CPD - Highway Construction & Road Maintenance: Techniques & Materials

Many people in the UK are relying on their lives on the road. Even though they travel using a car, public transport, or even a bike. However, the road conditions in every country differ. There are places with routes that are rundown. This makes people very unhappy because it may create problems. Hence, providing better highway construction and road maintenance can help to reduce the concerns.

The UK Department for Transport has created a policy responsibility for highway construction and road maintenance. They even provide over £1.5 billion to the local authorities for maintaining the good condition of the infrastructure. However, the result of this funding has not yet been announced. This is because of the lack of knowledge on how to do the correct maintenance. This course provides you with the answer. 

What highway construction means

Highway construction is the building process that involves planning, designing, and building roadways aimed at heavy and freeway traffic. This process involves complex engineering tasks like surveying, digging activities, and building the layers of the road surfaces, which may include bridges and tunnels. It aims to create a strong and safe transportation system. They are always managed by the government authorities that collaborate with construction companies.

The government's management of highway construction and road maintenance can provide a better life for its citizens. It can improve economic growth and reduce the traffic accidents that usually happen on the roads. The government usually does it by using the funding from the central government that is allocated to the local authorities for a certain area. This is because they are responsible for managing the infrastructure within their region. 

In the UK, there are two classifications of highway construction and road maintenance spending. It includes the capital maintenance and the revenue maintenance. The capital maintenance is mainly for the structural renewal of highway assets like roads, footways, bridges, drainage, and lighting. Revenue maintenance is the funding that covers the routine work to keep the highway in good condition. It can maintain the reactive measures to repair the defects.

Why is highway construction and road maintenance important?

Highway construction and road maintenance are important because society relies on these infrastructures to access several parts of life, including jobs, healthcare, education, and social connections. By maintaining a good road infrastructure, it can contribute to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits. Road infrastructures become the most important public assets. 

With all these good things in mind, the decision-makers and policymakers should understand the importance of infrastructure maintenance. If the roads are poor, it may lead to mobility problems. These issues will significantly impact vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates, cause poverty, poor health, and more. As a result, there will be changes in business growth and how people live.

Course Brief

Highways and roads play a significant part in our lives. This is because they help people to connect with the world through transportation systems. However, these infrastructures can also create several problems that may cause harm to everyone, including people and nature. Having good highway construction and road maintenance can prevent the damage from happening.

You will need several elements to create good highway construction and road maintenance. These include the materials, procedures, local rules, techniques, best practices, and more. Learning about this topic can be useful in maintaining the infrastructure quality. This is because regular inspections and different types of maintenance processes are required.

Curriculum Outline

Maintaining structures is important to ensure the efficiency and safety of a transportation system. The highway construction and road maintenance course will walk you through infrastructure management. This will help you to show the proactive strategies that can minimise construction costs and problems while meeting sustainable goals. Below are the topic materials you will learn through the course, such as:

• Understanding the basic knowledge of highway construction and how to upkeep it.
• Identifying the different types of highway construction and road maintenance.
• Developing complex road maintenance programmes, plans, rules, and common problems.
• Learning the inspection and assessment procedures in highway construction.
• Exploring the best techniques in maintaining highway construction.

Prerequisite Qualifications

The course of highway construction and road maintenance is for those who work in the government and the construction industry, especially in the public infrastructure sector. It aims to help them widen their knowledge and reduce several possible problems that may happen during the maintenance process. However, people from all backgrounds can still join the class as it doesn’t require any specific educational background or relevant experience. This programme is open to everyone. 

Different types of highway construction and road maintenance 

There are different types of highway construction and road maintenance, such as pothole patching, clearing pavement, clearing ditches and culverts, proper drainage, and traffic signs and road marking repairs. These types have different ways to do maintenance because the causes of each vary depending on several factors that you may face while riding a vehicle. 

Understanding these types enables you to be more aware of accidents and do correct maintenance based on road problems. Doing so can help you to improve people’s quality of life. Below are the different types of highway construction and road maintenance.

Pothole patching

A pothole is a road condition where there is a small or big hole in the road surface that may cause highly dangerous accidents. This hole usually begins with small cracks but can widen deep if it is not fixed right away. A pothole may occur in all road types but is prone to asphalt surfacing. This damage is caused by a small surface crack, water, and traffic. Pothole patching can help cover the pit by filling up the ditch with patching materials and removing the rocks and trash.

Clearing pavement

This is another type of highway construction and road maintenance that includes a road cleaning process by removing certain objects that may be dangerous to the drivers. For example, you remove any objects like fallen trees, debris, snowploughs, salt, and various parts of a car accident from the street. A driver may face an accident if these objects are not cleared off the pavement. 

Clearing ditches and culverts

Ditches and culverts are important for the irrigation system. It can help with flooding issues, but if there is something that blocks the ditches and culverts, it can disrupt how it works and make a dangerous problem for a driver. Therefore, these two should be cleared regularly for safe travel. 

Proper drainage

Making proper drainage can also contribute to highway construction and road maintenance. It is similar to the clearing ditches and culverts process, but this method includes a drainage system to release the water that may block the road, as it can result in flooding. If you don’t have proper drainage and are facing flooding, you may make a temporary road closure to keep the vehicles away from the flooded road.

Traffic sign and road marking repair

Traffic signs and road marking repair are important for preventing damage on the road, as they give instructions on what to do and where to go while driving. These are visual symbols that are usually put at the side and on the surface of the road. Repairing traffic signs usually includes installing new signs, and marking repairs means reprinting the roadway lines if they have faded over time.

Best techniques of highway construction and road maintenance with CCM

Effective highway construction and road maintenance can change how people live as they help people transport themselves and their goods from one place to another. However, during the transportation process, there might be problems you may face because of insufficient road and highway construction. Therefore, preserving these two correctly can make the transportation process go well.

In response to this, the College of Contract Management (CCM) created several courses, including this highway construction and road maintenance programme. This way, CCM aims to help students with beginner and advanced experience take care of the road infrastructure. Therefore, they will be equipped with knowledge and skills to create a safe road infrastructure for people.

This course provides comprehensive knowledge about highway construction and road maintenance. However, we are still working on the arrangements for the speakers and materials, so we will announce the course schedule separately. With this in mind, you can contact our team to help you with further details and assistance. This is because we aim to provide you with our best services.