My Manifesto: The Incoherent Ramblings of a Madman

I really don’t think I’m cut out for road design. There is so much to it that I just don’t seem to understand why it is done the way it is done. A 1km road can be designed and drawn in half a day with any number of software packages developed specifically for it. The vertical and horizontal curves are designed and drawn to be accurate to within the millimetre. The levels are calculated to the millimetre. The set out points for the vertical and horizontal curves are calculated and shown on a long section to the millimetre. Cross sections are provided every 20 metres on the straights, and 15 metres on the curves; these are drawn to the millimetre.

The RTA design guide “recommendations” are all taken into account for horizontal and vertical curve radii for the specified design speed are calculated to the millimetre. The lengths of any guardrails, overtaking lanes, offsets from obstructions are calculated to the millimetre. The total design of the road can take between 1 day to 2 weeks, with everything drawn meticulously, and exact to the millimetre.

The plans are handed over to the project manager well thought out, designed with engineering knowledge, drawing on the years of practical knowledge that design standards offer, exact to the millimetre. The project manager hands the designs over to the construction engineer, exact to the millimetre. The construction engineer redesigns the entire road on the back of the well designed plans using a pencil in 3 minutes flat.

The construction engineer sends out his workforce with his adapted plan. The driver constructs the road exact to the nearest metre. 1 week of proper design, 3 minutes of re-design, and thousands of dollars of tax dollar later – we have a road that is expensive, below standard, and looks crooked! Proving once again, the road to hell was paved with good intentions......