Citation

Millard R. Transp. Res. Rec. 1979; 702: 1-10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper discusses the historical developments in, growing interest for, and current problems of highway engineering. Over the past fifty years, four stages can be distinguished. First, the aim was to provide the roads needed for the rapidly expanding numbers of road vehicles, and primary need for expertise was in road building. This great increase in man's mobility was accompanied by a scourge of road accidents, which spawn a growing concern for road safety with new forms of professional specialization in which highway engineers were joined by law enforcement officers, statisticians, and medical men. The third branch of the profession produced transport economists and planners with new fields of expertise such as: benefit-cost analysis, origin and destination surveys, mathematical modelling, and economic and physical planning. In the past twenty years, the growing concern has been about the impact on road transport on man's living environment and on the world's energy resources. The number of highway engineers has increased ten fold during that fifty year period. In the remainder of the paper, the author concentrates on three particular aspects of highway engineering that are problem areas: soil mechanics as applied to highway engineering, bituminous road surfacings, and economic evaluation of highway projects.