Paving Our Ways: A History of the World’s Roads and Pavements

Description

Paving Our Ways covers the international history of road paving in an interesting, readable and technically accurate way. It provides an overview of the associated technologies in a historical context. It examines the earliest pavements in Egypt and Mesopotamia and then moves to North Africa, Crete, Greece and Italy, before a review of pavements used by the Romans in their magnificent road system. After its empire collapsed, Roman pavements fell into ruin. The slow recovery of pavements in Europe began in France and then in England. The work of Trésaguet, Telford and McAdam is examined. Asphalt and concrete slowly improved as paving materials in the second part of the 19th century. Major advances occurred in the 20th century with the availability of powerful machinery, pneumatic tyres and bitumen. The advances needed to bring pavements to their current development are explored, as are the tools for financing, constructing, managing and maintaining pavements. The book should appeal to those interested in road paving, and in the history of engineering and transport. It can also serve as a text for courses in engineering history. Contents Preface: What is a road pavement? Authors 1 How pavements are affected by traffic and weather 2 Early pavements in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete and Greece 3 Making pavements using local materials and simple equipment 4 The essential paving properties of soil, sand and stones 5 Paving ways through swamps and bogs 6 Roman pavements – a major advance in pavement quality and extent 7 Pavement management processes from medieval Europe 8 Trésaguet and Telford lead a pavement renaissance in France and England 9 McAdam invents a major new pavement using broken stones 10 Using masonry methods to produce pavements for heavy traffic 11 The essential paving properties of bitumen, asphalt and cement 12 Three unique pavement engineers – Metcalf, McAdam and Mountain 13 The first asphalt pavements, produced in 19th-century France and England 14 A new form of pavement using thin, sprayed bituminous surfacings 15 Asphalt paving produced to carry 20th-century truck traffic 16 The design of asphalt pavements – a predominantly American initiative 17 The 20th-century development of concrete pavements 18 Chemical and physical means of modifying local materials for paving 19 Devices and methods for measuring and evaluating pavement performance 20 Full-scale testing of pavements to validate designs using local materials 21 Possible future pavements, with an emphasis on recycling 22 How pavements could be funded and operated in future years Timeline Bibliography End Notes Index