PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
In offering to the public a new edition of “Specifications for Street Roadway Pavements” the author has taken advantage of the opportunity to revise and expand somewhat the matter in the original edition and to add thereto Instructions for Inspectors on pavement work.
Since the publication of the original pamphlet in 1907 no little advance has been made in the design and construction of street pavements and the framing of specifications for that work. Aside from the personal study and efforts of individual engineers, the Association for Standardizing Paving Specifications, organized in the latter part of 1909, has held four important conventions, devoted to the improvement and standardization of specifications for street pavements, and its able standing Committees have devoted much time and thought to the subject. The American Society of Municipal Improvements has also devoted much attention to the subject and has adopted standard specifications for most of the common kinds of pavement. Other organizations have been working along the same lines.
Under these circumstances it might be thought that there is no longer any pressing need for the continuance of individual efforts in this field, and it has been with some hesitation that the author has returned to it. Without venturing to criticise the work done by these public organizations it has seemed to the author that there is yet room for individual work in this field, if for no other reason than that there still remain quite divergent views not only as to the substance, but as to the form, scope and phraseology of specifications, and contributions based upon some knowledge and experience in street pavement may not be without value in reaching final conclusions.
As might be expected experience and observation during the past five years have, in a number of particulars, modified the author’s opinions and shown where the original specifications offered might be improved and enlarged, so that while, in the main, those now offered follow the original text, the reader will find not a few changes.There has also been added specifications for two comparatively new kinds of roadway pavement that have merited attention, and for concrete sidewalk and concrete combined curb and gutter.
So far as the author is aware there has not been printed, in America at least, any complete and comprehensive code of instructions for pavement inspectors, though there appears to be a demand, as there certainly is a need, for something of the kind.
Having been asked about a year since to prepare such a set of instructions for the use of one American city, the author has rewritten parts of them in a more general form, and they are printed (with the permission of the engineer for whom they were written) as Part II of this edition. While they would need some revision and modification to meet the conditions and special specification provisions in any particular city, it is thought they may be useful in at least suggesting the points to be covered.