Major Spanish construction advertisement (2014-01-10)

[J N Winkler]

Contract listings (and links to download documentation) are here:

http://www.fomento.gob.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/TABLON_ANUNCIOS/contrataciones/CONTRATACIONES/DG_CARRETERAS/concursos_obras/

Fomento has advertised very few highway construction contracts since the economic crisis bit in mid-2009.  Yesterday's advertisement is probably the largest since the A-66 Benavente-Zamora (put out to tender in 2011 as a public-private partnership deal) and a few contracts to complete major contracts which had been left unfinished due to technical problems (also advertised as a group in summer 2011).  This latest batch includes some completion projects (SE-40 southeast flank), a port access project near Barcelona, upgrades to the A-2 to accommodate completion of the adjacent Sils-Caldes contract, the A-62 frontier crossing (the border splits the frontier interchange, with two-thirds of the west-facing ramps being on Portuguese soil), and a number of pavement rehabilitation jobs.

Quick stats:  18 contracts, approximately €420 million total value, 18.1 GB worth of documentation, approximately 218 pattern-accurate sign panel detail sheets.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

No A-22 or A-23 makes me sad . A-22 has still a gap at the Western end, while A-23 has a couple sections that haven't started yet.

[J N Winkler]

I wish this advertisement had included some sign replacement jobs--the last of those I saw was in late 2008 or early 2009.  And yes, some more autovía construction would be nice.  In general I hope that this signifies a return to a more steady flow of contracts.

[Zeffy]

Is there any direct link to the sign pattern sheets? I want to view them, but even with Google Translate I can't find them.

[J N Winkler]

Is there any direct link to the sign pattern sheets? I want to view them, but even with Google Translate I can't find them.

I'm afraid the links don't go deep enough.  This is the basic process to access the signing for each contract:

*  Click on the contract description to go to the contract page

*  On the right-hand side of the contract page, you should see a box labelled "Recursos vinculados" ("linked resources")--this will include the proyecto de construcción, which is basically the equivalent of an American plans set plus proposal book plus various types of supporting documentation

*  A Spanish proyecto de construcción has standard parts:  memoria (brief description of project), anejos (descriptions of project features, segregated by functional discipline), planos (construction plans), presupuesto (project budget), and estudio de seguridad y salud (health and safety study--now required by EU law, so you see something like this in every project advertised in an EU country).  If the project has permanent signing, there will be an anejo for señalización, balizamiento, y defensas (signing, delineation, and guardrail) as well as a section in the planos with the same name.  Sometimes--not always--the anejo has sign panel detail sheets, which are usually a straight dump from a major sign design package, like CarDim (used for major projects) or Lena (used for smaller-scale jobs, typically administered by provinces or smaller units).  The planos typically have sign panel detail sheets as well.  If a project includes designable temporary direction signs (in Spain, these are black on yellow), detail sheets for these may be provided in an anejo or in the corresponding section in the planos.  The key phrase to look for is soluciones propuestas al tráfico (suggested solutions for traffic management).  Sign panel detail sheets are often found in subsections called dimensionamiento de carteles (dimensioning of signs) or variants thereof.

This is a fairly typical example of CarDim output:

[Zeffy]

Is there any direct link to the sign pattern sheets? I want to view them, but even with Google Translate I can't find them.

I'm afraid the links don't go deep enough.  This is the basic process to access the signing for each contract:

*  Click on the contract description to go to the contract page

*  On the right-hand side of the contract page, you should see a box labelled "Recursos vinculados" ("linked resources")--this will include the proyecto de construcción, which is basically the equivalent of an American plans set plus proposal book plus various types of supporting documentation

*  A Spanish proyecto de construcción has standard parts:  memoria (brief description of project), anejos (descriptions of project features, segregated by functional discipline), planos (construction plans), presupuesto (project budget), and estudio de seguridad y salud (health and safety study--now required by EU law, so you see something like this in every project advertised in an EU country).  If the project has permanent signing, there will be an anejo for señalización, balizamiento, y defensas (signing, delineation, and guardrail) as well as a section in the planos with the same name.  Sometimes--not always--the anejo has sign panel detail sheets, which are usually a straight dump from a major sign design package, like CarDim (used for major projects) or Lena (used for smaller-scale jobs, typically administered by provinces or smaller units).  The planos typically have sign panel detail sheets as well.  If a project includes designable temporary direction signs (in Spain, these are black on yellow), detail sheets for these may be provided in an anejo or in the corresponding section in the planos.  The key phrase to look for is soluciones propuestas al tráfico (suggested solutions for traffic management).  Sign panel detail sheets are often found in subsections called dimensionamiento de carteles (dimensioning of signs) or variants thereof.

That helps a tremendous amount. I did find some images of signs in an anejo, but it wasn't much. Now I'm downloading the planos to see if it has what I'm looking for.

EDIT: Yup, found a bunch of sign designs. What's interesting though is that it seems like for any non-motorway signs, the font used is Transport, whilst motorway signs seem to use Spain's version of Series EM (Autopista). Anyone seem to know if there's a specific reason for that?

[Zeffy]

Decided to try my hand at making one of the signs I found in the Planos...



One thing to note here is that I obviously used Series EM instead of Spain's Autopista typeface (which is not able to be downloaded AFAIK), and I used Inkscape to aid in extracting the arrow and the 'EXIT' symbol, but other than that I did it from scratch. I don't delve into non-US signage, so hopefully this is a good first try (minus the UK attempt awhile back).

[J N Winkler]

What's interesting though is that it seems like for any non-motorway signs, the font used is Transport, whilst motorway signs seem to use Spain's version of Series EM (Autopista). Anyone seem to know if there's a specific reason for that?

I can't help with rationales--only with sequencing.

The Transport derivative Spain uses, which is called Carretera Convencional, has a much heavier stroke than either Transport Medium or Transport Heavy, and has letter shapes modified to maintain a 4:3 uppercase/lowercase ratio (same as Autopista and, for that matter, Series E Modified).  The general idea is to allow the same design rules (laid down in a publication called "Norma 8.1-IC") to be used with both typefaces.  (An old acronym for Carretera Convencional, which you can still occasionally see even in some recent proyectos, is CCRIGE--the "RIGE" part stands for Red de Interés General del Estado, a dated term for the system of highways that serve long-distance traffic.)*

Before 1992, Spain used the old French L-series traffic signing typefaces on surface roads, and straight Series E Modified (not Autopista) on autopista and autovía direction signs.  At that time autopistas had white-on-blue signs, while autovías had blue-on-white signs.  (Some first-generation autovías still have signs lingering on from the blue-on-white era, albeit badly faded, and photos of them have been posted to the Highways & Autobahns board on SkyscraperCity.)  In France, the modern L1 and L2 series are essentially the same typeface, but with increased stroke width for positive contrast, the same distinction that separates Transport Heavy from Transport Medium.  This base typeface in turn is essentially old L1.  Old L2, which does not survive in modern French signing, is a more condensed version of old L1 in much the same way Series C is a more condensed version of Series D.  The old L series, like modern L1 and L2, are uppercase-only, so Spain pre-1992 had all-uppercase direction signs on surface roads, and mixed-case signs on autopistas and autovías.

In 1992 there was a major signing reform, comparable in scope to the mid-1960's changeover to Worboys signs in Britain.  Designs were completely changed for all classes of sign (warning, regulatory, direction, etc.) and Carretera Convencional and Autopista were rolled out as new typefaces.  Autopistas and autovías were both assigned white on blue but kept mixed case, while carreteras convencionales kept black on white all-uppercase, and white on green mixed-case (with Autopista) was reserved for a new category of road called vías rápidas, which were essentially single-carriageway roads with comprehensive grade separation and some form of access control (I am not sure whether it was full or partial).  For the equivalent of advance guide (preseñalización) and exit direction (señalización de salida) signs, there were (and to a degree still are) elaborate rules governing color, typeface, and capitalization which took account of the status both of the road being exited from and the road being exited to.

Then, in 2001, it seems to have been realized that few if any vías rápidas had been or would be built, so the edition of Norma 8.1-IC issued in that year dropped the white-on-green color combination in favor of black-on-white, but retained the capitalization and type rules for that category.  In modern Spain therefore, a high-type road that has black-on-white direction signs with Autopista is effectively a vía rápida in disguise.

More recently (around 2011), a new edition of Norma 8.1-IC has been issued that amounts to a major type upheaval since it essentially exiles Autopista to distance posts and other niche applications.  Henceforth, Carretera Convencional is to be used even for straight-ahead signing on autopistas and autovías.  I don't really agree with this change and am not aware that Carretera Convencional has ever been tested for legibility in general, let alone as a substitute for Autopista.  I suspect many traffic designers working in Spain are finding this change hard to swallow, since most of the signing in the 18 contracts included in this recent advertisement appears to follow the older standards.

The rules governing choice of typeface in the 1992 and 2001 standards resulted in signs which had generally good visual balance (Autopista, which has generous spacing, on large panels, and Carretera Convencional, which is chunky-looking, on small panels), but were complex.  I speculate that Fomento has moved over to Carretera Convencional for almost everything because large numbers of practitioners were having difficulty following the previous standards.  But I have found no corroboration; I am only reasoning by analogy with Britain, where similar difficulties are driving an ongoing effort to simplify TSRGD (the local MUTCD analogue).

-------------------------------------

* Carretera Convencional takes its name from the type of roads for which it is supposed to be used--carreteras convencionales, "conventional roads."  The definition has a lot of overlap with the American term conventional road as used in the MUTCD, but there are legal aspects as well.  A carretera convencional has no control of access and so is similar to an all-purpose road as that term is understood in Britain; however, legalities and physical reality don't always line up in Spain, and there are anomalies like carreteras convencionales such as the Benidorm bypass which meet the AASHTO definition of a freeway.

[Zeffy]

I can't help with rationales--only with sequencing.

The Transport derivative Spain uses, which is called Carretera Convencional, has a much heavier stroke than either Transport Medium or Transport Heavy, and has letter shapes modified to maintain a 4:3 uppercase/lowercase ratio (same as Autopista and, for that matter, Series E Modified).  The general idea is to allow the same design rules (laid down in a publication called "Norma 8.1-IC") to be used with both typefaces.  (An old acronym for Carretera Convencional, which you can still occasionally see even in some recent proyectos, is CCRIGE--the "RIGE" part stands for Red de Interés General del Estado, a dated term for the system of highways that serve long-distance traffic.)*

In my opinion, the Transport modification Spain uses looks less legible than their Autopista typeface.

[J N Winkler]

More recently (around 2011), a new edition of Norma 8.1-IC has been issued that amounts to a major type upheaval since it essentially exiles Autopista to distance posts and other niche applications.  Henceforth, Carretera Convencional is to be used even for straight-ahead signing on autopistas and autovías.  I don't really agree with this change and am not aware that Carretera Convencional has ever been tested for legibility in general, let alone as a substitute for Autopista.  I suspect many traffic designers working in Spain are finding this change hard to swallow, since most of the signing in the 18 contracts included in this recent advertisement appears to follow the older standards.

The quoted paragraph implies that the change of Autopista to Carretera Convencional has actually gone through and been written into legislation.  However, a check of the Boletín Oficial del Estado, the Spanish central government gazette, in which all new laws are published, shows no new versions of Norma 8.1-IC issued since the early noughties, so it would seem that the earlier document (which, it turns out, was issued about a year before I remembered) showing Autopista is still current.

Here are links:

*  Gazetted version of Norma 8.1-IC (issue date of January 29, 2000)

*  Perfect-bound publication version of Norma 8.1-IC (essentially, a PDF of the edition you can buy if you go to the bookstore at the Nuevos Ministerios in Madrid; the cover page has a date of 2011, but I think this is a printing date, not a revision date)

*  Draft version of proposed new Norma 8.1-IC (Similar in appearance and format to the perfect-bound publication version of the current standard, but with almost double the page count and many more illustrations showing new signing techniques that have developed in the course of ten years' additional construction of the Spanish motorway network)