Category: Transportation Engineering

How Do You Know What Roads are Good Candidates for Mill and Overlay?

By Mark Petersen, PE Structural layer coefficient. Excavation below subgrade. K values. Cold in-place recycling. If those terms aren’t familiar to you, not to worry. Transportation engineers are well-versed in the vocabulary of road repairs, and you can rest assured that what’s happening on the other side of those orange barrels is for the benefit… Read More »

Factors Affecting the Lifespan of Paved Roadways: Construction Materials, Temperature Extremes, and Drainage

Across the country, one-third of our highways and major streets are in poor condition, according to TRIP, a nonprofit transportation research group. Persistent potholes and recurring ruts wreak havoc with our commutes, impose financial burdens from automobile repairs, inflict significant injury, prompt contentious lawsuits, and account for roughly one-third of deaths occurring annually on American… Read More »

On the Road Again: Guardrails Serve to Protect, Deflect

By Mark Petersen, PE The No. 1 goal of every driver is to stay on the road. But sometimes, due to circumstances beyond our control (and some that are in our control), vehicles can go astray. Thanks to guardrails, many potentially tragic crashes instead result in just the inconvenience of a fender bender and insurance… Read More »