The relationship of roadside vegetation to common maintenance problems is explored. The focus is on the composition and health of roadside vegetation as an indicator of and participant in the overall cost of highway maintenance. The concept of "plants as engineering materials" is introduced. The concept involves examination of two basic issues: roadside design details and the engineering characteristics of roadside vegetation. It is suggested that a need exists to carefully examine design details that foster problems with vegetation and to consider how to use the engineering characteristics of vegetation to reduce roadside maintenance costs. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1276, Maintenance management 1990: proceedings of a workshop, jackson, mississippi, july 25-27, 1990.
Samenvatting