British Road Lab Heads East

The work of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) is well known to regular Auto Express readers - but now its fame has spread to Vietnam.

Auto Express Car Reviews

02nd February 2005

That's because the Berkshire organisation is using its know-how to help improve the Asian country's rural roads. At the moment, locals have to rely on dirt tracks to get about, but these become unusable mud baths during monsoon season.

TRL has sent a team of engineers there to try to transform the basic trails into proper roads. The work is focusing on finding suitable materials for building in the humid climate without using heavy machinery.
While traditional surfacing components such as lime, cement and bitumen are being tested, more innovative methods - employing local resources such as bamboo and bricks fired using rice husks - are also being considered. A spokesman for TRL said: "Our study will find the most cost-effective way to create a decent road network in rural Vietnam. Hopefully, the local people will soon be able to get to the market, school or hospital all year round."