 and Branch Chairman 1976-77.
Mr Michael Alan Palmer (Fellow) was
educated at Sheffield University and
graduated in 1950. He spent the next five
years first with Sheffield City Engineer's
Department as Junior Bridge Engineer
and then with Essex County Council as
Assistant Engineer (Roads). In 1955 he
was appointed Assistant Engineer moads
and
Structures),
Southend-on-Sea
Borough Council. In 1958 he joined
B
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
Hertfordshire County Council as a Senior
Brfdiie Engineer and was promoted to
Group Engineer (Roads) with that Author.ity in 1964.
He became Assistant County Surveyor
(Principal Roads], East Sussex County
Council in 1969 and since 1973 has been
Senior Assistant County Engineer (Capital
Worksl with the County Council.
Mr Palmer is a member of the SouthEastern Branch Comminee. He' was
Branch Chairman ,1974-75 and Branch
Delegate to Council, 1976-77.
I
1
),
,1,1
,
"
l~
separation schemes along Western
Avenue. and the improvement of the.
North Circular Road; since 1972. he has
also been involved in projects in Arabia,
Mr Parker has served on the Greater
London Branch Committee since 1971,
and was Branch Chatrman 1974.77. He is
a Delegate Member of Council, Chairman
of the Transportation Board and a
member of the Construction Board and
the Education and Training Committee.
Mr Vivian Selway Payne (Fellow] was
educated at Canton Grammar School,
Cardiff and began his career with
Glamorgan County Council in 1957 after
graduating from Cardiff University. On
JUNE1m
i
,,
I
1
,
I
'I
I,
\
i
i
-I
I
I
I
I
j
1974and has served as a member of the
Institution's Transportation Board.
Mr Kenneth Charles Westhorp (Fellow)
began his civil engineering career with
Gravesend Borough
Council,
later
appointments were with Southend-onSea County Borough and what is now the
London Borough of Barnet.
He joined the Scottish Division of the
Ministry of Transport in 1954 and
subsequently served in the North-Western
Division based in Manchester, Headquarters in London and i('l Edinburgh
where he was seconded to the Scottish
Development Department.
completion of Articles with Glamorgan he
was appointed_ to that _County as a
Bridges Assistant. He moved to Wiltshire
County Council in 1960 as Assistant
Divisional Surveyor and was subsequently
promoted to take charge of a, new Work
Study and Incentive Bonus Team.
In 1964 he was appointed Divisional
Surveyor, Cornwall County Council and
moved to Hampshire County Council in
1967 to take charge of the New Forest
Division. In 1970 he was appointed to
head a team charged with Project
Planning and Computer Development. He
became Assistant County Surveyor,
Hampshire County Council in 1967.
He has been a member of the Southern
Branch Committee since 1972. He was
Branch Vice-Chairman, 1975-76 and has
since been elected as Chairman.
Mr Payne has written a number of
technical Papers and has served on
various working parties.
Mr John Race Tully, OBE (Fellow)
graduated f~om Durham University in
1940and began his career as Engineering
Assistant, Stanley UDC. He was commissioned in the Royal Engineers serving
from 1941to 1946 when he returned to
Stanley UDC.
He was EngineeringAssistant (Bridges),
Durham County Council from 1946 to
1950and between 1951and 1960held the
posts of Assistant Area Surveyor,
tn 1970 he was appointed an Assistant
Chief Engineer at Headquarters and in
1973 transferred to Leeds as Regional
Controller (Roads and Transportation). In
1976 Mr Westhorp was promoted to
Director, North-Eastern Road Construction Unit.
JUNE 19n
Africa and Italy, and on demobilisation he
joined Gloucestershire C9unty Council's
Highways Department. He held posts
with Shropshire County Council, 19471955, Monmouthshire County Council,
1955-1964 and Warwickshire County
Council, 1964-1968. In 1968 he was
a'ppointed to the post of County
Surveyor. West Suffolk and in 1974took
up his present post of County Suiveyor,
Suffolk County Council on local government reorganisation.
Mr Williams has served on a number of
Branch Committees. He was Chairman,
South Wales Branch, 1963-64, and East
Anglian Branch Chairman 1975-77. In
both roles he also acted as Branch
Delegate to Council.
BRITISH NATIONAL
COMMITTEE'S CONGRESS
I
Divisional Surveyor and Area Surveyor
with that Authority. In 1960 he became
Chief Engineering Assistant, Durham
County Council and now holds the post
of County Engineerand Surveyor.
Mr Tully has been a member of the
Institution's
North-Eastern
Branch
Committee since 1966 and was Branch
Chairman, 1968-69,during which time he
also served as Branch Delegate to
Council. He was elected to Council in
Mr Eustace Lovatt IBilil Williams
(Fellow) was born in Birmingham and
became an Articled Pupil in 1938.
War service from 1941 to 1946 was
spent with the Royal Engineers in North
The British National Committee of the Permanent International
Association of Road Congresses {P1ARCI will hold its 6th British
Regional Congress at York University from September 13th to 15th,
19n.
The Congress will have as its main theme "The Planning and
Development of the Strategic Trunk Road and Motorway Network in
the North of England", and it will consider the effect of this network
on industry, economic development, transport and the environment.
Wednesday, September 14th will be reserved for site visits which,
it is hoped, will include the Humber Bridge and BSC's Anchor
Development at Scunthorpe.
The Congress fees will be modest and will cover meals, overnig.ht
accommodation at York University and transport to and from the site
projects. Preprinted Papers will be introduced briefly by the authors
and will be followed by full discussion.
The AGM of British members of PIARC will be held during the
Congress.
THE JOURNAL
OFTHE INSTITUTION
OF HIGH\oYAY ENGINEERS
9
HIGHWAY AND
TRAFFIC TECHNICIANS
ASSOCIATION
INSIDE HITA
The third article in this senes attempts to show in diagrem form the structure of the Association's Council - the body which manages
the affairs of the Association. Although, from the stert, the Association's IIrticles allowed for the election of II Council by the
membership, the structure shown below hilS teken a number of years to develop. Consequently, while the annual change in its
membership means that the charecter of the Council may change quite considerebly over a period of time, the transaction of its
business is ensured.
COUNCIL
MEI\TBERSHIP
I\~n r()MMI'rrF:F~
SRCnF.TAIlIAT
.
m
(elected annually
[rom association
council members)
FELLOII'S
U/3 of each category
elected annually by
corporale members)
3 flECIONAL
9 OHl>INARY
4 !Em
1\1E!\lBE.RS
...&.
E
.~
,~
~I E~HlE RS
~lnl!3EHS
_C
,llHE
:
~
SECIlETAHY
I I
(appointf;'d from time
lo lime .by the Counci1f
1 I
I I
I 1
I I
(Coundl
standing
ca-m milt ees
~~
~~
•
~mMBERSHIP
COMMITTEE
,
I
I
1
rHE
TECHNICAL
.-------(C.olJndl
,
- - - - - sub_committee&-
_
-
- -
-
-
-
-
-- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
establiShed
as
,.
required)
I
IHdllTTA,JOINT
WORK!:-:C PARTY
I
'NORTHERN IRELAND BRANCH
Dinner at the Woodlands Hotel, Lisburn,
Co. Antrim, preceded the Branch AGM
on Thursday, March 3rd, 19n, at which
the following were elected for the forthcoming session:
Cheirman:
W.G. Shilliday
Secretary:
W.B. Johnston
Treasurer;
J.W. McNaul
Committee Members:
H. Craig;
J.T. McKernan
and E.W. Malcolm
\ After t~e business of the meeting was completed Association Chairman Norman
Blackmore addressed those present on
the importance of the technician in
highway and traffic work and this was
followed by a talk on "Car Crash - The
Most Dangerous 45 Minutes" from Dr H.
Baird of BallyclareHealth Centre.The talk
was based on the work of the Health
Centre's Accident Unit and gave rise to a
number of points which formed part of
the concluding question time.
ENGINEER
BRANCH,
I
BOUNDARIES
S UB-CQ!l.l
~D TTEE
------~-
,
r
+-
- -
-
NORTH WESTERN BRANCH
Meeting at Manchester
On Wednesday, March 9th, 19n, at the
Grand Hotel, Manchester, Inspector D.
Ross of the Manchester Metropolitan
Police presented a Paper entitled "The
Police Role in Traffic Management": This
proved to be a most interesting account
of the topic and generated a lively
discussion.
Branch AGM
The Branch AGM was held on Wednesday, April 20th, 19n, at the lord
Danesbury Hotel, Warrington, when the
following were elected for the forthcoming session:
Chairman:
D. South
Secretary;
A.N. Jack
Treasurer;
P.D. Westcott
Committee Members:
A.D. Hall;
M.J.E. Freeman;D. Timberlake;
N.T. Tootell and G.N. Walton
-
-
m
-
1- -
~
-.
~
!II
III
a:I
II
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
- 1-
--
--
I
--l
.E~B
representatives an' ~lJr.emly
Ordinary :Mcmbers or CQunciL
•
I
lHE Technicsl OHkf'r ~s AI380cialion J1omin-ee
10 Technician EduC'Hlion CouncH ••
-
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r .r
,OFFICER
lEE
I
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:117;T~H~~R~~~~~s
2 111''1',\ ~IEMBERS
to
:>--.
! HIE l\"lEl\lBE.k
2 E:RB REPJU::S};~TATJVES>:l
...
HTTA EDUCATIOr.;AL
ADVISER
I
G
~ t
TnAINING AXD
t;lIUCATlON CO~I~IITTEE
CHAIRMAN
Hi\IR::\lt\:'.J
l~t~IEDl,\n: PIIST
CHAIRMAN
VICE.CHAlHMAN
1l0NOHAHY
TREASUHEJI
I
THE HIGHWAY
I
I I
:. -= : :. :. -=:"_1
"i:"t-
I
I
I
10
I
-----1
E
NOMINEES
MA!>;ACE~tENT
COM~IlTTf:E
STUDE"TS
.a
IITTA EDUCATIONAL
,\DVISEH
rilE 'n:ClIMCAL
OFFICER
~"
ASSOCIATE
MEM8EHS
"
CHArnl\lt\N
IMMEDINrE
PAST
CIlAIIlMAN
VICE-CHI\IHhtJ\N
1I0i'\OHARY TRE/,SURER
I
I
- - - - - - - - - - - - - _I
Those present were then addressed by
the Association's Secretary, Miss Ann
Connolly,.who spoke on the current work
of the Council, and the meeting closed
with' a buffet supper.
WElSH BRANCH
The inaugural meeting of the Branch was
held at the Shire Hall, Mold - Clwyd
CC's headquarters - on Thursday, April
21st, 19n, those attending being
welcomed by Mr A.J. Kendrick, Regional
Member for Wales on the Association's
Council. This was followed by the election
of Branch officers and Committee:
Chairman:
J.W.A. Evans
Vice. Chairman:
K.C. Ronan
Secretary/Treasurer;
A.J. Kendrick
Membership Secretary: C.F. pendlebury
Committee Members: R.J.B. Ferguson;
B.N. Reesand J.H. Williams
The Secretary of the Association, Miss
Ann Connolly, was also present at the
meeting.
JUNE 1977
J
I
SEVERNSIDE
TIE TACKS AND TIE CLIPS
BRANCH
The Institution has ordered a limited number of tie tacks and tie clips
to complement its range of ties. These are shown below.
April Meeting
On Tuesday, April 19th, 1977, Mr Kemp of
the Health and Safety Executive pre~
sented a film to members attending the
Branch Meeting at Gwent CC Highways
Depot, Raglan. This was followed by an
extremely
informative
lecture on the
implications for highway authorities of the
1974 Health and Safety Act and raised
several
points
which
were
warmly
debated during the discussion
period
which followed.
The tacks are priced at £2.50 each, the clips at £2.80. Both are
manufactured in gold plate with a raised Institution 'H' motif.
Members wishing to purchase one or other of these items, which
will be ready for posting- towards the fatter half of September, 1977,
should fill in the form below and return it to the Secretary as soon as
possible.
June Site Visit
A site visit to the L1anwern Slag Works,
near Newport, has been arranged for
Wednesday, June 22nd, 1977. The visit
will begin at 10.00am, when members are
invited to meet for coffee in the reception
lounge, and will finish at 1.00pm. The visit
will provide Branch members with the
opportunity of seeing at first hand the
work of this roadstone plant.
To: The Assistant Editor,
The Institution of Highway Engineers,
3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street, London SW1.
,..
I enclose my cheque/postal order/money order' for £
payable to The Institution of Highway Engineflrs.
Pleasesend me
tie tack(s)/tie clip(s).i;.,
CORRECTION
It is regretted that on page 11 of the April,
1977 issue of the Journal, the name of the
Yorkshire Branch Secretary was shown as
A. Lavery instead of A. Lawery and that
Shirecliffe College of Further Education
was shown as Stonecliffe
College of
Further Education.
made
NAME
.
ADDRESS
.
DATE
.
*Delete as applicable.
SUPERVISION OF LARGE
ROAD CONTRACTS
The Paper entitled "The Supervision of Large Road Contracts" by
Mr T.E. Lewis, Assistant County Surveyor, South Glamorgan CC,
which appeared in the March, 1976 issue of the Journal, has
attracted a good deal of critical acclaim from readers and requests
for extra copies have been received.
In view of this interest reprints of the Paper are now available,
priced at 50p each, and members who wish to purchase a copy are
asked to complete the form below.
}
•
I enclose Cheque/Postal Order/Money Order for 50p made payable
to the Institution of Highway Engineers. Please send me
.
copy(ies) of Mr Lewis' Paper.
NAME
,
,
ADDRESS
•
•
•
•
•
•
DATE
JUNE 19n
•
•
a
a
,
.
(BLOCK CAPITALS PLEASE)
.
~
a
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
.
THE JOURNAL
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
11
North of Scorland Branch
The Case of the Left-Hand Bend
D. Stewart, aSe, DipTE, MICE, MIHE
INTRODUCTION
In a society whose concern for safety can
verge on obsession, roads are an
anomaly. Add motor vehicles to them,
and they introduce a level of risk to our
lives which would probably be unacceptable in any other public facility.
Considering today's traffic conditions,
however, it is perhaps more surprising
that most of us can drive for tens of
thousands of miles without accident than
that a minority are less fortunate. At a
busy urban junction, for example, the task
of correctly perceiving, interpreting and
responding to the traffic environment is
so complex that occasional human failure
in inevitable.
BEND ACCIDENTS
What is less understandable is why
another situation, the acute bend, should
rank next to junctions as a focus for
accidents. There the traffic environment is
comparatively simple. The prospective
accident victim has only to interpret the
shape of the bend, and respond by
decelerating to a safe cornering speed.
Yet he fails to do so, and if he does resort
to braking while on the bend, he only
compounds his difficulties.
The author's interest in the causation of
these accidents was stimulated by an
apparent preponderance of accidents in
one direction at a bend on a two lane
trunk road. To minimise distortion by
factors peculiar to any particular site a
search was made of Aberdeenshire
accident maps for "pure" bends with an
accident record, a "pure" bend being a
rural one with straight approaches, no
junctions, flat profile, and generally free
from any obvious peculiarities which
might contribute to accidents.
. Six bends were readily identified, all on
trunk or principal roads. For ease of
interpretation only single vehicle accidents
were analysed and 15 of the 16 recorded
were found to have been on left-hand
bends, a highly significant (p <::. 0.1%)
bias. Although site evidence confirmed
that accidents in the other direction did,
occasionally, occur
they were
so
uncommon that only one was represented
in the sample.
Further confirmation of the bias was
found. It was predicted, for example, that
it should result in left. right S bends being
more accident-prone than right-left ones,
George Pike Prize in 1972. He is a
member of the Institute of Patentees
and Inventors and the inventor of the
ski para-58ll and the Perspector.
SUMMARY
D. Stewart
BIOGRAPHY
)
Mr Stewart
is Principal
Engineer,
Traffic Management and Road Safety,
Grampian Regional Council.
After
graduating
in
civil
and
mechanicsl engineering
from Aberdeen University in 1959, his professional experience was mainly in
structural
design until joining
the
Roads Department, Aberdeen CC in
1966. He gained
the Institution's
Diploma in Traffic Engineering and the
12
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
Investigation of hazardous bends in
Aberdeenshire
revealed
that
the
presence of transition spirals is an
essential factor. in most of their
aCCidents.
Interpretation of accident patterns
and of driving behaviour suggests that
the root of the problem is a visual one.
Entry spirals give an illusion of gentle
curvature, particularly
on left-hand
bends, which
encourage
excessive
speed.
Simple
remedies
are proposed,
aimed more at prevention of accidents
than at attainment
of conventionsl
design standards. Extension of the
investigation to find what benefits are
provided by transition spirals indicated
that they are irrelevant to good road
design and that their use should be
discouraged or prohibited.
This Paper is an edited version of
that delivered to the North of Scotland
Branch of the Institution meeting at
Aberdeen in February, 1976.
because deceleration through the first
bend reduced speed on the second one.
Comparison of every S bend over or
under railways confirmed the prediction
lp <::: 5%1, the nine left-right bends
recording 41 accidents against 24 for the
nine right-left bends.
In trying to explain the left.hand bias it
was tempting to blame the lower radius of
the inside lane, but this explanation had
to be discarded. A change in radius of 4m
could hardly be critical when the radii of
the six "pure" bends ranged from 50m to
210m. These radii, however, were all
found to be at the apex of transitional
curves [henceforth called spirals!. All but
one of the single vehicle accidents had
occurred on a left.hand spiral, so it was
conjectured that there might be some
feature of spirals which misled ,or lured
drivers into an accident situation.
PERCEPTION OF BENDS
Much has been written about visual
illusions, but relatively little work seems to
have been done on curvilinear illusion,
and nothing on road spirals.
Some pioneer work!l) by the psycholo.
gist R.H. Thouless, however, is pertinent.
In a series of laboratory experiments on
the perception of simple shapes when
viewed obliquely he found that observers
interpreted what they saw neither as the
true, plan shape nor as the oblique,
perspective shape, but as an intermediate
one. They only partially corrected for the
obliquity.
Figure 1 illustrates their response to
two horizontal shapes, a circle and an
ellipse viewed along its major axis. 'Take
the upper right quad~ant of each shape to
be analagous to a leftchand bend, A and
B being the entrY tangent points to a
circular curve and a spiral respectively. If
driver response on approaChing the
curves is similar to that in the laboratory,
they would interpret the circular curve as
more acute than it actually is; but the
critical point of the spiral, where its radius
is smallest, would be seen as less acute.
Although the inference for road safety
is clear, it may be argued that the
disparity between this laboratory experiment and real-life perception of a bend is
too great to allow any conclusions to be
drawn from it. It seems "kely, however,
that a second illusory process also
adversely affects driver' perception of a
spiral.
It may be best illustrated .by reference
- to the Ames Room illusion. A photograph
of the room shows two people, one tall
and one short, in adjacent corners. A
second photograph is identical except
that the two people have changed places
JUNE 19n
J
plan
interpreted
obIique
B
A
I,
Fig. 1 Perception
of plane shapes, viewed obliquely
with each other; but they have also
exchanged sizes. The reason, that the
room has been cleverly distorted
in
construction to appear normal only from
that particular viewpoint, cannot easily be
accepted because we are so accustomed
to rectangular, horizontal rooms.
Fig.3
What has this to do with transitional
bends? A spiral curve, like a distorted
room, is something which you seldom
encounter in everyday life. Virtually all
because any two-dimensional image can
curved objects are circular, and when an
represent an infinity of three dimensional
entry spiral is foreshortened by perspecshapes. In theory, there is no limit to the
tive its curvature also becomes more
d;stortion which is possible. It may be
uniform, as was seen in Figure 1. So a
argued that a line drawing is an overdriver would tend to interpret a spiral
simplification
of the real-life situation,
curve as a circular one, just as the Ames
where texture, colour, tone and changing
Room appears rectangular.
perspective are present. Yet it seems
Compare curves A and B in Figure 2.
probable that these will often be too weak
Both are horizontal and are seen from 1m
to effectively counter the illusion of gentle
above the centre of the inner lane at the
curvature, although they may be responentry tangent point. You may judge B to
sible for the difference in accident record
be ,the gentler curve; a driver would
of left and right hand spirals.
almost certainly do so, for that is the
So far, the illusion hypothesis could as
illusion. Each curve has the same radius
readily be applied to right and left hand
of 100m but A is circular and B is spiral,
bends. To a driver, however, the view in
as it is seen in Figure 3, from which Figure
one direction is not the mirror image of
2 was derived by Perspector, an instruthe other, because of assymetry introment made and marketed by Unex of
duced by the rule of the road. It was
Copenhagen under license to the author.
therefore desirable to find how drivers
This comparison demonstrates
how
'actually perceived a bend. Lacking an
deception could occur. If not only plan
eye-mark camera, the author evolved
geometry, but also parameters such as
what might be termed the "fixed-eye
road width, longitudinal profile and supermethod". If a driver "locks" his eyes in a
elevation had been altered the deception
fixed direction relative to his vehicle, it is
could readily have been accentuated,
fairly easy to decide which orientation
F;g.2 Views from entry tangent point one m above centre of
lane
A (circular)
\
~
-'-
A
-;J-
JUNE 19n
/
feels most comfortable
for
different
speeds and road alignments. Whereas for
a right-hand bend the preferred orientation was near the centre line, well ahead
of the vehicle, for an acute left-hand bend
it was far closer, on the inner channel
where tangential to the line of sight, as
shown in Figure 4.
Assuming that in normal driving these
orientations are most frequently used, the
preference for viewing
only a short
distance ahead on a left-hand
bend
should make it difficult for the driver to
detect the shrinking curvature of a spiral
and more likely to accept ,the illusion that
the bend is circular. Thus for the same
F;g.4 Direction
of view
~------------~
~
~
~l
--
--
B
B (spiral)
....
"'-
, ----
,,,
THE JOURNAL
I
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
13
degree of curvature he would be expected
to maintain a higher speed, and be more
likely to skid, on a left-hand than on a
right-hand spiral, and on either of these
than on a circular curve.
Published data(21 show that low radii
spirals do induce higher speeds than
circular curves, and site measurements
suggest that this differential is indicative
of accident risk. For example, a comparison between two acute bends,a spiral
with a poor accident record and a circular
curve with virtually none, revealedmarked
differences. Although their appearances
on approach wers similar, and mean free
flow speeds differed only slightly 59km/h on the circular curve and 61km/h
on the spiral - corresponding radii were
164m and 75m. Thus the equivalent
centrifugal accelerations parallel to the
road surface were also very different, only
0.12g for the circular curve but 0.31g for
the spiral.
On a spiral, however, directional differences in centrifugal acceleration ars more
difficult to establish. Vehicle paths can
diverge widely from the line of the road,
making assessment of their curvature
impracticable. Evenif centrifugal acceleration could be reliably Quantified, the
influence of gradient further complicates
any directional comparison of accident
susceptibility. Left-hand spirals are significantly more prone to accidents if downhill than uphill, so a full understanding of
accident patterns would r!!Quireconsideration not only of. bend alignment and
driver behaviour but also of the complexities of vehicle dynamics under the
influence of gradient, turning and braking.
It seems doubtful if such an elaborate
study could be worthwhile.
There are other ways in which the lefthand spiral hypothesis might be checked.
Bend accidents in countries with righthand rule of the road, for example, should
predominate on right-hand spirals, but
appropriate statistics are not readily
available.
If these conclusions about the hazards
Fig.5
14
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
of spirals are correct, however, then any
bend should be safer with them. The
investigation was therefore extended to
acute "pure" bends which were wholly
circular, either becausetheir construction
predated the "invention" of spirals or
becauseof the inadeQuacyof spiral tables
for low radii.
On some of the less heavily-used roads
such bends are common and the accident
maps confirmed their almost complete
lack of accidents. Typically, they were
found to produce in the order of one
accident for every 10 on the "pure"
spiralsfor the same number of vehicles.
Only one apparent anomaly was found,
an acute, well-trafficked bimd whose 40
year old working drawing showed spirals,
yet which was free from accidents. Site
measurement gave the explanation. For
reasons unknown, no spiral had actually
been incorporated in the left-hand curve
and it was completely circular. This and
other evidence all pointed in the same
direction; spirals were an essential factor
in most accidents at bends. But there is
little point in analysing accidents unless
we can prevent their recurrence,
REMEDIAL MEASURES
The basic problem is the spiral illusion,
and it might be possible to introduce a
counter illusion, to reduce approach
speeds,such as the converging transverse
markings at some motorway junctions.
There must be doubts, however, about
the wisdom of trying to deceive drivers,
because there can be no guarantee that
their behaviour will change only where
and as desired. Deliberate distortion has
been shown to influence perception not
only of the distorted object, but also of
similar objects which have not been
distorted.
A better solution would be to simply
replace the spiral by a circular curve.
Realignment up to design standard is, of
course, the conventional way to do this,
but if maximum reduction in accidents per
pound spent'is the criterion of success,
then the original alignment should be
followed as'closely as possible.
For a typical spiral bend, an inward shift
of no more than a few metresat the apex,
perhaps supplemented by an outward
shift near the tangent point, will "Circularise" it. At the first bend to be so
treated the result has been entirely satisfactory and the treatment is to be applied
to several others. Although the absence
of accidents in the two years since
changing the 70m radius spiral to a 150m
radius circular arc is not yet statistically
significant, driver reaction has been very
favourable. Not only does he benefit from
removal of the illusion, but also from the
lane widening due to circularising, as is
seen in Figure5, showing the bend before
surface dressing and edge lining. Most
hazardous spirals might thus be rectified
rapidly and cheaply.
Circularisation should, of course, be
seen as a supplement to, rather than a
replacement. for,
traditional
safety
measures, but it may help to rationalise
their use. Excessive or inappropriate
signing is often indicative of a spiral
which could not be tamed.
It may seem self-evident that skid
resistancemust also remain adequate, but
it is seldom appreciated that improvement
in skid resistance should be far more
beneficial at bends than at junctions, as
can be shown by statistical consideration
of skid dynamics. Where a hazardous
spiral cannot readily be realigned even a
modest improvement in skid resistanceby
surface dressingwith good P5V chippings
can prevent most accidents.
NEW DESIGN
50 far, the emphasis'has been on spiral
and circular curves, But most curves are
compound, containing both circular and
spiral arcs. Although the author has not
attempted to correlate accidents with
length, proportion and radiusof spiral, the
record for various compound curves
indicates, as might be expected, that they
are safer than spiraIs but less safe than
circular curves. Any spiral, even a short
one, will introduce an element of illusion,
albeit a very mild one if the radius is large.
Design standards in most countries,
however, stipulate or recommend the use
of spirals, but it is not clear what benefits
they provide to offset, their potential
danger.
Curiously;current texts on curve design
seldom say anything about the purpose of
spirals or about the validity of their design
criteria. Even a recent international
symposium on road designl31 although
including much of relevance to curve
design in reports from 18 countries,
accorded transitions only two brief
paragraphs. Apparently, spirals are now
part of our conventional .wisdom and no
'longer merit justification. Yet it seems
incredible that all the intricacies of spiral
dogma have evolved from the almost
arbitrary choice, about 70 years ago, of
1ft/see] as a comfortable rate of change
of centripetal acceleration ICI for railway
passengers.
There have been dissenters. J.J.
Leemingl41 in particular, stressed the
irrationality of a criterion which made no
JUNE 19n
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Branch offices it Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Manchester, Shipley, Birmingham, Lincoln 'and Dinan.
JUNE 1977
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
15
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To:
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3 Lygon
Place,
London,
SW1
Please supply
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16 THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
Halifax, England.
JUNE 1917
,.
allowance for superelevation, and his
extensive observations by recording
accelerometerswithin vehicles confirmed
that it bore no similarity. to driving
practice.
What is difficult. however, is not refutal
of the constant C method. It is finding a
bener one - one which is rational yet
simple to apply.
Rather than reson to yet another
theoretical approach, it seemsdesirableto
find how drivers actually negotiate a
curve, i.e. to establish the path which
their vehicles trace out. An accelerometer
cannot provide this information becauseit
is influenced by superelevation. Nor does
it record the distance from the edge of
carriageway, a parameterwhich seems,to,
have been generally ignored. It usually
seems to be taken for granted that the
distance should remain constant - a
convenient assumption for the engineer,
who can then claim that the best alignment is simply the. path of his design
vehicle.
This assumption is contradicted by the
behaviour of any experienceddriver. Even
a learner soon discovers that he can drive
with greater safety and comfort if he does
not strive to maintain a constant pOSition
in his lane. On a left-hand bend he will
find it preferable to keep towards the
centre Hne on the approach and to
encroach on the channel as he enters the
curve. Observation of any bend, particularly an acute one, rapidly confirms the
universality of this deflection. It also has
the accolade of being recommended by
advanced driving manuals because it
improves visibility and reduces sideways
force, but an even more important benefit
may be bener perception of alignment.
The driver's tangential view of the edge of
carriagewayis lengthenedso he can more
readily detect a spiral.
The author observeddeflection paths at
several bends, but the most interesting
conclusions can be illustrated by reference to just one of them, the 164m radius
circular curve already mentioned. Width
between kerbs was 6.8m, superelevation
0.07, with bituminous macadam surface,
warning line, cats eyes, and carrying 4000
vehicles per day. Mean speed of all traffic
on the left-hand bend was about OOkm/h.
From an aerial photograph, the deflection path was revealedby the darker trace
left by oil staining and differential wear,
but scale did not permit accurate
measurement. On site, however, the oil
track was sufficiently distinct to allow its
centre line to be planed quite accurately.
Taking this to indicate the mean vehicle
path, its deflection was O.51m over a
length of 4Om, .and confirmation was
given by a subsequent check when the
road was damp. As it dried the vehicle
path did so first' to give a conspicuous
track (Figure 61.about 0.1m nearer the
kerb but with a similar deflection, 0.52m
over 4Om.
It was more difficult to define the shape
of the deflection path. The usual assumption of spiral form implying constant rate
of turn of the steering wheel would, from
consideration of spiral geometry, place its
mid-point opposite the tangent point of
the circular curve. It was. The deflection
path started about 20m before the
tangent point and ended about
after
it. Thus the deflection was, in fact; the
shift of the spiral.
Any addition of spirals to the bend itself
would be expected to elongate the
deflection path. So the measured path
was probably the shonest which would
be associated with that particular radius.
A crucial question can thus be asked.
Does the geometry of a circular bend
force a driver to follow an "uncomfortable" spiral? In other words, if he turned
on to the same curvature, but was free of
constraints such as kerbs and traffic,
would he choose to extend his spiral?
To try to find an answer the author
made a simple chan recorder to plot
movement of a steering wheel. A cord
wound round the shaft of the wheel
moved a Pen acrossa rotating disc to give
a trace showing the size and duration of
any steering movement.
A typical trace for a 6Okm/h run
through the bend is seen in Figure 7.
Segment AB is the deflection path, and
its uniform slope again confirms that it is
a spiral (the shon curves at each end,
where the steering wheel accelerates,
must be transitions to the spiraIII The
duration of AB ranged from 2.0 to 3.1
seconds on different runs, corresponding
to spirals from 33m to 52m long.
Having
established
compatibility
between the deflection paths measured
on the road with these recorded within a
car, the runs had to be repeated in a
situation where the same radius of turn
could be applied without directional constraints. The most satisfactory was along
the centre of a wide perimetertrack on an
airfield. At the same speed of OOkm/hit
was found that a slightly shaner deflection path was used, giving a trace such as
that superimposedon Figure 7.
Clearly it would be desirable to repeat
such trials with many vehicles and many
drivers. But even from this limited
experiment it appeared probable that
deflection was not a by-product of the
spiral path; it was the reverse.That is, the
Fig. 6
driver chooses a deflection on entering a
bend, and turns the wheel as slowly as
necessary to provide it. He prolongs the
spiral which he would prefer to apply if
free from environmental constraints. Thus
it can be inferred that vehicle occupants
will be neither safer nor more comfonable
if a bend incorporates an entry spiral, and
the same conclusion can be reached for
right-hand bends and for exit spirals.
To support this conclusion by reference
to only one bend may appear rash. But
for radii smaller than its 164m safety considerations alone must preclude spirals;
and as "comfort" does not seem to
warrant spirals at that radius, it is even
less likely to do so for flaner curves. All
that is needed is to increase the normal
lane widening for "cut-in" by, say, O.5m
to accommodate the deflection within a
circular curve.
Spirals have been supponed on other
grounds.
One is to change curvature gradually to
{Continued
on page 241
\\Q.Dsltion
Fig.?
Steering chart
lfree'
transition
20m
JUNE 19n
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
17
The Cash Value of Traffic Changes
Upon the Environment
R.J. Bridle, BSc(Eng), FICE, FIHE
INTRODUCTION
All Government investment
necessarily
involves trade-off
between
competing
objectives. This Paper is about measuring
environmental effects in the same cash
terms as travel benefits so as to clarify the
trade-off issues. The attempt at quantification does not imply the possibility of
designing a highway scheme which would
meet everyone's acceptance.
Highway provision and traffic schemes
should be seen as not only aimed at the
efficient operation of traffic but also as
contributing to the costs of abatement of
environmental damage arising from traffic
growth and an investment in an improved
environment.
These are unremarkable
contentions while units remain undefined
but the trade-off controversy occu rs in
the context of evaluation. Naturally there
is room for doubt, society's values are
inconsistent and variable with time while
polls of individual opinions reveal the
competing nature of their objectives by
answers which are inconsistent with each
other.
There is, therefore, no way in which an
axiomatic structure of decision-making
can be devised which will produce an
unarguably correct decision. Nevertheless,
the absence of quantitative
basis of
comparison currently leads to implied
environmental values of zero or infinity
and the acceptance of schemes which
deviate a long way from the optimum.
There is, of course, an implicit regard for
environmental factors in the choice of
alternative schemes but it is rarely that
the choice is other than the alternative
which best optimises traffic
benefits.
Where some other. choice is made it is
said that the sacrifice in operational
benefits is a measure of the value put
upon amenity objectives. The use of the
word sacrifice gives a guide to the
thinking of designers and a scale of values
for environmental effects would balance
the heavy weight currently
given to
operational objectives and assist in setting
new standards for de;;igners.
Midland RCU in 1968. He became
Deputy Chief Highway Engineer, DoE
in 1972, Under-Secretary in 1973 and
Chief Highway Engineer in 1975.
Mr Bridle is Chairman
of the
Institution's Publications Committee.
SUMMARY
R.J. Bridle
BIOGRAPHY
Mr Bridle graduated
from
Bristol
University in 1953 and after a brief
period with Monmouthshire
CC took
up a post with the Gold Coast (now
Ghana) Government.
From 1957 to 1961 he was with
Cwmbran New Town and then joined
the
City
Engineer's
Department,
Cardiff,
as Senior
Designer.
He
became Principal Assistant
Bridge
Engineer, West Riding CC in 1962 and
after a period as Deputy
County
Surveyor and Bridgemaster, Cheshire
CC was appointed Director of the
18
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
Currently the most publicly debated
issue in the assessment of highway
investment is the extent to which
operational benefits should be offset
against
environmental
damage,
although equally important is valuation
of the environmental gain which may
accrue from a well-chosen investment.
Trading environmental and operational
benefits and disbenefits is made more
rational if they can be measured in
equivalent units.
The Paper considers existing tradeoff methods and examines the possibility of using conventional techniques
of traffic modelling to achieve compatible measurement of operational
and environmental effects. The proposal is made that a place has a value
not only to its owners but also to its
visitors who pay through their travel
costs for its use. Methods of establishing their perceived loss by pricing the
place out of the visitors' market are set
out, together with the application of
the concept to particular schemes.
TRADE-OFF METHODS
There are four possible means by which
schemes may be evaluated and compared:(a) Choice by experts;
(bl Standard setting;
(c) Cost effectiveness; and
(dl Cost benefit.
Cost benefit methods have yet to be
developed and the current
scene is
characterised by methods (a) to leI. The
deficiencies
of both lal and Ibl are
evident and have proved to lack credibility
in the 'eyes of the public.
The cost effective
approach entails
setting non-monetary indices for various
forms of environmental damage and the
effectiveness of the cost of alleviation is
measured by the change in indexll).
Application of these methods to choice
between alternative schemes has shown
that the indices do not vary greatly
between options,
conceivably
due to
restrictive initial selection and no account
is taken of indirect effects such as the
relief to a bypassed town. Further, an
index does not give an effective measure
of desirability. A doubling of an index, for
example, does not imply a doubling of
satisfaction. As soon as an attempt is
made to deal with a multi-dimensional
outcome the problems multiply and a
composite index becomes impracticable
since the whole is not the sum of the
parts.
Summarising, the deficiencies of (a) to
{c) can be listed as:{a) The variables are chosen subjectively
and multiple~counting is impossible to
distinguish,
(b) No common measurement
is produced which enables:m A credible amenity ranking of
alternatives.
Iii) An analytical comparison with the
operational ranking.
lct The methods ignore indirect environmental effects.
COST BENEFIT
This requires that all costs and benefits
are identified in common units so that
trading may take place in a consistent
manner. The effect is ,to produce a
balance sheet weighted according to price
paid. This is defensible if the outcomes
are not systematically biased against the
least privileged. It is, however, difficult to
identify values of nuisances such as noise,
visual intrusion and so on since individuals
fail to think in terms of the elements
JUNE 1977
I
,I
'.1
I~
chosen by analysts. They perceive
environment
in
composite
terms.
Summating nuisance elements do not,
therefore, reflect human behaviour and it
is difficult to use as a method of environmental accounting or as an illustration of
the distribution of costs and benefits.
It is, therefore, hard to use as a method
in environmental accounting or to illustrate the distribution of costs and benefits
if generalised cost is sought through a
summation of nuisance elements.
Some global measure is consequently
necessaryand it is noted in advance that
regression from a global value to identify
values for individual variables is unlikely to
produce consistent numbers since the
combination of the effects of variables is
unlikely to operate on a simple weighted
arithmetic basis,
It is, however, hoped that a coarse
basis, using a limited number of variables
as surrogates for others, will work
sufficiently well to identify decision points
close enough to the optimum for
adequate highway
decisions. This
approach is analagous to calculating
operational benefit where the value of
time is used as a surrogate for many other
variables..
THE VALUE OF A PLACE
PROPERTY
OWNERS
Sources
The home environment for property
owners has been simulated at the TRRl
by building a typical living room with a
single window behind which there is a
back projection screen which can show a
variety of outlooks. A number of
questions j are asked of experimental
subjects to assess 'the monetary value
they put on the differences in living
conditions between their own home and
each of the simulated conditions.
Valuation work is still to be done but
TRRL are hopeful that monetary values
will emerge.
Apart from this work experience is
being gained of the order of compensation claimed and paid for under Part 1 of
the land Compensation Act for noise,
smell, fumes, vibration and so on from the
use of new or extended public works.
These two areas of experience will
come together in due course in establishing accurate predictive equations. Whatever these equations turn out to be, the
change in environment due to the
presence of a new road or reduced or
increased traffic will inevitably be related
to the market value of the property and
the consumer surplus, Aggregate consumer surplus will also be related to
aggregate property value. The change in
the home environment will, therefore, be
expressed as some percentage of the
existing property value,
Formula
Using solely a change in the noise
environment to estimate a change in
property value a speculative relationship is
of the form:-
I
1c11!(,I,)
berQr+ c.-onltnu:t 10f! ...t r,,~...d.-
C' - ..
".f '...
,.,....
, """"
I
This formula derivesfrom an S curve of
percentage against dB(AI, the differences
in percentages given by the before-andafter dB(A) giving the percentage change
in property value due to increased (or
decreasedl traffic nuisance, Various
values of K1 and K2 are being tested
against compensation already paid in
order to calibrate the equation.
Limit of Application
The above curve is intended to apply predominantly to residential property and
would not be appropriately used for
factory premises, for example. Factory
premises and office accommodation are
considered unaffected, except for the
cost of double-glazing, since the external
environment is not important to their use.
.However, it is proposed, in the absence of
better information, that the above formula
should apply to schools, shops and
community premises.
The above formula is also intended to
be interpreted with care and not blindly
applied and is not considered valid when
applied to individual pr9perties.
The single global good which people
value and which is changed by new construction is a place that is some
geographical area defined by a boundary,
What is the value of a place? Its value is
not only its property value. It also has a
Variables'
value for visitors who do not own it but
It is thought that noise and visual
pay the cost of their return journey in
intrusion can be used as surrogates for
order to use it. Synthetic transportation
the change in the general environment.
models adopt this concept and define this
Where only a change in traffic volume is
value as trip-end value.
involved, noise could be used on its own
This trip-end value cancels out in
but where new structure is involved then
classical calculation of the operational
..
'I'ty b ut att empts have
Its
bebrecognlsedthrough
the
benef'tloa f new faCII
. scaleshould
I
I'
d
h
VISITORS
been ,made to idenfity it by Clawson
vlsua ang e .It su. t~n s ~t t e p~operty.
(19591(2)and Mansfield '(19691(3),.Claw-'-- - However, I~sufflclent Inform~tB:Jn, IS
Trip Models
son was concerned to estimate an
currently available for such Sophlstl~atlo.n
Figure 1 illustrates a simplified trip model
,
t d demand curv to analyse the
and ~heformula proposed for. adoptIon,IS
for a particular category of trips and
!mpu et f'
the eft'
I
restricted purely to a change In the nOise
Im~~~ 0 prlce?n
use 0 recrea lon~
environment.
describes the symbols used. Zone 3, for
faCIlities. Mansfield used the same baSIC
methodology to estimate the total consumer surplus associatedwith recreational
trips to the lake District and, later, how
this might be affected by the Morecambe
Bay Barrage.
If a trip-end value can be identified then
the value of a place can be regardedas an
aggregate of property and visitors' values
and the benefits and dis-benefits of the
change in that value wrought by the
presence of a new construction sought.
Care must be taken not to double-count
the changes in value which are already
counted in the additional consumer
surplus experienced by property owners
and visitors purely as a result of the
improved accessibility a new highway
brings. The attempt must be to identify
those changes in property and trip-end
Tfips 4Wacted
Zone 2
~3 T23
value arising purely from the changed
2
environment at the trip-end.
?rips
generated
by
Zone
3
~3 T32
The division of the public into residents
T23 = 7fips from ZOne 2 Zohe3
and visitors already features in the work
Watkins is undertaking at TRRl (1975)(4)
~3 = Cost of' trip from Zone 2
Zone 3
and, of course, residents and visitors can
be divided into further categories.
TRIP
MODEL
A =
03 =
to
=
=
to
to
Fig.l
JUN E 11177
THE JOURNAL
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
19
,
"-i
I
example, has an attraction for an average
day which can be costed by summing the
trips times the cost of getting there. For
example, a recreation area could be
regarded as a store from which trip-end
goods may be bought for the price of
getting there supposing the entrance to
be free. The value of the stock may then
be regardedas the discounted pri,ceof the
loss people experience on removal of the
goods they have yet to buy.
Society's Intervention
However, the question of whether it is
valid to use values derived directly from
people's behaviour remains.. If a man's
income were higher or lower his values
would differ. Therefore, in spending a
group's income as opposed to his own an
individual. may adopt a different scale of
judgement and it is reasonableto suppose
that society's value may not be identical
with the derived value assigned by users.
There are a number of examples where
society is prepared to intervene and it
preservesareaswhere the redevelopment
value is greater than the' aggregated
existing property and trip-end values.
A closer concurrence between society's
value and that inferred' from people's
behaviour may be achieved by using a
lower discount rate. The use of a time
preference rate has a logic because of the
greater certainty that areas society wishes
to conserve will maintain and increase
their relative value.
Long-term damage by aggregation of
small. changes or the loss of some
particular flora or fauna are issues which
can only be dealt with by Government
monitoring and shadow pricing.
Loss on Extinction of Use
This brings the discussionto an important
point. The extinction of a property clearly
means a loss of that value in the total
property stock but the extinction of a
particular place does not mean that the
loss is equal to the current valuation of
future visitors' trip-end goods.
The basicconcept involved is consumer
surplus and the changes which are
brought about by the changes in the
environment. The consumer surplus loss
on a price increaseof c
C n is given by
0
_
tj
lj
(1)
trips
~j
T
are
C5.~
1$ the
lj
n
ij
C
trips
cost
is the cost
befoTC A ts
2
after
A2's
of 8 Ti~
N
of a Tij
extinction
e:-.;t.inctic:n
THE HIGHWAY
ij
r(CI~l.
F(C~~)
It]
H(1)).
r([;i~l
!~k
..
Pi<. Ti~
(J)
This gives the pattern of the redistribution
and the symbols n and a stand for new
and old.
trip
ENGINEER
within which expert judgement can be
exercised to produce isolines of value so
that the total zone value is encompassed
below the surface they form. The smaller
the zone the more valid the judgement
exercised.
The impact of nuisance will vary with
the category of trip. The categories to be.
used in the Regional Traffic Models now
being constructed by the Department of
Transport are:Journey
to ....ork
other-hOltte
•
CaT Trlp~
balled
I.C
:o.:on-home
Light
Then total new cost
balled
Good!l
C~erclal
Trips
Heavy Cood$
('I
All other trips are given by equation 3 and
(5)
This process is followed while the cost
in each column cell is changed by
increments until the cell trips reach unity.
The consumer surplus equation is used
each time and the result aggregated until
the process is complete.
It may be thought that this process
stretches extrapolation beyond its valid
limit, but it depends whether the cost
change invoked is other than marginal or
causes disequilibrium. Where there are
sufficient alternative destinations the cost
change will be less than that created by a
new motorway link. The process is,
therefore, likely to be valid for a small
town or rural zone but not for, say, North
Wales. This application is so intended and
initial desk top studies support the view
expressed.
Further, the relationship between trips
and costs for a particular column is not a
demand curve for that attraction. There is
a different demand curve for each
generation to each attraction. The process
calculates the consumer loss perceived by
trip-makers as the simulated entry tolls
are increased and allows for both
suppression and redistribution.
Once the total extinction loss is established it is necessary to determine what
part of it results from the effect of a
nuisance which depressesa trip-end value
although not eliminating it.
APPLICATION
trip
However, formula 2 needs to be
calculated by simulated incremental
changes in "tolls" around the attraction
zone being assessed, until the attracted
trips to each cell of the A2 column equal
unity. This technique will allow for
assumption of linearity in equation 2.
The explanation of the method of
allowing for changes in cost at a point in
time were set out in May 1973 in the IHE
Journa1.(5}In summary a traffic model is
of the form:-
20
c::x:...c[ Aj F(Cij)
,
If only costs in row i are changed then
only trips from Gi will change and it can
be shown that:•T
Application is best kept simple. Normally
the change in attraction in the large zones
used in strategic models resUlting from
the presence of a new road will be small
and the generated and redistributed trips
negligible, although this may not be so for
bypassed towns which suffer a heavy
traffic nuisance.
The extinction value of the consumer
surplus can be averaged over a zone but
will become less valid as the zone size
increases.Therefore, finer information will
be required, or judgement exercised, to
distribute the average value across the
zone in some contoured form. The total
zone value will provide a control total-
The presence of a nuisance will clearly
not affect the trip-end value of commercial trips. Neither is the journey to work
likely to be significantly affected but
other-home based and non-home based
trips may well be, depending on purpose.
Thus information does not exist in these
strategic models to do other than make
the broad assumption that only otherhome based trips are affected and are
affected in the same way as property. As
,modelling projects are extended the
information will become finer and leisure
trips models will be created. The current
estimation can be regarded as minimal
since pedestrianand public transport trips
are omitted and all trips have an environmental component.
Evidently over the area of the highway,
uses depending on environment quality
(i.e, other-home based) are eliminated
wh Heother uses are likely to be restored
locally. Therefore, there will be a 100 per
cent loss at the edge of the highway, for
amenity uses, reducing to zero at the
edge of the area of impact.
The attenuation of nuisance occurs
quickly from the edgeof the highway. For
noise the 45dBIA) contour can be used as
a nuisance boundary and within that area
a 30 per cent loss represents a fair
approximation (Figure 2) shows how the
loss can be calculated.
Visual intrusion provides an additional
problem and noise bunds can themselves
be visually intrusive although not to the
degree imposed by the hard lines of a
highway structure. The scene intruded
upon also provides a further variable in
the problem.
The scene from a place is, of course,
part of the value of that place and is
included in the visitor's value, but the
degree of impact will depend on the
extent of the intrusion and the extent of
the intrusion will depend on the orientation of the.scene and the road. It will also
depend on the distance from the road and'
it is already known that intrusion is related
to solid angle, i.e.:H
50
•
L
(co. 91
-
co. 92)
(7)
The symbols are defined in Figure 3.
Suppole eland
dS9
-
_ H
8:2'ate fbc!'d then:
(CD'
91
-
co.
92)
t -
(8)
dL
which gives the rate of change of
intrusion with distance: As before the
visual intrusion at the edge of the road
will be lOOper cent but, as shown above,
reducing parabOlically as the distance
JUNE 1977
f
I
V visual areas.
Traffic
\
\
I,
I
./" -
..
~
~.,
I
/~Halr
--"~
\
Y
1'00
Y-£~~n
WayPoint to
I~
INTRU SI0 N Ir
COST FOR
VISITORS
Fig.2
= ~AHr V" Wr +0.3 ~ArV"Wr
Where
= Vi;-itors inttl/5iof1 cost
0.6
/ot-noise
AH r = fllghWCl!l suh area1h ec tares
Ar = 30% s~h a~Cl
.
V" = Av extmd/on va/ue lOr halEe peY hectare
Wr = 150/fne weighting
from the road increases. Over 'the fi rst half
of the visual intrusion distance a mean
effect of 0.6 is incurred. This enables a
weighting to be determined as:sln 8
where 0 is the angle the direction of view
makes with the perpendicular to the road
in the direction of the road. If the area of
intrusion is reduced by a noise bund, then
the area of visual intrusion of the noise
bund is taken at half the above weighting.
It now remains to weight the components of noise and visual intrusion and
this will, of course, depend on the quality
of landscape. Where this is high there
appears to be an equal weighting but
noise is generally more intrusive and,
therefore, the trip extinction value should
be taken to be weighted 6:4 towards the
noise component.
In summary, therefore, the intrusion
cost for visitors is where the symbols are
defined by Figure 3 N indicatin.g noise <!nd
r
/
H
L------O;:ion
of. View
I
I
I
VISUAL
INTRUSION
-'--+-'
I
JUNE 19n
~
Highway
V
a
I
Fig.3
_'
i.e.:.
{lO)
CONCLUSION
ValueIsoline
Edge of IntrfAst'oh Area
NOISE
Relief
For existing highways in open country
only the second term of 1 v c wi!1 be
relevant
in both the before-and-after
situation, but as visual intrusion already
exists 0.18 will be replaced by 0.3. For
bypassed towns the relief will also be
related only to the change in the noise
environment and its extinction value for
visitors. The extinction value for visitors
can
be determined
and
distributed
through zones within the town. Each zone
can- then be regarded. as a. property and
the same equation as for property used,
f)irection
I
of View
Despite the coarseness of current information for using the method described it
does allow for variation
of people's
preferences and uses the price they pay
as an expression of their preference. It
also conservatively assumes complete redistribution on extinction of a particular
trip.end with a continuation
of travel
investment at the same level as before.
Further, only a single mode of transportation is considered if a regional model
is used and in some cases the values used
will need modification. If the central totals
can be taken as conservative, however,
the assumptions about distribution across
a zone are not too worrying. The most
important advantage of the system is that
the units of measurement of environmental benefits and disbenefits are the
same as those used for measuring travel
benefits and the general assumptions are
similar. Therefore, it is reasonable to use
the
propositions
particularly"
where
sensitivity analysis is used.
The method also provides a basis for
research and development along which
further work can be carried out although
it is unlikely that 'a high degree of
correlation
will result from regression
analysis against selected variables. Nevertheless, some work of this kind may be
attempted since the values used are user
orientated and where the judgement of
the same users are involved
some
correlation may result.
The extinction value is, of course, not
static. The method assumes a particular
set of land use attractions and a certain
accessibility for a zone which can be
measured in synthetic models. It also
assumed
that
trip-end
value
was
independent of numbers of visitors. Now
this is not the case. With time, land use
can be modified by infrastructural investment and accessibility by transport investment. Both investments are, therefore,
interdependent and both can change the
number of visitors ..
t
(Continued
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
on fJsge 24)
ENGINEERS
21
Midland Branch Symposium
Engineers and Other People
I
The Midland Branch held its 7th Annual
one-day Symposium at Nottingham
University on Januaty 10th, 1977. Over
120 members and guests attended and
the four speakers tackled various Bspects
associated with the general inability of
engineers to present themselves and their
knowledge to politicians and the public,
to the disadvantage both of the engineer
Bnd the profession.
In "Basic Communicating"
Mr P.C.
Gane, Director, W.S. Atkins
and
Partners, said that communicating was
passing a message from one person to
another. Engineers were not particularly
bad at it, nor were they outstandingly
good. An excellent reference book on the
subject, "Plain Words" by Sir Ernest
Gowers, was now published by Pelican
Books' under the title "The Complete
Plain Words". It should be on everyone's
shelf. The presentation of the written or
spoken word should be given much more
attention and not simply regarded as the
fJrerogative of the publicity media or
politicians. The essentials were that the
engineer must know his subject, the
reasons behind his writing or speaking
and the identity of his audience. A few
rules on the subject would include: the
meaning of the message must be clear;
the subject should be arranged in a logical
order; and be grammatically correct;
irrelevant material should be excluded and
the most simple, brief and direct language
used avoiding obscure and unnecessary
words, abbreviations,and, unless addressing specialists in the subject, esoteric
technical terms; the speaker, or writer,
must be accurate, his subject complete,
sympathetic to his audience, polite and
helpful but never patronising.
it had in any measure improved the
performance of the engineer in communicating, thereby enhancing his public
image.
Know Your Subject
These rules referred as much to the
spoken as to the written word. Public
speaking brought its own problems of
nervousnessand the difficulty of correcting something once it had been said.
Thus, it was even more important to
know the subject and to prepare the
presentation in advance.
Presentation techniques should be
studied with the aid of a tape-recorder or
the constructive advice of experts or
friends. Since it was impossible to retract
what was said, particular care had to be
taken in expressing personal opinions
which might not coincide with those of
the organisation being represented. A
speech or talk should not be read, but
brief notes should be available to provide
a structure. Microphones or visual aids
should be used properly since the visual
impressions and manner of presentation
made a significant difference to how well
the messagewas received.
A report or job application was usually
more favourably looked upon if well set
out, and the appearanceof one's office or
site could have an important bearing on
the 'impression created. It was, for
example, very important for motorists to
get a clear messagefrom temporary road
works signing.
Mr Gane concluded by saying that his
Paperwould have achieved its objective if
Mr D.O. Macklin. Chief Executive,
Lincolnshire CC, in "The Legal and
Local Government Aspects" said that
elected members were, in the main,
amateurs at engineering and as the
contact was mainly engineering it was a
situation of respect, a linle fear and the
knowledge that "you know and they
don't." Elected members were professionals at being politicians and representing the views and needs of the communitYwhich they served.They respected
engineers' skills but were expected to
display their own skill in decision-making.
As such they should run the show, it was
not for the various employees, including
the engineer, to assume that they knew
the right answer. It was the job of the
professional in putting forward choices
and identifying the problem and for the
elected member to make the decision, for
it was he who would have to justify it to
the people he represented.
" ...... or the
constructive advice
of experts or
fn"ends"
22
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
The Professional View
In this respect it was unwise for the
engineerto become personally committed
to t~e.J=larticularcourse of action for in
some 'cases the advice might not be
accepted but the engineer would still be
required to give evidence on some issue
with which he did not agree. It was the
engineer's proper duty to give the
evidenceand this was what was expected
of him. At the same time the engineer
must make it quite clear that if asked, he
would have to voice his own professional
view. A professionalengineerwas entitled
to his vi8'N but it was then up to the
authority to decide if this view was
acceptableor not.
./
There was always the problem of
getting information over and to do this it
was necessary at all times to be both
honest and concise. It was impossible to
contemplate all the consequences of a
decision and ,as circumstances changed
the emphasison honesty in providing the
best information at the time would be
tested. In committee there was a need to
keep the information required clear and
concise and if necessaryfull details must
be sent to elected members separately so
that the information was there for
reference. In personal dealings with
elected members it should always be
borne in mind that the engineer might at
some time be in disagreement over an
issue and the personal relationship in
comminee or work generally must not
cause embarrassment.
JUNE 19n
l
r,.
"
(I
.l'
,
(
..
The Magistrates Court
An engineer probably had very little
contact with a Magistrates Court but it
was as well to remember that here
witnesses were very much on their own,
proof of evidence could not be read or
referred to and straight answers were
required to questions asked under crossexamination.Very careful thought indeed
must therefore be given to possible
questions and answers.
-
The Coroners Court
The approachto the coroners court was a
very different one and in many ways the
body was outdated. Their job was to
ascertainthe causeof death and although
inquisitorial in themselves they often had
a tendencyto try and allocate blame as in
the normal accusatorial court system. It
was essentialthat the correct facts were
presented rationally, and the engineer's
lawyer needed to be consulted to
produce, if necessary,a coherent picture
rather than somewhat random evidence
from individuals which might produce a
contradictory or muddled impression.
Professional negligence seemed to
causesome concern but if engineersand
professionals exercised skills at 'the
appropriate level and work was conscientiously carried out, negligence could
not be considered. It was an essential
however that one should not be diffident
about being inexperienced,if this was the
caseit must l;Iestated and advice sought.
On the other hand if this was not done,
and a mistake made, the question was
posed "Why should the employer insure
the
engineer against
professional
negligence?" He believed that the
engineerand the professionalshould offer
his skill as a service and not on the basis
of "I might get it wrong therefore insure
me." It was better for the engineerto get
it right himself and then be answerablefor
it.
The third speaker was Mr J.A.
Gaffney.
Director
of
Engineering
Services, West Yorkshire MCC, a
Vice-President of the Institution. In
"Public
Participation"
he
drew
attention to three levels of public participation, national, where broad policy with
regard to road, rail and air traffic was
debated; local county level where it was
possiblefor more local people to become
involved in such consultations as the
Structure Plan and, at the implementation
level,where specific inquiries were held to
deal with such development as a single
road scheme.
Doubtful and Totally Ineffective
Using an example of public participation
experience Mr Gaffney felt that public
participation at a local level was, to say
the least, doubtful and could be considered as totally ineffective. Experience
showed that no matter how great the
effort to inform the public of alternatives
and to seek their views, the number of
people actually taking the trouble to
express an opinion was minimal and
analysis of the views expressed often
showed a preference for the route
farthest away from that particular
JUNE 1977
individual. Nevertheless he felt that a
good level of consultation at Structure
Plan stage was absolutely vital to the
success of subsequent inquiries. At the
more local level there were, in his view,
opportunities for confusion in the minds
of the general public when trying to
differentiate between local plans, action
area plans, subject plans and specific
plans for proposals, but he was of the
view that there was a need to undertake
consultationsfor any scheme irrespective
of its si;;:eand for such proposals as local
traffic managementmeasures.
ment of Science had started an inquiry
into engineering institutions and the
reaction from various institutions was
entirely predictable - they did not want
to know. Mr Howie pointed out that the
professions were making a fundamental
error of judgement since it had a problem
of identity, from the continual complaint
of lack of status. The professions should
sei;;:ethe opportunities for this inquiry to
(a) seek their identity' through the effort
required in seeking answers to the
inquiry; [bl relatethis information directly
to the public; (c) express engineers'
disappointment about their role in society
and status with the public and (dl suggest
suitable remediesto the public. Engineers
should not run away from these
_.opportunities..
_
'On closed shops Mr Howie said that
the politician did not fully understand the
role of the engineeras a professional;this
Further Improvements
,
There had, in his view, been great strides
in recent years in improving the level of
public consultation but further improvements could be made,perhapsby giving a
better opportunity for the public to
suggest alternatives to those placed
before them, to question the need for the
scheme at all and to have spelt out to
them in more detail the consequencesof
making such a decision.
Dealing with various types of public
consultation, it was pointed out that
publicity was only one-way. communication and therefore of limited value. Twoway communication resulted in better
decisions.
Evidence at Inquiries
Mr Gaffney then dealt with the giving of
evidenceat inquiries. He stressed that at
the larger inquiries where
or legal
representatives for the Council were
involved, they should be fully briefed by
the engineerwho would himself probably
appearas expert witness. Bearing in mind
that such witnesses would probably be
subjected to cross-examination, he must
have a thorough knowledge of the topic
to be discussed. He must be professionally and technically competent. He was
required to be confident in response to
questions without being arrogant, patient
and understanding in listening to the
views of others, diplomatic when disagreeing but firm in rebutting and have
the interests of the people represented whether a private organisation or a public
body - firmly in mind. These requirements applied equally to small informal
inquiriesas to those of larger scale.
ac
,
,
THE JOURNAL
__
._--,.
......
-.--
. "Engineers should interest themselves
sufficiently in politics ...... " . ,..
Mr W. Howie, General Manager and
Public Affairs Correspondent, "New
Civil Engineer", concentrated on areas
in which the creators of reasonably
favourable public opinion were of importance to the engineering profession and
engineersthemselves.
The new CEI must be able to speak and
its views taken account of if it was to be
successful.CEI had always held the view
that they should be the voice of the
engineer, but it was essential that
engineerstook the opportunity to vote on
to CEI their representativesso that views
of ordinary engineers were reflected. Mr
Howie stressed that the right kind of
personmust be elected, one able to speak
and expressan opinion rather than to get
lost in committee work.
An Error of Judgement
The British Association for the Advance-
.u
could be blamed largely on the fact that
the engineer himself had not organised
his professionin a way which would bring
effective power to bear either on politicilUl
or employer. Until they did they would
remainat the mercy of these negotiations.
There were far too few engineers in
central and local government, the elected
member generallydid not understand the
technical/political detail sufficiently to be
able to properly debate such matter and
the engineer should attempt to redress
this imbalance. Within the political field
he drew attention to the Public Account
Committee investigators, it was disappointing that this Committee obtained
its information from the department
concerned rather than from the engineer
concerned. Engineers should interest
themselves sufficiently in politics and
make sufficient noise at this level to be
included in the debate by the Committee
in matters which affected them.
Mobilisation
Mr Howie also touched on public
inquiries, in his opinion these were
predominantly political and it was there-
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
23
fore necessary that the 'defence, as
mounted by the engineer, must also be
political. He must implicate himself in the
propagandist side of the argument,
providing information and the mobilisation
of public opinion so that the constructive
side of the inQuiry received as much
prominence as the destructive.
Discussion
Mr G.G. Affleck (Lincolnshire CCI asked
for advice on the dialogue between the
disciplines.
Both Mr Gane and Mr Macklin said
that they were convinced the answer lay
in establishing, from the outset, that the
project was a joint one in which everyone
concerned was eQually involved and
equally commined.
Mr Howie pointed out that " ...both
the political and legal systems were based
on confrontation and there might not be a
way around that."
Mr C.V. Underwood IDerbyshire CCl
wondered if there was a case for
including communications in the formal
training of the engineer.
Mr Gaffney thought not. He considered it would not necessarily help an '.
engineering "back room boy" to expose
him to a situation where his literate shortcomings could create a feeling of
insecurity.
Mr Macklin returned to "Plain,Words"
" ...people, unlike computers which
communicate in numbers, communicate
by using words and there is a deficiency
in the scientists...and the numerates in.
their use of words."
Mr Gane mentioned the front man
who had to stand up and present
information at a public meeting, generally
he had not done the homework and if his
staff failed to communicate with him he
was lost.
Mr Gane urged caution on brevity, to
say something starkly and briefly could
sometimes be misconstrued as being
churlish and aggressive.
Mr J. Raine, as a public relations
officer with Derbyshire CC regrened the
little use that engineers made of the
media.
Mr C.V. Underwood reminded the
audience that public advertising was very
expensive, local radio was particularly
eager to snap up news items, and this
was an opportunity to get valuable free
advertising space..
Mr J. Coleman, a public relations
officer. with Lincolnshire CC, hesitated.
to •offer any criticism but feared that
middle management did not understand
the importance of lening the public know
why, where and what they were doing.
Mr K. Weatherhogg was concerned
with the ethics of lobbying opinion.
Mr Howie had no doubts that lobbying
opinion was part of an engineer's job.
Mr Macklin saw the duty of all local
government officers, once the decision
had been taken, to advocate that course
-of action.
Mr Underwood disagreed. Advocacy
was the role of the advocate not an
engineer.
Mr Macklin replied that the engineer
had to recognise why the politician
24
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
ignored his advice, they might be matters
of judgement, but they were not matters
of engineering judgement and there
should be no embarrassment in the
engineer going out and saying "I think
this is the best route, but I am here
because my Council chose that one, and
they chose it for these reasons."
Mr M. Hayling (Redland RoadstoneJ
expressed sympathy with the engineer
and considered that his.status in society
had always been too low for his achievements.
Mr Gaffney felt that status was a
(Continued
personal thing and suggested that other
professions had similar problems, particularly where the professional was an
employed person. Years ago engineers
tended to be private individuals and had
status and position in society which put
them slightly independent of society
itself.
Mr Gane. in closing the discussion,
deprecated the general acceptance of
what constituted an engineer and
suggested the best solution perhaps was
to be like Mr Gaffney - a Director, not an
engineer'
from lNJf/fI 17)
.The Case of the Left-Hand Bend
balance superelevation. Otherwise, it is
argued, vehicles will drift towards the
.channel because most superelevation
would have to be applied on the straight.
But if. this drift is calculated for "hands'off" driving it is found to be small
compared to the deflection which drivers
choose to apply, so it is more likely to be
beneficial than harmful.
Another is appearance. It is claimed
that a curve looks sharper without an
entry spiral. Yet that, of course, is why
the purely circular curve curbs speed and
prevents accidents.
The aesthetic argument cannot, in any
case, be taken very seriously. Drivers may
derive aesthetic pleasure from roadside
vegetation, landscaping, distant views or
attractive bridges, but the subtleties of
spiral geometry seem unlikely to inspire
them even if they could be detected.
CONCLUSIONS
Tlie evidence presented in this Paper has
been. a mixture of fact and conjecture.
Both have censured transition spirals as,
at best, ineffectual and unnecessary; at
worst, potentially lethal. There is an
urgent need for this verdict to be
validated at nationat level. Not only
because many thousands who die Ot are
injured at bends each year might readily
be safeguarded; but also because there
seems to be no merit in continuing to
incorporate spirals in road curves. When
the verdict is sustained, the Case of the
Left-Hand Bend must be concluded. by
relegating spiral curves to history books.
There they can do no harm, and their
absurdity may amuse future engineers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Mr W.
Turner,' Director of Roads, Grampian
Regional Council, for permission to
publish this Paper, and also his colleagues
for their assistance.The views expressed
are those of the author, and not
necessarilyof the Council.
.
REFERENCES
III Thouless, R.H. Phenomenal Regression to the Real Object. British Jnl. of
Psychology. Vol.21 - 1931.
(21 Research of Road Traffic. Road
. ResearchLaboratory. HMSO 1965.pp 473
(3l Symposium on Geometric Road
Design Standards. OECD., 1976
(4) Leeming, J.J. Road Curvature and
Superelevation. Contractors Record and
Municipal Engineering,London 1951.
(Continued from lNJf/fI 21/
The Cash Value of Traffic Changes
However, for a fixed land use, say
countryside, both individual trip-end and
total value will vary with the total number
of trips arriving in a lone. Any speculative
relationship must be a decaying curve of
some kind, that is individual values will
decline with the total number of visitors
after some threshold value. Concern has
been voiced for increasing numbers in
various holiday resorts and the reduction
of individual value this creates. Investment in competing attractions is then a
clearly preferable solution to restriction in
trip-ends or to any reducti0!1 in accessibility investment. The optimum balance
of land use and accessibility investment
or, for example, measuring the return on
landscape investment will be hampered
by the difficulty of measurement or
regression analysis and perhaps the
adoption of environmental capacity
standards will be the only alternative
method for some time to come.
The method is actively under investigation in the Department of Transport
although currently the views expressed in
...
the Paperare not to DetaKen as.endorsed
by the Department. As examples become
available they will be published.
REFERENCES
(1l Lassiere,A. The Environmental Evaluation of Transport Plans at the Strategy
Level. October 1974.
(2l Clawson, M. Methods of Measuring
Demand for a Value of Outdoor Recreation. Resourcesfor the future. Reprint No.
10 Washington DC. (19591.
(3) Mansfield, M.W. The Estimation of
Benefits from Recreation Sites and the
Provision of a New Rec;reation Facility.
Regional Studies Vol.5, 1971, pp 56-59
(19711.
(41 Watkins, L.H. TowBrds a Scientific
Environmental Assessment Procedure for
Roads and Transport. Paper presented at
PATRAC Symposium, Canterbury 1975.
(51 Bridle, R.J. and Cleary, S.M. Accessibility and Traffic Synthesis. Journal of
the Institution of Highway Engineers,May
1973.
JUNE 19n
1
r
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LEGAL NOTES
The Community land Act and
the Highway Engineer
This is the second, and concluding part of
an article on The Community Land Act
and the Highway Engineer, the first part
was published in the March, 1977 issue of
the Journal.
This article deals with land acquisition,
and looks at, the cost, timing
and
mechanics ofthe procedure.
1. The Cost of Acquisition
In the present economic ,climate
no
highway engineer needs reminding that
the cost of land acquisition can often
determine whether a scheme proceeds at
all, is delayed or not, whether one route is
preferred to another, whether an improvement is carried out or not or some other
solution, such as a traffic management
scheme, chosen. The Community
land
Act is likely to make no difference to the
cost of acquisition for the time being in
cases where the planning position is such
that the only development that could be
carried out on the land is exempt under
the Act,
e.g. agricultural
works
or
permitted development under the GDO.
Nor will there be any difference where
permission is granted or likely to be
granted for excepted development under
the regulations e.g. for mineral workings,
or for small industrial and commercial
buildings. Nor will there be any difference
where, although the development is not
exempt or excepted, the transaction will
nevenheless be exempt from development land tax: at the time of going to
press it looks as if the Inland Revenue
intend that there should be an exemption
from Dl T for the first £10,000 of development value realised in a year by the
vendor, and there will be another exemption for private residences and grounds of
up to one acre. Nor will there be any
difference when the highway authority is
buying land which already has a high base
value e.g. because of a recent sale at or
near full market value, because in such a
case the development land tax recoverable by the authority will be comparatively
small. In these and similar cases where
there is likely to be no difference in the
cost of acquisition, the highway authoritY
may still need to get land dedicated under
a section 52 agreement, where the lever
of refusal of planning permission can be
legitimately applied. Big differences in the
cost of land acquisition are likely to arise
only on cleared sites in urban areas or on
white land in green field areas where the
purchase is completed after the second
appointed day, because the basis then for
compensation will be current use value.
That day however is still a long way,
possibly some years, ahead. There will be
special arrangements which are likely to
affect the cost of acquisition
in those
cases where the local authority buys land
from the Crown, as there is provision in
the Act for the Secretary-of-State
to pay
JUNE 19n
Part 2
grants to authorities in connection with
such transactions. No doubt regulations
making this clearer will come out in due
course. Similar special arrangemenis may
apply where one authority
buys from
another e.g. a highway autho'rity from a'
non-metropolitan
district council. lastly,
with effect from_ December ..13th, .1975,
there is a new basis. for" cenificates
of
appropriate alternative development. The
test in future is not whether development
of a panicular type could reasonably be
expected to get planning permission in
the absence of the scheme, but whether
the planning permission would actually
have been granted. Alternative development certificates are still hypothetical, but
not so hypothetical as they once .were,
and this could affect
land valuation,
especially
in those cases where
the
authority can definitely show that 'planning permission would not, as a matter of
fact, have been granted for residential,
commercial or industrial development.
2. The Timing
of an Acquisition
Will it be cheaper to delay an acquisition?
Clearly there will be no advantage in delay
where the development that could take
place on the land is exempt or excepted
development,
examples of which have
previously been given. Nor will there be
any advantage
in delay where
the
development
is on "White
Paper day
land" or on land which has a high base
value. Nor will there be any advantage in
delay where the transaction
will
be
exempt or largely exempt from development land tax, or where the transaction
for some reason or other may result in a
low tax yield. In many cases it may not be
possible for the authority to judge in
advance what the Dl T deduction will be,
because the assessment of that may
depend upon the personal tax position of
the vendor, which is dependent
upon
private information
which may not be
available to the authority.
Engineers may find that the need for a
particular
highway
scheme
may
be
accelerated by the making available for
development
of land which was previously releaseable in planning terms, but
for some reason such as the unwillingness
of a part owner to sell or to enter into a
section 52 agreement, has been delayed.
The Act will also make it easier for local
authorities to make compulsory purchase
orders in ord er to fac i1itate the ca rry ing
out
of
comprehensive
development,
particularly for housing, and this may
have the effect of speeding up development that might otherwise not have taken
place for some time. This in turn may
result in highway infrastructure
needing
to be provided at a much earlier date,
with possible consequential amendments
to TPPs.
THE JOURNAL
3. The Mechanics
of land
Acquisition
The land acquisition
and management
scheme for a county area will in most
cases determine which authority is to be
the acquiring authority under the Act. In
any given case the acquiring authority
',could
well
be th~ non-Metropolitan
district council, even though'the
county'
councilor
the Secretary-of-State
may be
the highway authority for the proposals
affecting
the land, If land is to be
assembled under the Act, the highway
authority will have to acquire from or
through the district council. If such an
acquisition
would come too late, the"
highway authority may have to consider
using its ordinary
acquisition
powers
under section 214 of the Highways Act
1959 direct, without waiting for the land
to
become
available
through
the
Community
land Act machinery.
This
could cause valuation and negotiation
problems, and problems of co-ordination
between the two authorities. There may
be advantages to the highway authority in
certain cases in allowing
the district
, council to acquire, because a compulsory
purchase order under the Acts is not
subject
to
the
normal
compulsory
purchase procedure: in particular the need
for the acquisition
and the merits of
compulsory
purchase
can
only
be
challenged on limited grounds, whereas a
compulsory
purchase order under the
Highways Act 1959 could cause the
whole of a road scheme to be subject to
greater scrutiny.
4. A New Tool for Comprehensive
Development
The Act is an addition to the machinery
for procuring the comprehensive development of green field sites and of what used
to be called comprehensive development
areas in built-up places. At present, comprehensive development can usually only
be secured through
the development
plan, ad hoc use of various statutory
powers, and section 52 agreements; in
futu re, it may be the loca I auth 0 rity itself
who does the development, roads and all,
ab initio; alternatively, as landowner, it
may be able to dispose of the land on
such terms as tie the developer down,
especially on provision of highways and
similar
infrastructure,
more
closely,
because its bargaining power as landowner is that much greater.
5. Planning
Application
Procedure
There will have to be alterations here.
This will affect highway engineers working for local authorities on planning liaison
and giving highway advice and directions
to the planners. It will also affect Depart(Co,mnued on oage 281
OF THE INSTITUTION
OF HIGHWAY
ENGINEERS
25
,
11
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In 1907 the RAC ~ us thi~ for keeping.
. ", the dust Out of their eyes
,
Fouryears after Henry Fordfounded his
Motor ComPany,and was gearing up the
, WesternWorld to buy the Model T, R. S.
Clore developed the first dust-free roed
surface dressinQ-TAReO; The RAe, whose
motorists hod hod dust in their eyes for for
too long, were impressed enough to
award usa trophy. So we hod quite a start
on other makers of rood s,urfacing
eLAREGRIP
has resurfaced over.40'miles of
Merseyside's principal roods. CLAREGRIP
producesa sideway force co-efficient
of over 70, still a:veroging more than 63,
after 4 years. CLAREGRIP
effectively fills
depressionsup to 12 mm.
ClAREGRIPoutla:;ts its rivals, although
initially costinga 1i11le
more. Ask us about
our range: it will open your eyes.
aLA · EG I'
mat~rials and 70 yearsJaler we're still
ahead on anti-skid and rood surface
maintenance.
look at the facts. ClAREGRIP,developed
over7years'and:in excessofa~quarter_
million square metres actually laid.
_.__.~ • __~
26
THE HIGHWAY ENGINEER
,-I
\>
•
-"
ontiom TARCO
R. S..Clare & Co. StanhopeSt, liverpooll8 SRQ.
Telephone: 051-709 2902 Telex: 628033
70 years
- -
_._
~_
-
- ~
-
-
-.--
--'-.l
JUNE
1977
.j
New pl~nt, equipment and materials
DOPE KETTLE
,T
Brlstowes, part of the Braham Miller
Group. Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, have introduced a new 250 gallon
gas-fired heater for pipeline bitumen into
their range of products for the construction in~ustry.
A feature of the new di:iPekenle is the
burner assembly unit with main burners,
pilot burner and all operation and safety
controls, contained In a single assembly
enabling swift and easy insertion or withdrawal beneath the pan. This is achieved
by slackening only four clamps and
unscrewing the main gas union. In the
event of a breakdown during operation a
spare burner can be quickly inserted or
simple, on-site repairscarried out.
Three main burners run the complete
length of the pan and each has its own
flame failure device. The burners operate
on propane at 5 psi and have a short
flame characteristic. Each has individual
high/low and shut-off control valves. For
"holding" mix heat the outer burners can
be closed down leaving the centre burner
on control. A conveniently positioned
toughened glass viewing window enables
observation of pilot and main burners.
The 250 gallon "U"-shaped pan is of
welded construction formed in %ths thick
.mild steel. Scaling in the pan is minimised
by a power-driven heavy chain-type
stirrer, the shaft of which is driven
through a Croft worm reduction gearbox,
flat belt and pulley drive.
CONCRETE SLIPFORMER
The Barber Green Co, Aurora, Illinois
60507. United States of America. have
recently introduced the Veri-Former. a
new dimension in concrete slip-forming.
The model UF-11 is designed.for productivity and versatility and offers more
features for low cost and high performance. Among the variety of jobs for which
it is recommended are kerbs, guners,
partial kerbs, pavements and median
barrier walls. It will pour slabs up to 8ft
wide.
The exclusive symmetrical 3-track
system allows unprecedented radius
curves as tight as 10ft both on inside and
outside curves for great manoeuvrability.
The centre line pour concept provides a
natural balanceand simplicity of operation
because only a single steering sensor is
required.
In the normal position the machine can
pour barrier walls up to 42in high; by
repositioning the mounting brackets, the
clearance can be increased to 6Oin.
Maximum slipforming speed of 25 FPM
will -handle maximum discharge from
ready-mix trucks for most applications.
Independentcontrol of the symmetrical
suspension system provides flexibility in
offsening the machine for varying grade
JUNE 1!rn
Bristowes 250gallon gas-fired
dope kettle
conditions. The Honeywell automatic
.proportional control system provides
accurate grade, slope and steering for all
pouring and trimming jobs. A 70 gallon
on-board water system permits convenient on-the-job cleaning of the
machine.
VIBRATING ROLLER
A new, medium-range CEL Hydroroller,
double-drum vibrating roller has been
introduced in the UK by Newman
Industrial Controls Ltd., the Newman
Industries company of Stonehouse,
Gloucestershire.
Called the Mark 3 Hydroroller it
embodies some new design features
which improve performance, safety,
simplicity and maintenance.
Sioning into the range between the
Mark 2 single-drum and Mark 4M
twin-drum the new model incorporates a
simplified hydraulic circuit, has impressive
gradient climbing performance and
double-braking system. The hydraulic
transmission permits the speed to be
infinitely varied between 0-3.2km/h in
both forward and reverse motion. This
allows the degree of compaction to be
selectedto suit each application, el1abling
the job to be completed in fewer passes.
Operator control is from e single stem
with two levers; one for direction/speed
and braking control, and the other for
engaging/disengaging the vibrator. The
stem can be pivoted upwards for more
compact stowage and transportation.
Unlike chain or gear drives the hydraulic
transmission allows engine protection
againstsite overload or stall conditions by
meansof a relief valve, which automatically cuts in to reduce strain and possible
engine damage.
CONVEX SURFACE ROAD SIGNS
Safety Research Services. Safety
House, Norwood Avenue. Shipley.
West Yorkshire have introduced a range
of convex surface road signs believed to
be safer than conventional ones.
Conspicuity is improv~d, and injury and
damage reduced. The 4ft-6in bollard
conforms to Worboys "eye-level" height
recommendations, and the 4in diameter
column gives 24 hour clear view in all
The nfMI Mark 3 CEL
Hydroroller shown
compacring earth
infill
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF HIGHWAV ENGINEERS
Z1
"
"
7-'1
particularly local authorities, who are now
specifying high visibility garments for
those w.orking in potentially dangerous
situations. The quality and design of the
new garment is to a high standard, the
accent being on long life, ease of
laundering and smart appearance.
The range is backed by stock service.
.~
6
1977
REFLECTIVESHEETING
Convex surface road signs from Safety
Research Services
weather and driving conditions. Other
advantagesof the new signs are that the
web-foot enables a gradual progressive
bend without damage or lighting failure
under-impact; the column can be capped
as an illuminated post, or can mount all
aspect signs of any size and the convex
sign is mounted with warning lamp at the
Worboy's recommendedeye-level. .
The manufacturers point out that the
sil:ln frame is designed to bolt on the full
range of sign faces, up to 36in, the sign
post sockets into a waste tyre frame,
making it easy to handle, stable and
shock absorbing and the tyre assembly
gives sign protection, relectivity and
efficient and positive display.
HIGH VISIBILITY SUITS
Alexandra Overalls ltd., Alexandra
House, King Square. Bristol BS2 8ET,
have introduced a high visibility orange
boiler suit to their well-known Workwear
range of industrial clothing.
This meets the needs of customers,
High visibility orange boiler suit from
Alexandra Overalls Ltd
-
Continuous product development by 3M
(UK) Ltd., 380-384 Harrow
Road.
London W9, has led to the introduction
of a new whiter Scotchlite Engineer
Grade reflective sheeting. Daytime
appearanceis significantly improved while
night-time relectivity is equally as good.
This new shade of reflective sheeting will
give better legend colours in daytime on
traffic signs, and improved contrast with
other colours.
All BSI requirements are met by the
new sheeting, which is available in both
heat-activated adhesive and pressuresensitive forms and designated No. 2290
and 3290 respectively. Previous sheeting,
numbers2270 and 3270 are superseded.
THE QUEEN'S AWARDS TO
INDUSTRY - 1971
A total of 125Queen'sAwards to Industry
were announced on April 21st, 1977,the
occasion of the 51st birthday of HM the
Queen. This is the largest number
awarded since the inception of the
scheme. Of the Awards 106 were for
export achievement and 19 for technological achievement. A record number of
Awards were made to companies exporting to the Middle East market, particularly
in the contracting and construction
industries.
Among the winners in the export field
were:
(Continued
THE HIGHWAY
ENGINEER
I!
J
,I
from fJ8ge 25J
The Community land Act and the
Highway Engineer
ment of Transport engineerswho have to
advise and give directions to local
planning authorities on development
affecting motorways and trunk roads. At
an early stage in the administrative
planning process applications will have to
be divided into those which involve
relevant development and the rest. In the
relevant development cases, if planning
permission is granted, acquisition may
follow, and once there is a duty order in
force with respectto that type of development, acquisition must follow. Acquisition
may also be a possibility where the
application is for planning permission for
non-relevant development, because there
are powers to acquire land to facilitate
other development. Clearly it would be
improper for the determination of a
28
Sir William Halcrow and Partners,
whose third award this is. In .the three
years May, 1974 to April, 1976 the
company's gross overseas earnings
increased six-fold. During the relevant
Award period the single largest project
ever handledby the firm was entrusted to
the Partnership, this' was the (1,400m
harbour development at A I Jubail on the
Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. They have
also been involved in the expansion of the
Port of Jeddah.
George Wimpey & Co Ltd. Overthe last
three yearsthe company has'expanded its
operations in the Middle East, Canada,
the Caribbean and Nigeria. The value of
the company's exports and overseas
earnings has more than trebled.
Taylor Woodrow International
is a
member of the Taylor Woodrow Group,
with its main operating areas in the
Middle East and West Africa. It is
responsible for the design, obtaining and
management of major overseas building
and engineering projects. The value of .its
exports and provision of services have
more than trebled over a three year
period.
Other winners in the export field were
Cohen
Bros
(Electricall,
Uighting
columnsl; Coles Cranes; Construction
Products
Division
Armco;
Foster
Wheeler {Contractors}; Kennedy and
Donkin (Consulting Engineers); TAC
Construction Materials and Sir Bruce
White Wolfe Barry and Partners.
planning application to be influenced by
the financial and' other considerations
involved in acquisition: but the existence
of highway proposalsand the opportunity
to implement them after acquisition under
the Act or with the aid of powers given
under the Act is likely in practice to
influence planning decisions. The highway engineer may also need to advise on
the desirability of electing to acquire
where notice of election has.been served _
if highway strategy is relevant. For thi~
purpose he may also be brought in at the
planning application stage for advice from
the highways point of view.
NB In the article published in the March
issue the sum of £15,000 quoted in the
third line from the bottom of column 2 in
the Paper should have read £150.000.
JUNE 19n
'I
I
f'
,~
,
"
Rotate'"'
clean your Drains,
Sewers, Pipelines
with GO Cleaning Rods
You can insure against blocked drains and surcharging
with General Descaling sewer and drain-cleaning
rotating rods. Much longer pipe lengths can be hand
and power rodded - up to 100 yards from one point by
hand, much more by power.
Chrome - vanadium steel rods assist ease of operation
and they last a lifetime.
Send for full details. There's GO equipment to meet
every rodding problem.
GENERAL DESCALING
CO. LTD.
WorksoP. Notts.
England S80 2PY
Tel: Worksop (0909) 3211/6
Telex: 54159
All the equipment
you need ~easy,
economical
,
,"
maintenance of
footpaths & paving.
Leopave makes it that simple to carry out
maintenance on crazed or fretted bituminous surfaces, and
on concrete, too.
Ready for use, Leopave can be applied cold by
wetted squeegee and brush, forming a thin but durable
film which dries rapidly 10 a continua us coating.
It covers large areas at low cost, is available in
block, green and red ..
Write for technical details and countrywide
dist ribution points.
The Marketing
Department,
Lion ~mulsions Limited,
St. Nicholas House, ,
Hereford, HR4 088.
Telephone:
0432 55401.
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Stothert & PItt
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Stother1& Pitt Umited
PO Box 25 , Bath BA2 3DJ, England Telephone Bath (0225) 314400
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