Full Details - Airfield Pavement Design Guide
Date Thursday 26 March 2026
Title Airfield Pavement Design Guide
Speaker John Cook (Defence Infrastructure Organisation)
Join Meeting with Institution of Civil Engineers
Venue Dundee
Location Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee, (Room 2516, Main Lecture Theatre), DD1 1HG
Map Map (opens in new window)
Time 17:45hrs refreshments & networking. Presentation 18:15
Contact David Crudge (david.crudge@tarmac.com or 07921891591)
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More details John Cook spent a lifetime at the centre of UK airfield
pavement engineering. As the long-serving Head of
Airfield Pavements Engineering for the Defence
Infrastructure Organisation, he shaped standards that
kept military runways safe and operational across the
UK and overseas. John’s career began in structural
design before he moved into the specialised world of
airfield pavements in 1979, and he became a respected
voice on balancing operational risk, constructability, and
long-term durability on safety-critical surfaces.


Now retired, John still has plenty to say about where
the discipline has come from and where it’s heading.
One of the major threads in recent years has been the
ongoing refinement of DIO’s Airfield Pavement
Specifications — a suite of documents that lay down
material, mix and construction requirements for
asphalt, concrete and composite pavement systems on
MOD airfields. These sit alongside design and
maintenance guides and cover everything from hot-
rolled and Marshall asphalts through to friction courses
and recycled bound materials.
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