The Motorway Achievement

The creation of the UK motorway network in the second half of the 20th century facilitated a dramatic improvement in the mobility of people and goods and contributed greatly to the prosperity we enjoy today. Frontiers of knowledge and practice, has been produced for the Motorway Archive Trust by a team under the overall direction of Professor Ron Bridle, former Chief Highway Engineer at the Department for Transport.

This authoritative volume comprises eight chapters, each of which was compiled by a leading contributor to the motorway programme. It opens with an overview of the role of the Department for Transport in directing the motorway programme. Following on from this, chapter 2 describes the crucial role of computers in facilitating the motorway programme. In chapter 3, analytical procedures used in the production of the overall alignment of new motorways to minimise construction cost and satisfy the geometric standards needed to provide a safe road system are examined. Earthworks and drainage, pavements and bridges, are discussed in chapters 4, 5 and 6, and in chapter 7 the view of contractors on construction of the motorways are presented. The final chapter of this informative book provides a review of traffic control and communication on the motorway system and concludes with a brief look to the future of motorways.

Taken together the chapters provide a set of contrasting first hand accounts of the creation of the motorway system, the problems encountered, the solutions adopted and the lessons learned for future motorway development.