Lyell Collection
Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by West, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications; 1995; v. 10; p. 245-251;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.ENG.1995.010.01.21
© 1995 Geological Society of London

Section 3: Highway construction

Petrographical examination of road construction materials

G. West

Former Head of Aggregates Section, Materials and Construction Division, Highways Group, Transport Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG 11 6AU, UK

Petrographical examination of road construction materials has been employed at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in a wide range of research applications. These include the search for polish-resistant roadstones for surfacings, research into ‘clean, hard and durable’ aggregates for use in bitumen macadam roadbase, and in the investigation of alkali-silica reaction in concrete road pavements. After briefly reviewing earlier work, the paper describes these applications andconcludes that petrographical examination of road construction materials is most effective when it is made with a specific objective in mind, rather than in an attempt to provide generalized information, Some remarks are made about the need to standardize rock nomenclature in petrographical description.