Задание для заочников ФТК 1 курс 1 семестр.
I. Reading materials.
Text A.
Introduction.
Modern highways are complex engineering structures. They are intended for high-speed motor traffic.
Therefore, hey must be designed and constructed in such a way that the performance characteristics of
vehicles may be effectively realized under normal conditions of engine operation. Their design should provide
for the comfort and safety of transportation.
Road jobs are essentially labour-consuming, demanding the extensive transportation of large quantities
of materials. Thus, for the construction of 1 km of a motor road with asphalt-macadam surfacing on a gravel
base, in flat country, it is necessary to transport about 7,500 tons of sand and gravel and excavate up to 12,000
cum of soil, transporting it for a distance of perhaps several hundred metres. Stone aggregates used in the road
pavement often have to be hauled from afar.
The road-building operations are very complicated because of the extensive length of the construction
site - often tens and hundreds' of kilometres. This requires the introduction of special techniques end methods
of work organization.
As in other fields of construction, road building requires the application of industrialization techniques
on a wide scale -the use of prefabricated reinforced concrete structures. Because of this, road construction and
the building of artificial structures form complementary part of the same constructional programme.
The mechanization of read construction has grown immensely, especially in such operations as
earthworks, sand and gravel quarrying, atone crushing and completion of asphalt macadam and cement
concrete surfacing.
The solutions of road construction problems are closely connected with those of reduction of cost and
the improvement of the quality of the work.
To ensure the nest economical design of the road it is necessary to assimilate the experience gained in
the carrying out of similar projects. It is very important to apply the latest techniques developed in the fields of
science and engineering to the construction and analysis of road projects.
Text B.
History of roads and highways. Part I.
The first roads. Roads are so old that we are not sure of the origin of the word road Most experts think
it came from the Middle English word rode, meaning a mounted journey. This may have come from the old
English road, from the word ridan, meaning to ride.
In England, hundreds of years ago, certain main roads were higher than the surrounding ground. This
was because earth was thrown from the side ditches toward the center. Because they were higher, they were
called highways. These roads were under protection of the king's men and were open to all travelers. Private
roads were known as byways.
The first roads in the world probably followed trails and paths made by animals. These trails and paths
led from feeding grounds to watering places. People followed these trails to hunt for animals. People also
made their own trails and paths in searching for water, food, and fuel. Explorers followed these trails as they
investigated new lands.
Early roads were built in the Near East soon after the wheel was invented. This was about 3000 B.C. As
trade developed between villages, towns, and cities, other paths, or trade routes, were made. One such early
system of roads was the Old Silk Trade Route which ran over 6,000 miles (9,700 kilometers), connecting
China with Rome and pre-Christian Europe. Merchants used this ancient route to carry Chinese silk across
Turkestan, India, and Persia.
The first road markers were piles of stones at intervals. Trails through forests were marked by blazing
trees, or cutting a piece from the bark of the tree.
The Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Etruscans all built roads. But the first really great road builders were
the Romans. They knew how to lay a solid base and how to give the road a pavement of flat stones. The
Romans knew that the road must slope slightly from the center toward both sides to drain off water. This gave
the road a crown. The Roman road builders knew also that there must be ditches along the sides of the road to
carry water away. Roman roads were built mainly to get soldiers from one part of the empire to another. These
roads ran in almost straight lines and passed over hills instead of cutting around them. The Romans built more
than 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) of roads in their empire and some of them still are in use.
From the 500's to the 1800's, most roads in Europe were merely clearings in the forests. Cobblestone
paving was used in some urban areas. There was little reason to build good roads, because most of the travel
was on horseback. The cleared way was sometimes quite wide, so that robbers hiding in the woods could not
leap out suddenly upon unsuspecting travelers. Later, when more wheeled vehicles, such as wagons, came into
use, the roads of Europe still remained in poor condition. Usually the roads were made up of one mudhole
after another. Roads with smooth surfaces were rare in England until the 1600's.
In South America, from the 1200's to the 1500, the Inca Indians built a network of 10,000 miles (16,000
kilometers) of roads. The roads connected their cities.
The first highway department was established in France in 1716. This department built Europe's finest
gravel and stone roads of the 1700's using methods developed by Pierre M.J. Tresaguet, an engineer.
In the early 1800's, the person who did more for European roadbuilding than anyone else up to that time
was John Loudon McAdam, a Scottish engineer. McAdam is remembered for the surface he developed for
roads. This kind of surface, called macadam is still used today. McAdam also stressed the importance of
proper drainage to keep roads on a solid foundation See McAdam, John Loudon; Industrial Revolution
(Roads).
Text C.
History of roads and highways. Part II.
Inca roads of South America. Across the Atlantic, the period witnessed the rise of another notable
road-building empire, that of the Incas. The Inca road system extended from Quito, Ecuador, through Cuzco,
Peru, and as far south as Santiago, Chile. It included two parallel roadways, one along the coast about 2,250
miles in length, the other following the Andes about 3,400 miles in length with a number of cross connections.
At its zenith, when the Spaniards arrived early in the 16th century, a network of some 14,000 miles of road
served an area of about 750,000 square miles (1,940,000 square kilometres) in which lived nearly 10 million
people. The network was praised by 16th-century explorers as superior to that in contemporary Europe.
The Andes route was remarkable. The roadway was 25 feet wide and traversed the loftiest ranges. It
included galleries cut into solid rock and retaining walls built up for hundreds of feet to support the roadway.
Ravines and chasms were filled with solid masonry, suspension bridges with wool or fibre cables crossed the
wider mountain streams, and stone surfacing was used in difficult areas. The steeper gradients were
surmounted by steps cut m the rocks Traffic consisted entirely of pack animals (llamas) and people on foot;
the Inca lacked the wheel. Yet they operated a swift foot courier system and a visual signaling system along
the roadway from watchtower to watchtower.
Early American roads. The first settlers in North America found a wilderness. They located their
homes along the rivers and bays and used the water for transportation. As new settlers went inland, they
usually built crude roads to the nearest wharf. Until after the War of 1812, people traveled mainly on foot or
on horseback.
The first extensive hard-surfaced road was completed in 1794. This road was called the Lancaster (Pa.)
Turnpike. It was 62 miles (100 kilometers) long and was surfaced with hand-broken stone and gravel. In the
next 40 years, many turnpikes were built. Most surfaces were of earth, gravel, or broken stone. Some roads
were covered with logs or planks, laid crosswise. Where logs were used, the roads were called corduroy roads.
Both corduroy roads and plank roads were very bumpy.
In 1830, it looked as though a great period of road-building was about to begin. But in that year, the
steam locomotive was successfully operated and rapid development of railroads began. Many people became
convinced that the railroad was the best means for travel over long distances. From 1830 to 1900, there was
little change in the surfacing materials for roads and highways. Even in cities, only wood blocks, brick, and
cobblestones were used for surfacing roads.
Modern roads. By 1900, there was a growing demand for good roads. Roads that extended a short
distance were built in the United States to give farmers access to the railroads, which hauled farm products.
The first freeway was completed in 1921 in the Grunewald, a forest area in Berlin, Germany. This road, which
was 6 miles (10 kilometers) long, served as a route for suburban commuters and as a race track. In 1925, the
United States adopted its system of numbering highways, which was suggested by Wisconsin highway
engineer A. R. Hirst in 1917. Few U.S. highways were built from the Great Depression of the 1930'з until the
end of World War II in 1945.
In 1934, Germany began building its Autobahn (expressway) system. This extensive system featured
divided highways, grade-separated interchanges, and well-designed service areas. A section of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, the first U.S. freeway, opened in 1940. This section ran from Middlesex (near
Carlisle) to Irwin. In California, the Arroyo Seco Parkway opened in 1940 between Pasadena and Los
Angeles. The Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Arroyo Seco Parkway soon demonstrated that the population
quickly grew in areas where freeways were built.
In the 1950's, many United States industry and civic groups joined in supporting highway improvement
programs. The federal interstate highway system, which was begun in 1956, was nearly complete by the early
1990's. Engineers today continue to seek ways of improving highway safety through better construction and
improving traffic flow through the use of computers.
Text D.
The Master Road Builders.
Gradual technological improvements in the 17-th and 18-th centuries increased commercial travel,
improved vehicles and the breeding of better horses. Rural roads became impassable in wet weather. These
factors created an increasing demand for better roads.
Up to this time roads similar to the Roman roads were built. However, owing to a scarcity of a suitable
material and the high cost of labour, the amount of stone material used was progressively reduced and the
work was carried out less thoroughly. Research was carried out to find out more rational methods of using
stone for pavement construction which would reduce both the amount of labour and the cost. And in the last
half of the 18-th century the fathers of modern road building and road maintenance appeared in France and
Britain.
Tresaquet. In France in 1764, Pierre Tresaquet, became an engineer of bridges and roads in Limoges.
He developed an entirely new type of relatively light road surface, based on theory that the underlying natural
formation should support the load.
His standard cross section, 18 feet wide, consisted of an eight-inch-thick course of uniform stones laid
edgewise on the natural formation and covered by a two-inch layer of broken stone. The second layer was
topped with one-inch layer of smaller broken stone. In order to maintain surface level Tresaquest's pavement
was placed in an excavated trench— a technique that made drainage a difficult problem.
McAdam. The greatest advance came from John McAdam, born in 1756 in Scotland. He reached major
heights in his road-building career after 1804 when he was appointed general surveyor for Bristol, then the
most important port city in London. The roads leading to Bristol were in poor condition. There he showed that
traffic could be supported by a relatively thin layer of small, single-sized pieces of broken stone placed and
compacted on a well-drained natural formation and covered by an impermeable surface of smaller stones.
Mc Adam is famous for the surface he developed for roads. This kind of surface, called macadam, is still
used today. Mc Adam also stressed the importance of proper drainage to keep roads on a solid foundation.
Drainage was essential to the success of Mc Adam’s method and he required the pavement to be elevated
above the surrounding surface. The structural layer of broken stone was eight inches thick and used stone of
two or three inches maximum size laid in layers and compacted by traffic. The top layer was 2 inches thick,
using three-quarter-inch stone to fill surface voids between the large stones. Continuous maintenance was
essential.
Russian engineers were the first ones to construct granular surfacing laid on sand base which are now
widely used in other countries. The use of a sand base permitted the cost of construction to be reduced and the
removal of water from the subgrade to be facilitated. It helped to increase subgrade stability.
Figure 2
Comprehension check
2. Answer the following questions:
When did a period of intensive road-building begin in Europe?
Why was there a great demand for better roads?
What problem did the first engineers try to solve?
When did the first road builders appear in the world?
What was the main idea of Tresaquet’s method of road pavement construction?
What kind of surface did Mc Adam suggest?
What was essential in road pavement construction in Mc Adam’s opinion?
What method of road pavement construction was proposed by Russian engineers?
Language Focus
3. Match the following words with their synonyms (use the text).
1. permit
a. link
2. course
b. raise
3. connect
c. allow
4. elevate
d. the same
5. vary
e. layer
6. amount
f. quantity
7. similar
g. change
4. Match the following words with their opposites (use the text).
1. light
a. expensive
2. cheap
b. thick
3. thin
c. under
4. above
d. heavy
5. entirely
e. shortage
6. scarcity
f. success
7. advance
g. fully
5. State the part of speech of the following words and translate them:
wide – widen – width – widely – widening;
deep – deepen – depth – deeply – deepening;
high – heighten – height – highly;
short – shorten – shortening – shortened;
long – lengthen – length;
smooth – smoothen – smoothness – smoothened
6. Form nouns from the following verbs using suffixes “-er”, “-or” and translate them into Russian:
to make, to travel, to use, to design, to survey, to excavate, to manage, to govern, to investigate, to mix,
to vibrate, to transport, to compact.
7. Give the appropriate degrees of comparison of the following adjectives and adverbs:
1. light
……….
…………
2. ………..
less
…………
3. ………..
……….
the most difficult
4. ………..
worse
…………
5. ………..
………..
the best
6. expensive
………..
…………
7. …………
denser
…………
8. …………
………..
the most
9. …………
farther
further
10.attractive
…………
…………
8. Translate the following sentences, paying attention to the suffix “-er”:
1. The denser the ground, the slower is the process of moisture transfer. 2. The higher the average speed
of the traffic, the wider will be the traffic lane required. 3. The more experiments scientists make, the greater is
their knowledge of the properties of this material. 4. The higher the degree of soil compaction, the slower is
the penetration of capillary water. 5. The greater the number of vehicles in the stream, the more severe will be
requirements to the road.
9. Give Russian equivalents for the following words:
1) owing to; 2) due to; 3) both…and; 4) because of; 5) in order to; 6) the number; 7) a number of; 8) the
denser … the slower; 9) however; 10) either …or.
10. Define the function of one (ones) and translate these sentences:
1. One can say that geographical position of Belarus itself has determined its social and cultural
peculiarities for many years. 2. One may work in the laboratory only observing certain rules. 3. One should
know how to cross the street. 4. In planning a new road or rebuilding an existing one maps must be drawn. 5.
These methods are different from the ones used before. 6. Scientists are developing new processes and
improving old ones to produce metals that will meet present day requirements.
11. State the function of the verb “to have” in the following sentences and translate them:
1. He is a very skilled engineer and we have high opinion of his work. 2. We have to mechanize all
building operations to make the road in time. 3. During the construction of the bridge across the river
specialists had to solve many technical problems. 4. You will have to take measures to prevent spring waters
from penetrating the subgrade. 5. This type of cement has changed the concrete properties. 6. The new ceramic
engine has been developed in Japan. 7. They had to stop and rest every quarter of an hour as path was very
steep. 8. They will have to consider the conditions of this locality.
II. Grammar.
1. Подготовиться к лексико-грамматическому тесту по текстам:
«New paving materials. Part I.», «New paving materials. Part II»
2. Повторить грамматический материал к лексико-грамматическому тесту:
2.1. Имя существительное. Мн. Число. Существительное в функции определения и его перевод.
Суффиксы производных существительных.
2.2. Имя прилагательное. Степени сравнения. Сравнительные конструкции. Суффиксы
производных прилагательных.
2.3. Местоимения: личные, притяжательные, вопросительные, указательные, неопределённые,
относительные и отрицательные.
2.4. Видо-временные формы глагола:
- активный залог – формы Indefinite (Present, Past, Future).
Continuous (Present, Past, Future).
Perfect (Present, Past, Future).
2.5. Спряжение глаголов to be, to have; и их функции.
2.6. Оборот There + to be.
III. Tests.
Text 1.
New paving materials. Part I.
When urban street paving became widespread in the latter half of the 19th century, the common paving
materials were hoof-sized stone blocks, similarly sized wooden blocks, bricks, McAdam's broken stones, and
occasionally asphalt and concrete. McAdam's broken stone provided the cheapest pavement, but its unbound
surface was difficult to maintain and was usually either slimy or dusty as a consequence of water, weather, and
copious amounts of horse excrement. Thus, roads at the turn of the 20th century were largely inadequate for
the demands about to be placed on them by the automobile and truck. As vehicle speeds increased rapidly, the
available friction between road and tire became critical for accelerating, braking, and cornering. In addition,
numerous pavement failures made it obvious that much stronger and tougher materials were required. The
result was an ongoing search for a better pavement. Asphalt and concrete both offered promise.
Asphalt is a mixture of bitumen and stone, and concrete is a mixture of cement and stone. Asphalt
footpaths were first laid in Paris in 1810, but the method was not perfected until after 1835. The first road use
of asphalt occurred in 1824, when asphalt blocks were placed on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, but the first
successful major application was made in 1858 on the nearby rue Saint-Honore. The first successful concrete
pavement was built in Inverness, Scot., in 1865. Neither technology, however, advanced far without the
pressures of the car, and they both required the availability of powerful stone-crushing, mixing, and spreading
equipment.
The impetus for the development of modern road asphalt came from the United States, which had few
deposits of natural bitumen to draw upon and where engineers were therefore forced to study the principles
behind the behaviour of this material. The first steps came in the 1860s, with the work of Belgian immigrant
Edward de Smedt at Columbia University in New York City. De Smedt conducted his first tests in New Jersey
in 1870 and by 1872 was producing the equivalent of a modern "well-graded" maximum-density asphalt. The
first applications were in Battery Park and on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1872. De Smedt went to
Washington, D.C., in 1876 as part of President Ulysses S. Grant's desire to make that town "a Capital City
worthy of a great Nation." Grant had appointed a commission to oversee road making, and it conducted its
first trials on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1877. Sixty percent of the trials used de Smedt's new product and were
great successes.
Text 2.
New paving materials. Part II.
In 1887 de Smedt was followed as inspector of asphalts and cements by Clifford Richardson, who set
about the task of codifying the specifications for asphalt mixes. Richardson basically developed two forms of
asphalt: asphaltic concrete, which was strong and stiff and thus provided structural strength; and hot-rolled
asphalt, which contained more bitumen and thus produced a far smoother and better surface for the car and
bicycle.
One of the great convenient coincidences of asphalt development was that the automobile ran on
gasoline, which at that time was simply a by-product of the distillation of kerosene from petroleum. Another
by-product was bitumen. Until that time, most manufacturers had used coal tar (a by-product of the making of
gas from coal) as the binder for road asphalt. As the demand for automobile fuel increased, however, so did
the availability of bitumen and, hence, of good asphalt designed to the standards de Smedt and Richardson.
This gave U.S. road builders a major advantage over their European counterparts, were still wedded to the
virtues of the various natural asphalts, such as those from Neuchatel, Switz., an Island of Trinidad.
Richardson published a standard textbook on as paving in 1905, and the practice did not change greatly
thereafter. The biggest change was in the machinery able to produce, place, and finish the material rather in
the product itself. Toward the end of the century, were major movements toward the use of recycled asphalt
chemical modifiers for improving bitumen properties small fibres for improving crack resistance. In addition
developments in testing and structural analysis made possible to design an asphalt pavement as a sophists
structural composite.
The first modern concrete roads were produceв by Joseph Mitchell, a follower of Telford, who
conducted three successful trials in England and Scotland in 1865-66. Like asphalt technology, concrete road
building largely developed by the turn of the 20th century am restricted more by the available machinery than
by the material. Problems were also encountered in producing a surface that could match the performance of
the face produced almost accidentally by hot-rolled asphalt. For the following century the two materials
remained in intense competition, both offering a similar product similar cost, and there was little evidence that
one would move far ahead of the other as they continued on paths of gradual improvement.
Oral Presentation: MY SPECIALITY
ROADS OF BELARUS
The Speciality "Highways"
The Government of out Republic pays great attention to the road construction industry.
The industry is developing at a rapid rate. The network of highways with hard pavements is
increasing annually in our Republic, half of them are highways with advanced pavement. In
the State Programme "Roads of Belarus" it is envisaged to secure communication between
large economic centres of our country, to extend the construction of rural roads, to improve the
quality of construction, maintenance of roads and special attention should be paid to the safety
of traffic.
The Faculty of Transport Communications was founded in 1978 as the Faculty of
Hydro-engineering and road construction. In 1998 it was renamed into the Faculty of
Transport Communications because of changes in the structure of specialities.
Now the faculty prepares specialists for all road-building complexes, including the
construction of roads and airfields, bridges and tunnels, undergrounds and application of roadbuilding machines.
The teaching process at the faculty is carried out by the following departments:
“Construction and operation of roads”, “Designing of roads”, “Bridges and tunnels”, “Building
and road machines”, “Resistance of materials and theory of elasticity”, “Engineering
surveying”, “Higher mathematics” and “English department”.
The students are trained in the following specialities: “Lifting-transport, building, road
machines and equipment”, “Highways”, “Bridges, transport tunnels and undergrounds”,
“Economy and organization of manufacture”.
“Highways” is one of the leading specialities at the Faculty of Transport
Communications. In the first two years the students of this speciality study many general
subjects necessary for a skilled and all-round educated engineer. Specialization begins in the
third year when the students begin studying designing, construction and maintenance of roads.
Having acquired theoretical knowledge the students have their practical training at the
University laboratories, construction sites and different enterprises connected with their future
speciality.
Much attention is paid to the scientific and research work of the students of this
speciality. They carry out research work according to agreements with different enterprises
under the leadership of the leading lecturers of the Department. Their research work is
connected with problems of road construction materials, utilization of waste materials in road
construction, the problem of road design in conjunction with road safety, etc. This kind of
work helps future engineers to combine theoretical knowledge with practice.
Specialists in road construction field are in great demand. Every year about one hundred
and fifty road engineers graduate from the University and the main task of the students is to do
their best to become highly qualified specialists. They have all the possibilities to achieve the
aim.
ROADS OF BELARUS
Belarus is fifteenth among countries with developed network of motorways by density of public roads per one square
kilometer and twelfth by their length per one thousand of inhabitant
BACKGROUND
More than four centuries ago the first documents( statuses) for the state regulation of public roads and traffic rules
were introduced in Belarus. In XVIII-XIX the Belarusian roads reached the European level. During the Soviet times a
large-scale road construction ensured the creation of optimum network of motorways. Presently, having 207,600 square
kilometres of territory and 10.5 million inhabitants, Belarus accounts for 53,500 kilometres of public roads. More than
67% of them are concrete or asphaltic concrete, 1,830 km of roads have four or more traffic lanes. The core of
Belarusian motorway network is republican highways 16,382 km long.
The main government document that sets out economic, legal and administrative principles of governing the
country's system of motorways is the 1994 Law on Motorways. The Committee for Motorways under the Belarusian
Transport Ministry oversees the branch that is financed from the state budget road fund.
TRANSEUROPEAN HIGHWAYS
The geographical situation of Belarus has predetermined its role of a transit state. The main Belarusian highway
Minsk-Moscow was built before the World War II. In 70s the highway was extended to Brest within the project of largescale construction timed to 1980 Moscow Olympics.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Belarusian motorways became an essential part of the European
transportation network. At the present, the major Belarusian highway is Ml (E30 by European classification). It links
West Europe countries with Russia, crossing Poland and Belarus (606 km). In 1994 the country started the project of Ml
modernization, funded with loans of European financial organizations. By 1998 reconstruction of the first stretch of the
highway 234 km long was completed. Upgrading and improvement other parts are in progress.
Ml highway makes also a part of the Crete Corridor 11 that is considered by the European Union a priority
transportation route due to the significance of East-West transport flows through it.
Another important Belarusian highway is M8 that is a part of the Crete Corridor IX and links Russia with Ukraine
through Belarusian cities of Vitebsk and Gomel. The highway is 456 km long.
The 468 km highway Gomel-Vilnius-Klaipeda plays an important role in the Crete Corridor IXB, linking Russia and
Ukraine with the Baltic states.
MANAGEMENT
Belarus' road maintenance system had been finally shaped in 1998. State-run companies (called “Avtodor”) distribute
government orders among companies of different ownership thus making it possible to use the allocated funds
efficiently and exercise control over fulfillment of road maintenance contracts. Magistralavtodor oversees maintenance
of M highways which are 4,200 km long. Local motorways are run by six Regional Associations which are subordinated
to local governments. The road branch of the country employs more than35.000 people.
V. Words and word combinations to be remembered:
highway
автомагистраль
traffic
движение
performance characteristics
эксплуатационные качества
vehicle
транспортное средство
provide for
обеспечивать
safety
безопасность
asphalt-macadam surfacing
асфальтобетонное покрытие
soil
грунт
stone aggregate
каменные материалы
pavement
дорожная одежда
haule
привозить, доставлять
construction site
строительная площадка
prefabricated reinforced structures
сборные железобетонные конструкции
Artificial structures
искусственные сооружения
earthworks
земляные работы
gravel quarrying
разработка гравийного карьера
stone crushing
дробление каменных материалов
scarcity
недостаток
thoroughly
тщательно
to undertake research
предпринимать исследование
trench
траншея
road pavement
дорожная одежда (покрытие)
inventor
изобретатель
dig (dug)
копать
ground
грунт
bottom
дно
to give a camber
придавать выпуклость
divert
отводить
to seep from above
просачиваться сверху
pavement base
основание дорожной одежды
uniform thickness
одинаковая толщина
slab
плита
surfасе course
поверхностный слей
crushed aggregate
дробленный мелкий каменный материал
hard rock
твердая порода
granular base
основание из мелкого каменного материала
roller
каток
levelled and compacted formation
спланированное и уплотненное земляное полотно
ensure
обеспечивать
elimination
исключение
strength
прочность
assure
обеспечивать
subgrade resistance
устойчивость грунтового основания
reliable
надёжный
granular surfacing
покрытие из гранулированных материалов
sand base
песчаное основание
subgrade stability
прочность грунтового основания