Daniel Andiga Wibisana

Pavement Design
Heddy Rohandi Agah
September 8, 2015

History of Road Development and Technology

A road is a paved surface made for travelling from one place to another, whether by foot,
vehicles or other type of transport. Roads have been improved in the past to make movement
much easier and more effective. Roads are constructed to reduce time travel and connect one
place from another. The first roads appeared on earths surface were formed by humans who
walked on the same paths over and over again. The first improvement of these roads would be
clearing the paths from trees and other obstacles such as rocks and big stones for easier
movement. As modes of transport are developing, roads continue to develop as well to satisfy the
demand for transport. In about 4000 B.C., the oldest constructed roads that could be dated were
discovered in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. These roads were stone paved streets.
The Romans were one of the first to build stone paved roads in North Africa and Europe
to help support their military operations, to support the movement of their army legions and
battle equipment. Years later, the Arabs started to build roads that were covered with tar. These
roads were constructed by conditioning the soil, using multiple layers on top of the crushed
stones and lifting the road foundation at the center for water drainage. Techniques of road
construction improved over time by the study of road traffic, stone thickness, road alignment,
and slope gradients. Initial road construction materials were stones that were laid in a regular,
compact design, and covered with smaller stones to produce a solid layer. Some of these roads
still remain today and the fundamental techniques help form the basis of roads today.

Roman Roads

The main Roman roads in the UK were built for military purposes connected camps. The
primary purpose of these roads was for foot soldiers, so the roads were built straight without
regard to grade and they generated high noise levels, were rough and labor intensive. The roman
roads designed in the UK consisted of 4 layers that included:

Summa Crusta (surface): Smooth, polygonal blocks fixed in underlying layer.

Nucleus: base layer composed of gravel and sand with lime cement.
Rudus: third layer composed of rubble masonry and smaller stones with lime mortar.
Statumen: Two or three courses of flat stones set in lime mortar.

This is an illustration of Roman pavement structure. These structures had sloped surfaces for
water drainage and also often incorporated with ditches or underground drains.

Telford and Macadam

The modern history of road pavements began in England in the late 1700s with Thomas
Telford, who constructed roads using unbound aggregate to help transport horse-pulled cargo.
Telford attempted, where possible, to build roads on relatively flat slope in order to reduce the
number of horses needed to pull a cargo. Telford pavement section consisted of three layers. The
bottom layer was comprised of large stones as foundation. On top of this were placed two layers
of stones of smaller size followed by a gravel of another smaller size. Telford also built his roads
sloped downwards for water drainage.

John Macadam developed paving material of stone and aggregate. According to him,
angular aggregate laid over a compacted subgrade would perform better. He used a sloped
subgrade surface to improve drainage on which he placed angular aggregate (hand-broken,
maximum size 75 mm) in two layers. On top of this, the wearing course was placed (about 50
mm thick with a maximum aggregate size of 25 mm). The total depth of a typical Macadam
pavement was about 250 mm.

This Macadam pavement was later developed into Tar Macadam pavement, which uses
coal tar as the binder between the gravel and aggregate. Roads pavement have now became
Bituminous pavement because they use a binding agent. During the mid-1800s, sheet asphalt was
used in pavement design. This design is composed of 3 layers. Sheet asphalt is placed on a
concrete base consisting of a wearing course, asphalt cement and sand. The layer underneath, the
binder course, is composed of broken stone and asphalt cement. And finally a base layer of
hydraulic cement concrete or pavement rubble (old granite blocks, bricks) The final thickness of
this asphalt pavement was based on the weight of the traffic, the strength of the concrete and the

soil support. Today there are 2 types of pavements that are used, which are flexible and rigid
pavement. Flexible pavement consists of asphalt mixtures and aggregates placed over a
subgrade. Rigid pavement consists of cement concrete or reinforced concrete slabs.
The Roman roads are considered the beginning of road construction, Telford Pavements are
known as the second step of this process, followed by the Macadam Pavements that ultimately
lead to the Bitumen Roads. Concrete roads have added another dimension to stability and
strength of the roadways.
Roads in Indonesia
In Indonesia, road development system was done by Herman William Daendels, governor
general of Indies. In the 19th century, he started a road development project in Java, connecting
West and East of Java to anticipate aggression from the British. This road project is called AnyerPanarukan Highway. This highway is considered as the basis of modern and massive road
development in Indonesia. Other colonial government projects such as Kelok Sembilan Roads
that connected Payakumbuh and Pekanbaru still exists and can be used today. Ever since
Independence Day, Indonesia makes effort to integrate all transportation networks to reach
isolated areas and unify the nation. Road networks, including tols have been built all over the
country. Since era of Independence, road construction technology in Indonesia found new
findings and development. One well known technique is the Cakar Ayam foundation. Another
road construction technology is LPBH technology or Sosrobahu, which is used for pier head
construction for pillars.

References
http://www.brighthubengineering.com/structural-engineering/59665-road-construction-historyand-procedure/
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/immawidyawatiagustin-484945-history-of-road-inindonesia-by-imma/
http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/pavement-history/