Webinar: Paving Our Ways

This webinar will present a book “Paving Our Ways”, which references Austroads’ research and provides a comprehensive international history of the world’s pavements, running from the earliest human settlements to the present day. No previous book has covered such a broad canvass.

The book is written for general and technically oriented readers, tracing the human and social aspects of pavement development and use and providing detailed technical background. It also caters to students of engineering and transport wishing to broaden their knowledge of their profession or taking a course in the history and sociology of engineering.

“Paving Our Ways” provides interesting and curious asides about the stranger aspects of pavements. It explores the controversies surrounding the development of macadam pavements and, later, of asphalt pavements in a way that provides many insights into modern pavements. It also examines the subsequent competition between pavements using bituminous or cementitious binders.

The book covers three major time zones. The first is from the times of the Egyptian pharaohs to the end of the Roman era, the second is from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the First World War during which people like Tresaguet, Telford and McAdam had major impacts, and the third is from the end of the First World War to the present time when motorised trucks and machinery dramatically changed the way the pavements were made and used.

Looking back on the way current pavement technologies evolved, the authors of the book Maxwell Lay, formerly Director ConnectEast and Australian Road Research Board, John Metcalf, Formerly Louisiana State University, USA and Kieran Sharp, Road Eng. Assoc. of Asia and Australasia will show how Australian practice relates to international practice.

There will also be question and answer opportunities at the end of session.

Dr Maxwell Lay is an engineering consultant known for his international contributions to road engineering and his acclaimed international road histories. He is a member of the Order of Australia, former Executive Director of the Australian Road Research Board and past President of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria and the Australian Automobile Association. He has been awarded the Moisseif Medal of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Peter Nicol Russell, Warren and Transport Medals of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and the Gold Medal of Roads Australia. He is the author of Handbook of Road Technology (CRC Press, 2019).

Dr John Metcalf has worked in pavement materials and engineering at the British Road Research Laboratory, Queen’s University in Canada and the Queensland Main Roads Department. He was Deputy Director of the Australian Road Research Board and later was appointed Chaired Professor of Civil Engineering at Louisiana State University. He was a Fellow of the (UK) Institution of Civil Engineers and the Geological Society of London and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia.

Kieran Sharp worked for the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) as a researcher in the fields of pavements, roads and transport, and as technical editor, for over 40 years. He was the first member of ARRB to receive an Austroads Achievement Award. He is the Chair of the Technical Committee of the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australia, a member of the Governing Council, and an Honorary Member. He was awarded the Roads Australia Award for Technical Excellence in 2013.

No charge but registration is essential. Can’t make the live session? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Register now!