Highway Engineering

Dr. Anmar Falih Diekan

Department of Civil Engineering / College of Engineering
University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa
2020-2021

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11.12.2020 Lecture 1: Road Construction Development 1
Introduction: Early Road Systems:
Over the course of history, human activities have developed and increased day by day.
Consequently, this has raised the need to transport people and goods from one place to
another. The invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia in about 5000 BC and the development of
the axle that linked two wheels (O’Flaherty, 2007), contributed to the evolution of civilizations
by facilitating communications between different communities and increasing the exchange of
goods and the sharing of ideas and experiences.

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Historically,
• The Babylonians built the earliest roads using natural asphalt as a binder;
• The Egyptians constructed roads to transport stones during the building of the pyramids (Watson,
1994).
• The Chinese built the Silk Route, which is amongst the best known roads, in about 2600 BC.
• The Persian Empire also benefited from this route through its lands for trade between China and
Europe (Kendrick et al., 2004).

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• In Europe, in about 2500 BC, roads were built using log-rafts; such roads have been
discovered in Britain: one crosses the Somerset peat bogs to Glastonbury. Also,
similar roads have been discovered in the Swiss Lakeside Villages and across the
Pangola Swamps in Hungary (Kendrick et al., 2004).
• In Indian civilization, brick paving with proper piped surface water drainage
systems dating from about 3000 BC has been discovered.

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Actually, the most professional roads were built by the Roman Empire around 312 BC.
The Romans built 29 major radial roads to connect Rome to other cities and
encampments (O’Flaherty, 2007). Generally, they cut deep ditches, then layers of
chalk, flint, sand and gravel were constructed to form embankments beneath the final
surface, which was finished with huge stone slabs. Figure (2-1) is example of a paved
Roman road. The Roman roads system extended as a loop from Spain through France,
Germany, Italy to Turkey, also through Syria to Tangier in the north west of Africa. The
total length of the roads system was approximately 78000 km. However, this roads
system represents the most organized roads system until the 17th century in Europe.

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 Figure -1 Roman Road Structure, (Kendrick et al., 2004)
Figure. Roman road structure, (Kendrick et al., 2004).

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LJMU 2020
The development of the coach during the 16th century led to the start of stagecoach
services between Edinburgh and Leith in 1610. Also, steady development in
manufacturing industries during the 18th century put huge pressure on the British
Parliament, which responded by passing a number of statutes aimed at improving and
extending the road network. By 1706, over 1100 Turnpike Trusts had been created, with
responsibility for 36,800 km of roads. The duties of these Trusts were constructing and
maintaining a specified road length, also to levy tolls upon certain types of traffic. At the
same time, France had applied the same Roman construction principles to build streets
in Paris and elsewhere in France.

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During the 18th century a new road builders’ era commenced, started by Robert Phillips
when he submitted his suggestion “A dissertation concerning the Present State of the
High Roads of England” to the Royal Society in 1736. Phillips suggested a solid road
surface of a beaten gravel layer resting on a well-drained base.
Another well-known English road maker was John Metcalf, who built 290 km of roads in
Yorkshire. Metcalf believed in good foundation and drainage; he arched carriageways to
help surface water drainage; also, on weak/soft ground, he used a sub-base raft of
bundled heather, Figure below.

Figure. Metcalf’s road structure, (Kendrick et al., 2004)

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Additionally, the contributions of two Scottish road engineers, namely Thomas Telford
and John Macadam, were extremely important in the development of road
construction methods and traffic stream carriages; for the first time, roads were being
built to suit the requirements of the traffic. Regarding construction methods,
Macadam’s varied from Telford’s in that the formation was shaped to the road camber,
while the sub-base was formed to camber in Telford’s method - see Figures below. Also,
Macadam’s method was a cheaper form of construction.

Figure. Telford’s road structure Figure. Macadam’s road structures (Kendrick et al., 2004)
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LJMU 2020
Road development was negatively affected after the first operation of the railways in
1825, as the numbers of passengers who were using stagecoaches started to
decrease continually; consequently the Turnpike revenues decreased. However, at
the beginning of the 20th century, and especially after the end of World War One,
attention to the development of roads and highways was renewed; this interest in
road development resulted from the development in motor vehicles. The
development started with the spreading of tar on roads to control dust created by
vehicles’ movement and then to reconstructing existing roads.

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However, the development in vehicles in terms of extra weight and speed has led to the
need for new roads and highways; as a result, for example, dual carriageway roads were
constructed and road geometric designs were advanced. Also, vehicle development put
a huge stress on pavement constructors to build structures that could resist high stresses
and bad weather conditions. Accordingly, construction techniques were advanced; more
structural layers were built; and the structural layers and subgrade were compacted
using different materials to improve their mechanical properties. During the 20th
century significant developments in road and highway construction were achieved to
satisfy the traffic requirements. Today, roads and highways represent a great
achievement, but of course the development will not stop and continued developments
are still in demand.

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Design policies standards used in the United States are typically
based on publications of the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) as well as
research circulated by the Transportation Research Board, the
Institute of Transportation Engineers, the Federal Highway
Administration, and the Department of Transportation.

In Iraq, total length of highway network is 45,550 km, paved:

38,400 km and unpaved: 7,150 km. The highways are
geometrical designed by [State Commission of Roads and
Bridges (SCRB), (2005), Republic of Iraq, Ministry of Housing and
Construction, Department of Planning and Studies, Baghdad].

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Pavement Structures:
The main purpose of the pavement or pavement layers is:
• To minimize stresses generated by traffic on the subgrade to such a level where no
deformations occur.
• Simultaneously, the pavement layers themselves should be withstanding the stresses
and strains which are imposed on each layer for the entire life of the pavement.

Figure. Modern pavement types

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Typically, modern pavement structures are either flexible, rigid or a composite of the
two. As can be seen in Figures below, normally bituminous, hydraulic bound or
concrete layers are built on foundation courses depending on the design decision.
The decision and selection of course and layer type is generally dependent on:
• Common practices,
• Availability of the materials,
• Site characteristics, etc.

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LJMU 2020
It should be known that a layer is an element of a pavement laid in a single operation,
while a course is a structural element of a pavement constructed with a single material;
a course may be laid in one or more layers. However, construction of the pavement
normally starts with enhancing the subgrade “natural soil” bearing capacity by
compaction, and then layers are constructed one by one.
A capping course may be constructed over the subgrade depending on the site terrain,
and then the sub-base course is placed; both capping and sub-base form the pavement
foundation.

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LJMU 2020
In a rigid pavement type, a quality concrete layer is normally constructed over the
foundation; in some cases a base course is used. The concrete slab could be reinforced
or plain concrete; also it could be jointed or continuous. Rigid pavement is preferred for
some sites such as
• Petrol stations
• Heavy vehicle lots
Additionally, a bituminous layer could overlay the concrete course, mainly to enhance
ride quality in terms of noise: this pavement structure is called composite pavement.

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Flexible pavement courses over the foundation may include base, binder and surface
courses. The base course is the main structural element and it could be constructed
from granular material which may sometimes be mixed with hydraulic or bituminous
material. Binder and surface courses are bituminous mixtures; the surface course is
exposed directly to weather and traffic actions, so this course should withstand traffic
loading, weather action and wearing from tyres. Furthermore, the surface course has to
provide high riding quality and sufficient skid resistance. Flexible pavements represent
the majority of paved roads globally. In Europe and North America, more than 90% of
roads and highways are surfaced with flexible pavements (NAPA and EAEA, 2011), due to
their unique high quality and riding quality, together with the lower cost compared with
other pavement types.

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Contact details:
Dr Anmar Dulaimi Scan the Quick Response
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA ), UK code with your smartphone
E-mail: [email protected]