This book is the most obvious outcome of the “COST 351, WATMOVE” project (see www. watmove. org). For most readers these terms probably mean little so some explanation is called for. In 2001/2002 a small group led by Kent Gustafson of the Swedish Road and Traffic Institute (VTI) made a proposal to the European programme on “Co-operation in Science and Technology” (COST). They proposed that a pan-European team be set up to study the issue of “Water Movements in Road Pavements and Embankments” (acronym = WATMOVE). The COST organisation agreed the proposal and the study formally began in December 2003 with the support of COST. Due to ill-health, Kent was not able to lead the project and I was asked by the Management Committee to chair the project team.
This book is NOT about “Water and Roads”, nor on “Water on Roads”. There are other books which deal with surface water drainage in great detail and there are other source materials that deal with the impact of roads on water in the general environment. To cover every aspect of the interaction between water and highways would have required a much greater effort and a much thicker book. So this book seeks to limit itself to:
(i) Water inside the road construction and the underlying subgrade soils and rocks;
(ii) Water from the surface down to the phreatic surface,[1] and
(iii) Water in the road and ground between the fence-lines of the highway.
Sometimes these boundaries to the book’s scope were a little bit too limiting so, from time-to-time the book wanders somewhat further. For example, it proved impossible (and undesirable) to discuss water in the road construction without
mentioning from where it comes. So, there is some consideration of run-off in so far as it is the major contributor to sub-surface road water, but readers will not find a full description of surface water drainage systems. Within these self-set limits the authors have tried to address most conceivable topics in some detail, bringing together both established theory and practice and some of the latest developments.
