Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 1

1. Introduction to Road Pavements

1. History of Roads.

In ancient times there was nothing more than a sparse network of tracks for humans
to use in order to reach the feeding and drinking places. These tracks differed only
slightly from the tracks made by any other mammal for the same purpose, except
that obstacles e.g. boulders, were removed from the more important routes and thorn
bushes trimmed back by humans. More elaborate lines of communication than these
simple tracks, did not appear until the increasing number of people in certain areas
and the social structure and organisation of communities demanded more permanent
contact between communities.

Roads thus appeared when groups of people started to interact with each other by
travelling, doing business, fighting, etc. This occurred around 3500 BC with the
invention of the wheel and development of chariots and wagons.

The earliest records of paved roads for wheeled traffic date from about 2200 BC in
Babylonia (modern Iraq), in Crete from about 1500 BC and in Egypt from about 540
BC. In Europe the first substantial roads were built by the Romans a network of
more than 100 000 kms of road was built between 400 BC and 400 AD. The Roman
roads were cambered to shed rainwater and were constructed on a foundation of
large stones with a wearing course of smaller stones and gravel, constrained
between raised stone kerbs.

The Romans were the best road builders of the remote ages. Conquests achieved
through war games were one of the reasons for this. The Romans needed a good
network of roads to control their conquered subject-nations. The army needed to be
able to move fast in order to quell any revolting groups. The Roman roads were
cobbled with a base system that was dependent on the subgrade. They developed a
three/four layer system of:
toplayer
base/subbase sometimes with a stabilised material in the base
subgrade.

As soon as the Roman Empire collapsed, the roads structures began to degenerate.

Napoleon was responsible for the construction of a considerable network of roads in
Europe in the late 18
th
and early 19
th
centuries. In 1747 the Ecole des Ponts et
Chaussess was founded in Paris, France. In 1765 Tresaguet developed the Roman
road structure further. His basic principle was to construct the first layer with big
blocks and then to place little rocks in between. By doing this, he attempted to ensure
that the first layer was consistently exposed to compressive stresses, in order to
achieve better load spreading on the subgrade.

At the same time, in about 1810 in England, people such as Telford and Metcalf
made valuable developments, including:
design of drainage,
design of the road camber, and
active and regular maintenance.

Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 2
Telford and Metcalf found that through drainage design and the inclusion of a
crossfall, that maintenance could be substantially reduced and the required layer
thickness dramatically reduced.

In Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution required a road building programme to
satisfy the need for the movement of materials and goods and many kilometres of
road were built by various means. During this time John Macadam (1756 1836)
invented a method of road building as follows: after careful preparation and draining
of the roadbed (or subgrade), he laid a 25cm layer of stone (a size that could fit in a
mans mouth), followed by a surfacing of smaller stones. This type of roadway was
ideal for animal drawn wagons and coaches, and was cheap to build. J ohn
Macadams roads lasted well under traffic and many British roads were
macadamised. They were a good solution in the nineteenth century for iron rims i.e.
treads.

However, the invention of motorised transport (Siegfried Marcus invented the first
car with traction in Vienna) and rubber tyres (Dunlop in 1888) changed the
requirements once again. Speeds increased making safety an important
consideration. Rubber-tyred wheels sucked the dust from the road surface,
loosening the stones and causing blinding clouds of dust. Hence in the early part of
the 20
th
century, tar was spread over the road surface to hold the stones in place and
to prevent dust. Sand and stone and tar formed a surface dressing. Later the tar-
macadam surface of stone coated with and rolled to a smooth surface was used,
hence the term tarmac. Today we still make waterbound macadam and penetration
macadam (using bitumen-emulsion slurry) and a variation of it heat up i.e. asphalt .

In South Africa the pioneer road-builder was Thomas Charles Bain (1830 1893),
son of Andrew Geddes Bain. Thomas Bain constructed 23 major mountain roads,
nearly all in the Cape Province. Some of his roads are still in use today e.g. Bains
Kloof Pass. The book Romance of the Cape Mountain Passes by Dr Ross provides
interesting facts about this era of road construction.

Some other important developments in the nineteenth century included the train and
as a result of technical breakthroughs, the steamroller. Much attention went on the
development of the train and in many countries, with a focus on building new railway
lines, the roads deteriorated. In 1863 Lemoine invented the two-wheel steamroller,
At the same time Clark and Butler developed the three-wheeled steamroller. This
made compaction of granular layers significantly easier and the quality of compaction
increased,.

In the figure below an overview is given of the developments. See also the added two
pages in the Appendix 1A showing chronological developments.
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 3
.


Figure 1.1 Conceptual chronological developments impacting on road
technology

Prior to the early 1920s the thickness of pavements was based purely on experience.
The invention of the car and the introduction by Henry Ford of his Model T-Ford in
1908 gave a strong impulse to look at design of roads more seriously. The traction of
a car i.e. friction between tyre and road, causes damage to the surface and unpaved
roads could not cater for this. Twenty million Model T Fords were sold between 1908
and 1927.This resulted in the use of the following in the 20
th
century:
empirical design systems i.e. experience- and observation-based designs,
mechanistic design systems (linking performance to critical pavement properties
and failure mechanisms), and
empirical-mechanistic design systems.

In Scotland and Ohio expensive solutions were found through experimentation. At
the same time experiments were being undertaken to investigate tar and split
(aggregate) or with natural asphalt. Skid resistance and a lack of bond to existing
layers, proved problematic. Typical problems of the time can be seen in the figure
below.


Time 2000
BC
500
BC
500
AD
1800
AD
2000
AD
Vehicle
technology
Mesopotamian
Persian
Middle ages
Modern
The Wheel
Maximum
aggregate size
Traffic
Equipment
Motorisation
Changes
in
technology
Roman
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 4


Figure 1.2 Impassable unsurfaced roads in the wet (TRB)

From the pre-second world war history of roads, the growing importance of roads is
apparent. In the twentieth century, the car took the lead as main mode vehicle of
transport. After the second world war, growth in traffic loads, tyre pressures and
higher speeds necessitated the development of pavement technology beyond
empiricism.. After the Second World War, the growth in traffic, loads and tyre
pressures, and the higher speeds necessitated the development of pavement
technology beyond empiricism or designs based on experience only. Functional
performance had to be defined, being the basis of the service that is provided to the
road users in relation to the cost. This is indicative of fitness for use. Performance
also needed to be better understood and predictable. This required knowledge of
structural behaviour and pavement distress in relation to time. This motivated the
AASHO road test.

The AASHO Road Test took place in Ottawa, Illinois about 100km SW of Chicago
between 1956 and 1958. It was an enormous effort to systematically quantify the
complex interaction between road deterioration, traffic and composition of the
pavement structure on a closed loop test track with trucks. AASHO stands for
American Association of State Highway Officials and later became AASHTO
(Highway and Transportation).

The aims of the AASHO road test are still very relevant:
developing satisfactory pavement design procedures to meet the growing
demands of traffic,
aid legislators in setting user taxation and control of vehicle size and weight.

The cost of the AAHSO road test was $29 million in 1954 (or about $300 in 1996).
For the first time the relationship between performance and loading was investigated.
The two main findings were:
Present Serviceability Index (PSI). The test was the first in which many facets of
pavement condition and its progressive change with time (deterioration) were
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 5
defined and quantified in a comprehensive index, the PSI. The .PSI was
statistically related to roughness, rutting and cracking by the subjective PSR
determined from users of the road.
Load equivalency. The load equivalency factor relates the number of load
repetitions of a given axle load to the equivalent number of 80kN loads. It can be
used for comparing the damaging effect of different loads.

Damaging Effect =[P/80]
n


Where,
P =axle load in kN
80 =Equivalent Single Axle Load (ESAL) in kN
n =damage exponent , depending on pavement type (4 is commonly used for
granular pavements). More details will follow.

In the modern world it is well known that apart from social factors such as transport to
hospitals, quick access to a fire and emergencies, visiting friends and tourism, a
good road system is the backbone for all kinds of economic activity. J ohn F Kennedy
said:
It is not Americas strong economy that gave us our good roads
but rather our good roads that gave us our strong economy!

The Land Registration and Consolidation Programme that was started in the Kikuyu
areas of Kenya in the 1960s ensured that each farmer should have a road access.
This was to ensure that the farmer could reach his farm with commodities such as
tree seedlings, building blocks and fertiliser. It also meant that the farm produce, in
the form of bags of maize or coffee, could be got out to the markets or for processing
at the factory.

Rural road construction was a major factor in the Kenyan small-holder tea growing
expansion that took place mainly after independence. Tea is one of Kenya's leading
exports and Kenya shares the position of top black tea exporter in the world with Sri
Lanka. The number of tea growers expanded from only 19,775 in 1964 to 273,000 by
1995. This expansion continues up to the present and one of its main features is the
improvement of rural roads. Tealeaves have to be in the tea factory within a few
hours of plucking or they spoil, so any dislocation in transport is disastrous. Each tea
grower has to have ready access to an all-weather road whereby he/she can deliver
the crop in time to be picked up daily by one of the 600 trucks owned by the Kenyan
Tea Development Authority (KTDA). Road development in new tea areas has been
undertaken using a number of World Bank and bilateral loan schemes. The attraction
of such loans is that they can be justified because of the increased national income
from tea.

Construction of rural roads is only one aspect to pavement engineering. Another
aspect is maintenance. All roads have to be cared for and without this maintenance
lose their intrinsic value. In Madagascar in the 1990s, the road repairs on the 18,000
km of the network that are almost impassable, was proceeding at a mere 900 km per
year. Trips take at least twice as long as they should in Madagascar, because of the
need for drivers to constantly dodge potholes. In many cases there are no signs of
work being undertaken anywhere along the roads.

In order to fund new road construction, developing countries often take out loans
from institutions such as the World Bank. Perhaps all loans for new roads should be
backed up with a parallel loan for repairs to existing roads. Roads are important
assets to a country and need a maintenance programme to ensure that the longest
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 6
life is achieved. In developing countries, initiatives such as local community
programmes for filling potholes in return for donations deserve to be taken more
seriously. With a little organisation and training of the manpower, and supplies of
cement, these methods could prove to be effective for emergency repairs. It can be
seen that roads are sources of both revenue and employment.

For a general cross section of the pavement structure and the terminology actually
used, see TRH4, figure 9.

2. Types of Pavements.

Pavements can be divided into 3 major types:
Flexible pavements (upper layers of asphalt)
Rigid pavements (upper layers of concrete)
Composite pavements.

a) Flexible pavements.

Flexible pavements consist of a number of layers.

Conventional flexible pavements:
surface course ( 2-5 cm )
binder course ( 5-10 cm )
base course ( 10-30 cm )
subbase course ( 10-30 cm )

compacted subgrade ( 15 cm )
natural subgrade

Full depth asphalt:
surface course (5-10 cm )

base course (5-30 cm )


compacted subgrade ( 15 cm )
natural subgrade



This type of pavement structure is quite popular in areas where local materials are
not available i.e. limited base and subbase aggregates available in the area.
Advantages of full depth asphalt pavements can be:
1. They do not have permeable layers that entrap water (such as granular layers).
2. Time required for construction is relative low. Especially beneficial on widening
projects, where adjacent traffic flow must be accommodated.
3. When placed in thick layers, the construction season is not very limited.
4. Asphalt pavements provide and retain uniformity in the pavement.
5. It seems that moisture contents do not build up in subgrades under these types of
pavement structures, causing little or insignificant reduction in subgrade strength.





Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 7
b) Rigid pavements.

A typical cross-section of a rigid pavement is:

Concrete pavement:
concrete (PCC) (15-35 cm ), also regarded as base

subbase layer (15-20 cm ), usually cemented


compacted subgrade ( 15 cm )
natural subgrade

There are different types of concrete pavements:
jointed plain concrete
jointed reinforced concrete
continuously reinforced concrete
pre-stressed concrete

Where plain concrete is used it is especially important for pumping to be taken into
account. The control of pumping is paramount otherwise cavities will occur under the
concrete and the loss of support will result in collapse of the pavement.

Three factors must act simultaneously to produce pumping:
1. Material under the concrete slab must be saturated i.e. with free water
2. Frequent passage of heavy wheel loads
3. Material under concrete slab must be erodable.

c) Composite Pavements

Where components of both flexible and rigid pavements are combined in one road
structure, composite pavements are created. A typical composite pavement
structure would, for example, include rigid block elements that in their composite form
provide a semi-rigid structure:

Composite block pavement:
Interlocking concrete blocks (6-8 cm )
sand bedding

subbase layer (15-20 cm ), usually cemented

compacted subgrade ( 15 cm )
natural subgrade

Another example of a composite pavement is a concrete pavement where the
concrete surfacing layer is supported by an asphalt layer.

3. Labour intensive construction.

See also TRH4 par.7.5.

Since the launch of the RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) in SA
employment has become a very important issue. The road building industry has
historically been labour intensive, but in the last century has moved into more
mechanised construction. Particularly in the fifties and sixties the use of machines
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 8
was found to be found to be cheaper. Incentives now exist to rediscover more labour
intensive methods again.

Another important factor is the health considerations in labour intensive work.
Although incentives may exist to move towards labour intensive construction (LIC),
the risks involved with hard labour for the health of the body should not be forgotten.
In the times when LIC was intensively applied, life expectancies were short, for good
reason,

It is possible to create the opportunities for people to construct roads employment
intensively. This, of course, places pressure on the designer. He/she must be
innovative and aware of the different facets of LIC, often using locally available
material. The design and planning of LIC is actually a specialist field requiring
specific knowledge and skills. The important issue in all these cases is that the
quality of the final product must be adequate, otherwise big investments can be
wasted. Even low trafficked roads can be exposed to high axle loads and must be
capable to resist these loads even is constructed using LIC.

4. Other Pavement Structures.

The principles of sound pavement design systems (mostly mechanistic) can be used
for any type of structure with its specific requirements.
Some examples are:
Industrial areas
Harbours (storage areas, container depots, forklift pavements)
Runways, taxi ways, aprons at airports
Railways
Dykes etc

The principles remain the same, but the loads, for example, are totally different from
normal pavement loading. For example, industrial areas may have static loads of
containers stacked upon each other.

Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 9
Appendix A1: Introduction to Road Pavements
Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 10


Figure 1.3 Evolution of Road Construction: Part A (reference unknown)










Hitchhikers Guide to Pavement Engineering : Prof Kim J enkins 11


Figure 1.4 Evolution of Road Construction: Part B (reference unknown)