PAVEMENT DESIGN

1) PAVEMENT CONDITION AND FIELD INVESTIGATION

1.1 The Project Corridor
Improvement and Up-gradation of Rangas-Kangoo Road from chainage km 0.000 to 5.840
(improvement of Hairpin bends, including Cross Drainage on various Chainage/RD’s and Wet
Mix Macadam, BM, BC) in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh.
The project corridor is important for various reasons. The project corridor traverses mostly through
Mountainous/Steep terrain. The existing pavement over the entire stretch is bituminous surface
of Single lane (3m) width. The type of the existing pavement is flexible. The pavement surface
condition is generally fair some potholes, patch work, cracking, rutting was observed. Overall
riding quality throughout the stretch is fair, the development of this corridor has been perceived
to be important from various improvement proposals by way of widening, improvement to
geometry, better quality of pavement, good riding surface, improvement to road markings, road
signs and traffic lights, wayside amenities such as bus bays have been recommended.
1.2 Sub-grade Investigations
The strength of sub-grade in terms of California Bearing Ratio (CBR) is required for the design of
new Flexible pavement system. To assess the existing sub-grade material properties, large trial
pits of size 1.0m X 1.0m have been taken at interface of carriageway edge and earthen shoulder
along the project road. The following tests have been carried out on each of the sub-grade samples
collected from trial pits.
• Grain size analysis – IS:2720 (part:4)
• Atterberg’s Limits (Liquid limit and plastic limit) – IS:2720 (part:5)
• Modified Proctor Density– IS:2720 (part:8)
• Free Swell Index Test– IS:2720 (part:40)
• Four days soaked CBR -– IS:2720 (part:16)
Laboratory testing of existing Sub-grade material has been carried out from excavated area in the
alignments and the results indicates that CBR of soil is in the range of 6.53 % to 9.21 %. These
materials are recommended for sub-grade and for embankments wherever it is necessary. Hence,
effective design CBR of 8% has been considered for the flexible design. The summary of existing
Sub-grade soil laboratory test results is given below.
 2) ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN
2.1 Flexible Pavement
Flexible pavement is composed of a bituminous material surface course and underlying base and
sub base courses. The bituminous material is more often asphalt whose viscous nature allows
significant plastic deformation. Most asphalt surfaces are built on a gravel base, although some 'full
depth' asphalt surfaces are built directly on the subgrade. Depending on the temperature at which
it is applied, asphalt is categorized as hot mix asphalt (HMA), warm mix asphalt, or cold mix asphalt.
Flexible Pavement is so named as the pavement surface reflects the total deflection of all
subsequent layers due to the traffic load acting upon it. The flexible pavement design is based on
the load distributing characteristics of a layered system.
It transmits load to the subgrade through a combination of layers. Flexible pavement distributes
load over a relatively smaller area of the subgrade beneath. The initial installation cost of a flexible
pavement is quite low which is why this type of pavement is more commonly seen universally.
However, the flexible pavement requires maintenance and routine repairs every few years. In
addition, flexible pavement deteriorates rapidly; cracks and potholes are likely to appear due to
poor drainage and heavy vehicular traffic.
A valuable advantage of flexible pavement is that it can be opened for traffic within 24 hrs after
completion. Also, the repair and maintenance of flexible pavement is easy and cost effective. A
typical cross section of flexible pavement as shown in below.

Typical Cross section of Flexible Pavement

2.2 Pavement Crust recommendations

Flexible pavement shall consist of the following pavement layers.
Bituminous Surfacing
The Bituminous Surfacing layer conforming to Clause 505 & Clause 506 of the MORD
specifications shall be provided as a wearing course.
Base course
Wet Mix Macadam (WMM) or Crusher Run Macadam Base are adopted as per Clauses 405,
406 and 411 of the MORD Specifications for Rural Roads (Ref 14). Where hard stone metal
is not available within economical leads, a cement stabilized base can be provided as per
Clause 404 of the MORD Specifications for Rural Roads (Ref 14).
 The various grading, plasticity and other requirements for a Gravel base are detailed in Clause
402 of the MORD Specifications for Rural Roads (Ref 14).
Sub-base course
Granular Sub-base materials conforming to Clause 401 of the MORD specifications for rural
roads are recommended for use. These specifications suggest three gradings and specify that
the materials passing 425-micron sieve should have Liquid Limit and Plasticity Index.

Subgrade
Subgrade material conforming to the requirements established by the MORD specification for
Rural Roads (Ref 14) shall be provided. The materials used for subgrade construction should
have a dry unit weight of not less than 16.5 KN/m 3.
2.3 Pavement Design for Main Carriageway
Design Inputs
The parameters considered for the design of flexible pavements are mentioned under:
 Design Traffic: 1 MSA
 Design CBR: 8 %.
 As per figure-4 (Pavement Design Catalogues for Gravel/Granular Bases and Sub-Bases) of
IRC 72:2015, the pavement composition for Main Carriageway is below:
 Open Graded Premix Carpet (OGPC): 20 mm.
 Bituminous Macadam (BM): 75 mm.
 Wet Mix Macadam (WMM): 150 mm.
 Granular Sub-base (GSB): 150 mm.
2.4 Existing Surface
On existing surface, BT layer has been Scarified and 120mm thick WMM layer has been laid as
profile correction course on existing surface