Highways England has published the first concrete roads handbook in more than 30 years.
The government-owned company said its new Concrete Pavement Maintenance Manual is a key part of its £400m drive to revitalise concrete roads.
The guidebook was developed by the Concrete Roads Centre of Excellence, which has been set up as the development and knowledge hub for the programme.
Highways England said the new step-by-step guide brings together the latest updates, advice and guidance from industry experts on how to maintain, survey and repair roads.
It is intended to help users across the construction industry in identifying, designing and repairing faults in concrete roads, from surface faults like potholes to underlying structural problems.
Mike Ambrose, technical lead for the Concrete Roads Centre of Excellence, said: ‘Like the concrete roads we are now upgrading or rebuilding, the old guidance has served the industry and country well since it was last published.
'This up-to-date handbook brings together and updates advice and guidance from across the industry into a single document and sets out commonly used techniques to inspect and repair concrete roads and other surfaces.
Concrete roads make up almost 400 miles (4%) of the strategic road network and are mostly found along the eastern side of the country, in the North East, Yorkshire, East Anglia and the South East, although there are also some smaller stretches in other parts of England.
Highways England said the handbook can also be applied to other transport sectors that use large areas of concrete, such as airports and airfields, and that it aims to work with these sectors to build up collective knowledge.
Visit highwaysengland.co.uk/industry/concrete-roads for more information about the programme and handbook.
