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The main purpose of the road structure is to provide a means of reducing the
stress or pressure due to a wheel load to a value which the ground under that structure
can support. The intensity of the static and dynamic stress is greatest at the surface of
the roads and spreads in a pyramidal shape throughout the depth of the structure.
A road can only achieved its designed life period and carrying capacity if the
actual job of construction is properly done, all the materials are of the required standard,
to the design specification and always correctly used.
1 The sub-base, which (a) assists in load-spreading, (b) assists in subsoil drainage,
and (c) acts as a temporary road for construction traffic
2 The base/roadbase (formerly roadbase), which is the main load-spreading layer of
the structure
3 The binder course (formerly basecourse), which supports the wearing course and
also assists in protecting the road
4 The surface course (formerly wearing course), which (a) provides a skid-resistant
surface, (b) waterproofs the pavement and (c) withstands the direct loading of the traffic
The term sub-grade is used to define the natural foundation or fill which directly
receives the loads from the pavement. On new construction, a capping layer is used to
protect the sub-grade from damage.
There are lateral deflective forces caused by the pounding effects of heavy
traffic. This has led to the development of upper and lower roadbases, the lower being
of stronger material. Another factor of great importance is the surface profile. An uneven
surface will not only be suitable for the safe passage of traffic, but will also cause
greater and variable stresses in the pavement. These two factors have led to the
development of layered construction, the lower layers of which are thicker and and of
cheaper materials, in order to provide the necessary spread of the load.
Structural Design
The current highway agency standards recommend a design life of 40 years for
flexible (fully bituminous road base) and composite (bituminous and cement bound road
base or fully cement bound road base) construction.
this assessment is converted into a factor known as standard axles (i.e.) an axle with an
80 kN total force). Over the lifetime of the pavement the number of standard axles
is measured in millions.
Assessment of Type and Strength of Sub-grade
It is the CBR value which determines the type and thickness of the sub-base and
capping layer. (To be discussed on Chapter 10)
These are designed by reference to the Design manual for Roads and
Bridges (Volume 7).
General Observation
One of the major problems with pavement design is related to:
The Sub-base
d.) Provide a platform on which to lay the base/ road base, and support for the
kerb, bed and backing.
The sub-base should be laid as soon as possible after the final stripping to the formation
level. This is done to:
a.) Rain, which causes the exposed ground to become soggy and may even cause
erosion; or
b.) Sunshine, which can dry out the surface and cause cracking in the sub-grade.
Note: If the sub-grade is not going to have the sub-grade laid over it immediately, it
should be protected from the weather as described in Section 3.2.4.
The Base (Road base)
Because the road base is the main load-spreading layer, the materials used
must be carefully chosen.
Unbound Materials
Defined as aggregates that do not bond or stick together with one another when
laid and compacted. An unbound path can be removed easily by the movement of water
flowing over the surface.
Bituminous-bound materials
A material that bonds together and sets hard is more difficult to loosen, break up
and remove.
Clause 903 Dense macadam road base
Compacted layers of crushed stones usually tar-coated used in surfacing roads
and paths.
Clause 904 Rolled asphalt road base
Asphalt is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid, composed
almost entirely of bitumen. Rolled asphalt is the oldest established bituminous
material used for road base construction.
Concrete and Cement-bound materials
Clause 1036 Cement-bound granular material Category 1 and 1a (CBM1 & 1a)
CBM 1 is the finest and weakest of these materials and should have a minimum
average crushing strength of 4.5 N/mm2 after 7 days.
Clause 1037 Cement-bound granular material Category 2 and 2a (CBM2 & 2a)
CBM 2 is both coarser and stronger, being of 40 mm nominal size, with
a strength of 7 N/mm2.
Clause 1038 Cement-bound granular material Category 3, 4 & 5 (CBM3, 4 & 5)
CBM 3 and 4 may be either 40mm or 20 mm nominal size and must be made of
natural aggregate or slag with a strength of 10 N/mm2 for CBM 3 or 15 N/mm2
for CBM 4.
CBM 5 is the strongest category designed for high speed roads and has 40/20
mm aggregate and a strength of 20 N/mm2.
These materials are used on road carrying light traffic, car parks etc. and are not
covered by specifications. They are specified by local agreement between the supplier
and purchaser that includes the following:
2. Hardcore
3. Hoggin
A naturally occurring mineral subsoil consisting mainly of sands and gravels
with sufficient clay content to bind the material together when compacted. The
clay content should not be more than sufficient to bind the material.
4. Clinker
This should be hard and well-burnt, and graded down from 50 mm. care should
be taken to differentiate between clinker and ash; the latter is not suitable.
5. Shale
Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes
of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and
calcite. It should be used only from sources known to be low in sulfur, reliable and
stable.
6. PFA: Cement-stabilized
Tests have confirmed that suitable and economic portions for a cement-stabilized
PFA mixture are 10% cement and 90% PFA.
All plant-mixed materials should be protected from the weather, drying or wetting
changes the moisture content and may cause separation within the material. Material/s
should be spread evenly. On large-scale works and smaller-scale works the appropriate
machines should be used. The specification requires materials to be laid in layers, each
of which should follow the appropriate thickness. The levels can be controlled by pegs
and lines, sight rails and travelling rods or profiles and a guide wire which can be
followed by a machine operators. The thickness of the material which can be
adequately compacted depends upon the type of compaction plant being used.
Bituminous bases (roadbases)
The need for strong but truly flexible bases that will not crack has led to the use of
these dense bituminous materials.
The main requirement in the composition of the dense madacam for use in bases
are that the material have fines content of 32-46% and are made with viscosity binders
50 pen, 125 pen or 190 pen bitumen. The term pen is an abbreviation for penetration
grade and is measure of the hardness of a bitumen binder.
Rolled asphalt is the oldest established bituminous materials used for roadbase
construction
Concrete
Cement-bound Materials
These are mixtures of raw materials and cement which have moisture content.
Methods of construction
Surface tolerance- all road bases should be laid to surface tolerance of positive or
negative 15.
Surfacing
The upper layers of the structure, therefore, have the job of:
Carrying the direct load from the traffic and spreading it to reduce the
stress on the lower parts of the road structure
Providing a safe, skid-resistant surface
Providing a good and well-shaped running surface
Providing good drainage from an impervious surface thus protecting the
road structure from the weather
Giving a confidence inspiring surface on which the vehicle driver feels
safe
The open graded compositions are coarsely graded with little to no fine material.
The average thickness of a compacted course should be 45-75 mm.
Dense (BS 4987)
There are three nominal sizes of dense-coated macadam for the binder course.
All materials have a high fine content.
It should be laid in 50-75 mm layers and has qualities very similar to the dense
binder. Asphalt regulating courses are binder course mixture with small sized (10 mm)
aggregate to enable the layers to be laid thinly.
Usually used in many of the less heavily trafficked roads which require reshaping
or strengthening. The medium textured material provides for this in a 40 mm down
nominal size graded aggregate laid 75-105 mm thick; the durability of a single course
job depends upon the surface treatment it receives early in its life.
Surface Courses
Surface course is the top layer of our road. It is important and needed to consider
because it plays important roles when it comes to safety and for durability of the road.
The purposes of surface course are to:
A wide variety of bituminous materials is used for surface courses, laid in thickness
ranging from 20-40 mm. Surface course provides protection and additional strength to
the pavement. When surface course does not itself provide an impervious layer it is
important in new construction, if the lower layers of material and the subgrade would be
weakened by the ingress of water, that the surface course be surface dressed or an
impervious membrane incorporated with the construction.
The type of material for surface courses is selected according to the anticipated
traffic intensity. For maintenance and resurfacing work the requirements for strength
and waterproofing may not be so important as in new construction, hence a wide variety
of materials can be suitable.
This is a strong and durable surface course. It is very dense made with a high
fines and asphaltic cement content with crushed rock, slag or gravel added to provide
additional stability and reduce the cost.
Formerly called dense these material is used in new construction and for
resurfacing using crushed rock, slag, gravel or limestone. They are often used to
provide the road with additional strength using more viscous and harder binder.
This material is solely for lightly trafficked roads, footways, school grounds,
patching and other similar situations. The aggregate may be of crushed rock, slag or
gravel. Although porous when laid, it has a tendency to close up and become less
porous under traffic.
This was formerly called fine cold asphalt. The name has changed to avoid
confusion with hot rolled asphalts. It is in fact a coated macadam and should never
been called asphalt. It not suitable for heavy traffic as it tends to polish very easily.
This material is now included in the British Standard but has been used for many
years for resurfacing lightly trafficked roads.
10mm and 14mm Size Open Graded (BS 4987)
SMA is recommended for use in thin surface course system (Clause 942). This
gives a very durable, hard wearing surface which is not as susceptible to rutting. The
normal layer is between 20mm to 40mm.
These surface has been develop to reduce spray from vehicle wheels and also to
reduce the risk of aquaplaning in wet weather. They come with 10mm to 20mm sizes.
Friction Courses
The sharp micro-projections on the aggregate particles provide the major part of
the wet skid resistance. These quires a coarse aggregate with a high polished stone
value, ideally with sharp micro-textured fine aggregate. Some of good aggregates are
Road stone, Pre-Cambrian gritstone, dense asphalt mix, and dense macadams.
This is a new material formulated to provide a quiet surface which produce less
traffic noise than the other materials. These aggregate used has smooth, flat surfaces
and when rolled produces a surface with few voids, which reduces the amount of spray
from tires in wet conditions. The road is slippery when first laid due to 20-40mm layer of
hard setting polymer-based binder over the aggregate.
The main features of the Specification (Clause 901) for bituminous materials are
as follows:
The mixed material must be supplied continuously to the paver and laid without
delay. The rate of delivery material to the paver must be so regulated as to enable the
paver to be operated continuously. Wherever practicable, material must be spread,
levelled and tamped by approved self-propelled pavers.
In the construction of new roads, the laying of the macadam base and surface
course is done by a paving machine.
The paver has a large front hopper, it also has a vibrating tamping bar to consolidate
the road material as it is laid. This tamping can provide as much as 80% of the total
compaction. The laying widths range from 21.-4.2 m or wider.
The Specification for Highway Works has to be used. For other works, BS 594
and BS 4987.
This specification includes:
Laying
Compaction
Materials must be laid and compacted with the right thickness. It must be
uniformly compacted as rolling can be effected. Compaction must be carried out using
810 tones deadweight smooth wheeled rollers having a width of roll not less than 450
mm or by vibrator rollers. The material must be rolled in a longitudinal direction. Coated
chippings must be applied by means of an approved mechanical chipping spreader
distributing evenly. It is limited to the following circumstances:
The material must be fully compacted and the joint made flush in one or other of the
following ways, method 3 always being used for traverse joints:
1. By heating the joint with an approved joint heater at the time when the additional
width is being laid but without cutting back or coating with binder.
2. By using two or more pavers operating in echelon or by using a multiple-lane-
width paver.
3. By cutting back the exposed joints for a distance equal to the specified layer
thickness to a vertical face, disregarding all loosened material and coating the
vertical face completely with a grade of hot bitumen before the next width is laid.
All joints must be offset at least 300 mm from parallel joints in the layer beneath. The
engineer may require the application of the bituminous spray tack coat complying
with Clause 920 to the surface on which the laying is to take place.
The engineer may extend this period by the minimum amount of time necessary if
compliance is impracticable because of weather conditions or for any other reason.
Road Rolling
The Department for Transport has published information on preferred methods
of compaction of bituminous material, to develop the compaction guidance given in BS
4987. This suggests the following information:
Tandem rollers are the most suitable rollers for the preferred method.
Spreading by Machine
Spreading by Hand
1. Tip the load in no more than two heaps on to a clean, hard surface, and turn it
over at least once before laying.
2. Protect the heap with tarpaulin sheets.
3. Use heated tools, especially with hot laid materials.
4. Follow up closely with the roller.
5. Watch for segregation, and correct it with fines.
6. Lay one load completely, if possible, before the next load is tipped.
7. Adjust the levels of manhole covers and frames, gully frames, etc., after the
binder course and before laying the surface course.
Rolling
Note:
When material is delivered to the site, it is advisable that the following information is
recorded to ensure good quality control:
2. Material used.
4. Where each load is laid (usually chainage for new works or lamp column numbers for
existing roads).
5. Date.
Check Weights
Regular checks should be made to ensure that the tonnage ordered is as stated on
the conveyance note.
Temperature
The temperature at which bituminous materials are mixed, laid and compacted is
very important, particularly in the case of dense macadams and asphalt.
Note:
Asphalts are bitumen mixture whose strength and stiffness is gained through the
mortar property. While in the case of macadam, the strength is dependent on the
aggregates that are used in the mix (i.e. grading of the aggregates).
Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM) is a binder course used for roads with more
number of heavy commercial vehicles and a close-graded premix material having a
voids content of 5-10 per cent. ... This material has increased in popularity due to
durable surface which performs almost well as in all situations
In order to maintain a good ride, it is essential that the road structure layers are laid
accurately and to constant thicknesses, as well as to the specified level.
Horizontal Alignment
The level at any point is to be the designed level subject to the tolerances
Regularity
Regularity is measured with a rolling straight edge along a line parallel to the edge of
the pavement.
In order to achieve a good skid resistance value, it is necessary for the surface
course to have a roughed surface.
Density
RIGID PAVEMENTS
In this type of construction, the main structure of the pavement is a concrete slab
which, in relation to the flexible pavement, is the equivalent of the surface course,
binder course, road base and sub-base combined. It is termed rigid because this
concrete slab does not deflect within itself under traffic load, and it is designed to last 40
years before needing major reconstruction.
Note: Thicknesses in excess of those given in the table can provide better compaction if
adequate equipment is used but may lead to problems with surface irregularity and level
control
Colour Finishes of Bituminous Surfacings
There are three basics methods for obtaining a coloured/ decorative finish with a
bituminous surfacing:
1. The colour can be incorporated into the surface course at the time of
manufacture.
2. Suitable decorative chippings can be applied to some types of surfacing during
the laying operation.
3. An overall decorative surface treatment can be applied to the surfacing after
laying.
There are two ways in which colour can be incorporated in a surface course during
manufacture:
In the former case, overall colour effect is immediately obtained, but in the latter case
the colour will become apparent only after considerable trafficking has removed the
surface binder film.
As far as the pigmented mixture is concerned, red is the only colour regularly available
to order, although green may occasionally be available to order.
Bituminous mixes with a high mortar contents are particularly suited to carry an
application of decorative chippings rolled into the surface at the laying of time. Rolled
asphalts are suitable for most traffic situation but fine graded macadam is appropriate
only for lightly trafficked and pedestrian areas.
To provide decorative finish to both types of surfacing pigmented bitumen-coated or
clear resin-coated chippings can be applied during laying. The bitumen or resin coating
is to ensure adhesion to the surfacing and it is not recommended that uncoated
chippings be used as there will be little adhesion.
3. Surface Treatment
There are two treatments which can be applied to bituminous surface courses to
provide a decorative finish. These are surface dressing and pigmented bituminous.
Surface dressing consists of a bitumen, bitumen emulsion or tar spray applied to the
surface course following which an overall application of natural stone chippings is
applied and well rolled. The finish obtained is relatively deep-textured and will be the
colour of the chippings. The other treatment requires the use of a fine aggregate mixture
of the surfacing by brush or squeegee on a thickness of approx. 3mm. A fine-textured
finish is achieved and a number of colours can be supplied.
Reclaimed Materials
Reclaimed materials are construction materials that are left from a previous
construction or from a demolition area. Reclaimed materials can already be on site,
such as roads under construction or off site as with residues from industrial processes,
mining and demolition.
The Specification for Highway Works (MCHW 1) permits a wide range and
choice of reclaimed materials including road planings, crushed concrete and mineral by-
products such as Slags and Pulverized Fuel Ash. Table 5.12 gives details of selected
secondary aggregates.
Table 5.12 Specification for Highway Works (MCHW 1) application of secondary aggregates
Recycling the existing road surface has emerged as a good cost effective
method on many recent trials. Two key issues are being addressed, the quality of the
material to be recycled and the type of binder added to make the rejuvenated asphalt
mix work. Two techniques may be used- either the ex situ or the in situ method.
Ex situ Method- planings are transported to a crushing and mixing plant where the stone
is screened to a designed grading and mixed with cement and bitumen foamed
through the injection of air and water. This is then transported back and laid as needed.
In situ Method- the top layers of worn out carriageway are pulverized to a depth of up to
and around 500 mm with rotovating plant, which simultaneously adds water to bring the
material to its optimum moisture content. Calculated quantities of a bituminous or
hydraulic binder such as cement, or a combination of both, are the mixed in before
compaction.