I heard yesterday that pavement consultant and all-round good egg, John Emery, passed away last weekend.
Outside the rarified world of pavement academia he might not have been particularly well known, but the work he did during his carrer has directly impacted on everyone who has ever laid a block paver, and his work on airport pavements remains the standard setter.
He was unfailingly good company, always up for a laugh and had that rare ability to educate and entertain at the same time. My abiding memory will be his fondness for ridiculous headgear along with his lifelong pursuit of the better pavement.
He actually lived not far from you, LLL, in Bedford, but as his field was academic rather than practical, he rarely came into contact with the workers.
And what we might refer to as the 'sucking off' of pavers from an airport pavement, that was something he actively worked on and practically eliminated in most cases.
The key improvement was actually the use of a certain very high quality sealant which prevented the jointing sand being lost and so the paving remained in place. The biggest study was done at Hong Kong's Island-of-Rubbish airport, Chek Lap Kok, and that is still used as the de facto case study to this day. The important thing to note is that the sealant was always intended as a joint binder, NOT a surface protector. Most of the sealants we now see sold for paving have their marketing priorities the other way around.
John was heavily involved in developing and promoting an alternative sealant but over the last few years, it seems some shady characters took on the distribution and tried to cash in on John's name while not actually providing much of a service.
