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town area. In this way, vehicles destined beyond congested section will be diverted from the streets. Off-street parking must be provided, partly to make up the present deficiency and partly to release street-space now used for storing vehicles. Capacity of streets must be further increased by oneway and off-center operation. This multiple approach for sound, longrange development of an integrated highway system offers the only reasonable solution.

12. Read and study the following words:

urban – городской;

initial – начальный, первоначальный; apparent – видимый, очевидный; haphazard – случайный, бессистемный;

distress – затруднительное, бедственное положение; acute – острый;

survey – обследование, изыскание; origin travel – зарождение поездки; destination – назначение, конечный пункт; impedance – задержка, препятствие; congestion – затор (уличного движения).

13. Form the corresponding nouns from the following verbs:

to improve, to grow, to transport, to develop, to invent, to move, to introduce, to expand, to destine, to impede, to facilitate, to operate, to congest.

14.Find the derivative nouns in the text; read them and translate.

15.Choose the verbs in bold and use it in the Tense given in brackets. to establish, to overload, to increase, to influence, to explode, to restrict, to improve, to begin, to accelerate, to increase, to become, to limit, to enable, to cause.

1. As the initial improvement of main rural roads (Past Perfect) definite flows of motor traffic, many rural highways (Past Indefinite, Passive). 2. In this connection traffic in urban areas (Present Perfect). 3. Increase in traffic transportation (Present Perfect) greatly the development of our cities. 4. With the invention of the automobile the city (Past Indefinite). 5. Firstly the use of the automobile (Past Indefinite, Passive) largely to the

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existing street system. 6. Gradually, the streets (Past Indefinite, Passive) and the cities (Past Indefinite) to spread over the countryside. 7. The construction of freeways and expressways greatly (Past Indefinite) the expansion of cities. 8. The percentage of city residents (Past Perfect Continuous) in urban areas. 9. With the great increase in motor transportation, the urban transportation problem (Present Perfect) acute. 10. The so-called “traffic radius” (Present Indefinite) motor movement to and from the center of large cities. 11. The growth of motor vehicles (Present Perfect) cities to expand and it (Present Perfect) traffic congestions in business districts.

16. Answer the questions to the text.

1.What is the problem of the country’s highway transportation system?

2.Why were many rural highways overloaded?

3.How has the invention of the automobile influenced the development of cities?

4.How may be the urban transportation problem clarified?

5.What is the role of “traffic radii”?

6.What are the reasons of traffic congestion in cities?

7.How may city congestion problem be solved?

17. Read and translate the following text and use it when speaking about urban transportation problems.

Nowadays, the structural data of the town for the traffic forecasting are the following:

-the number of working places, the number of the inhabitant, -the distance of the zone from the town centre,

-the number of passenger cars, -the general size of the household,

-commercial establishment area per capita, -catering establishment area per capita.

The specific journey number of a zone, using:

-public transport,

-individual vehicle (passenger car, motorcycle), -bicycle and on foot.

While calculating the effect on traffic of the land use there must be take into consideration 3 travel modes mentioned above and 5 other aspects of travel groups, journeys between:

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-home and working place, -home and other, -working place and home, -other and home,

-other journeys.

18.Tell about urban transportation problem.

19.Read the text. Find key sentence in each part of the text. Try to retell thetext using plan.

City transportation

Urban transportation has become a major management job. It is a big and complex task requiring close coordination. It is now generally recognized that urban transportation functions are as follows:

1.Transportation planning

A.Conducting studies of traffic volume, parking, speed and delay, street capacity, origin and destination of trips, and research in related fields.

B.Determining present and future needs for streets, street lighting, parking transit facilities, terminal facilities and establishing priorities for such facilities.

C.Coordinating transportation improvement programs with other municipal activities.

D.Participating in the operation of a master transportation plan with the city planning commission. Such a plan should establish the relationship of service between transit, street transportation, and over-all city development. This includes all plans involving transit street, and terminal improvements.

2.Design and construction

A.Establishing standards for the design and construction of all transportation facilities.

B.Conducting surveys to determine line, grade, and elevations.

C.Preparing detailed engineering drawings and specification of all new street, transit and terminal improvements.

D.Inspecting the construction of all improvements and review all

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contracts for transportation improvements.

3.Operations

A.Determination of the location, type, and specification of trafficcontrol devices.

B.Determination of prohibition of curb parking, standing, and stop-

ping.

C.Installation and timing of traffic signals.

D.Establishment of turning controls, parking regulations, speed controls, one-way streets, through streets, stop intersections, and any other practices or procedures deemed necessary.

E.Development of transit routes, schedules, and service improve-

ments.

4.Maintenance

A.Maintaining, resurfacing, and repairing all transportation facilities.

B.Maintaining all transportation equipment, including vehicle and street maintenance machinery.

C.Installing and maintaining uniform signs, pavement markings, parking meters, street lights, and traffic signals.

D.Performing street cleaning, including snow removal.

20. Read the following words and words combinations. Give their equivalents in Russian:

resurface, transit routes, street lights, vehicle, snow removal, curb parking, turning controls, detailed engineering drawings, facilities, delay, elevations.

21. Read the title of the text. Try to guess what this text is about. Look through the text and find key words which can help you to understand the content of the text.

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The sensitivity to temperature of bituminous coated materials has led us to choose and use materials whose characteristics of resistance do not change appreciably when the temperature varies.

In recent years, in Czechoslovakia, we have tried to achieve this result bу the combination of a layer of mastic asphalt or mastic asphalt and bituminous concrete applied to a slab of concrete with a minimum thickness of 20 cm. The choice of a wearing course in concrete at bus stops is a possible variant, but the spreading of large quantities of chemicals in winter variants, where on a slab of concrete with a resistance to deflection, on the surface intension, of R 128 = 4.5 mPa, we laid а course of mastic asphalt of 23.5 cm or a course of bituminous concrete and mastic asphalt. The bond between the bituminous course and the concrete slab is obtained by treatment the surface of the concrete with a bonding coating or by driving coated aggregate of 16 – 32 mm half into the concrete after laying.

We avoided expansion cracks appearing in the thin layer of mastic asphalt by taking the concrete slab a length of 4 m and by reinforcing the bituminous concrete or mastic asphalt with polyamide.

The section constructed according to the technique has shown no deformation after four years’ service. We also used a variant in which the course 5 cm thick was constructed with a base of concrete with a plastic binder in places where shearing stresses are highest in the pavement i.e. between the surface course and the bituminous base course.

The combined use of the short slab of concrete with а surface course of bituminous coated material has also proved its worth when reconstructing damaged pavements at bus stops and trolleybus stops.

22.Before reading the text answer the following questions:

1.What do you know about parking in your city?

2.Is there a real problem with parking in big cities?

Parking

In many large cities, congestion in commercial and industrial areas is relieved by providing special off-street terminal for trucks and buses. Large and unwieldy over-the-road trucks drive to destinations located out of the congested areas but on or near the main highways into the city. Here

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loads are sorted for distribution over the city in lighter, more maneuverable vehicles. Off-street, bus terminals conveniently situated near entering highways, the downtown area, and local mass transportation are in widespread use.

As for car parking, in many urban and suburban locations multistory parking buildings of an open-walled type may have been constructed. You can get an access to parking garages by fairly steep ramps. In some cases vehicles are arranged by attendants; in others customers park their own cars themselves. Often gasoline and lubrication sales and washing, greasing, and mechanic services add supplementary income. Parking buildings are relatively cheap. Often the walls are open, the ceilings low, and heating, ventilating, and certain other refinements omitted. Maintenance costs also are low.

The parking lot is the simplest off-street parking facility. Usually the area is subdivided with curbs or bumpers, surfaced with a bituminous or concrete pavement, and marked out into parking, stalls and driveways. On private lots attendants often park and return vehicles and collect fees. In many cases public lots are equipped with parking meters and are operated in conjunction with on-street parking. Advantageous sites for parking lots often are found in the interior of large blocks or facing on back streets where property values are low. At times, by careful planning, small or ir- regular-shaped lots can be developed to good advantage.

23.Try to tell about the ways of solving problem with parking in large cities. Use information from the text.

24.Do you remember the first text of this book you worked with? Now you can read it and check your answers.

Road engineering

Since the beginning of the 20th century, as the automobile and truck have offered ever higher levels of mobility, vehicle ownership per head of population has increased. Road needs have been strongly influenced by this popularity and also by the mass movement of people to cities and thence to suburban fringes – a trend that has led to increasing travel needs and road congestion and to low-density cities, which are difficult to service by public transport. Often the building of new roads to alleviate such problems has encouraged further urban sprawl and yet more road travel. Longterm solutions require the provision of alternatives to car and truck trans-

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port, controls over land use, and the proper pricing of road travel. To this end, road managers must be concerned not merely with lines on maps but also with the number, type, speed, and loading of individual vehicles, the safety, comfort, and convenience of the traveling public, and the health and welfare of bystanders and adjoining property owners.

Ideally, the development of a major road system is an orderly, continuous process. The process follows several steps: assessing road needs and transport options; planning a system to meet those needs; designing an economically, socially, and environmentally acceptable set of roads; obtaining the required approval and financing; building, operating, and maintaining the system; and providing for future extensions and reconstruction.

Is this easier or more difficult for you to understand this text now?

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MODERN ROADS

1. Look at the map (Pic. 41). What country is it? Have you ever been there?

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Pic. 41

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2. Read about Egnatia Odos and follow its route on the map.

Egnatia Odos

Egnatia Odos (often translated as Via Egnatia) is the Greek part of the European route E90. It is a motorway in Greece that extends from the western port of Igoumenitsa to the eastern Greek-Turkish border at Kipoi. It runs a total of 670km (416mi). The project began in the 1990s and completed in 2009.

The route traverses the mountainous Greek regions of Epirus and Macedonia, crossing the Pindos and Vermio mountains, which have posed formidable engineering challenges. When completed, its full length will include 76 tunnels (with a combined length of 99 km / 61.5 miles) and 1,650 bridges. It is a closed highway with sophisticated electronic surveillance measures, SCADA controls for the lighting/tunnel ventilation and advanced vehicle collision absorption measures.

Technical characteristics: Two traffic lanes per direction, a central reserve and an emergency lane on the right.

Part of its length, a section of about 360 km (223 miles) from Evros to Thessaloniki, parallels the ancient Roman Via Egnatia, which ran from modern Durrës in Albania to Thessaloniki and thence to Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey). The project has therefore been dubbed a modern Via Egnatia. However, the parallel is not exact; the original Via Egnatia was much longer (1,120 km / 696 miles) and its western section, from Thessaloniki to the Adriatic Sea, ran much further north than the modern road.

The project has raised concerns for the survival of nearby sites of ecological and archaeological significance. The construction of the Pindos stretch (i.e. from Grevena to Ioannina) was delayed due to environmental concerns about the destruction of the habitat of the endangered brown bear. However, a new routing was proposed in 2003, and now this part is complete as of April 2009.

In addition to the main highway, three perpendicular auxiliary highways are under construction connecting the highway to important cities, ports and airports of Macedonia.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be about 5.9 billion euros by the time of its completion in 2009, making it probably the most ambitious and expensive public project ever to have taken place in modern Greece. It is a key route in the trans-European road network and forms part of European route E90.

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3.Discuss (in pairs) what towns it passes through and what ports it is linked to.

4.Write out the characteristics of the Greek road. Pay attention to:

length;

technical characteristics; sections;

cost.

5.Tell about Egnatia Odos and its role in the European road network.

6.The capital of what country is Dublin? Look at the map (Pic. 42). What cities/towns have you heard about?

Pic. 42

7. In which context do you expect to find these words in the text?

modernise horses limits bilingual yellow red

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