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Dream Civil: The Way of Learning

This document discusses the history and construction of macadam roads. John Loudon Macadam developed the first scientifically-based road construction method using layered stone of decreasing size. The standard macadam road construction process involves preparing the subgrade and adding sub-base, base, and surface layers made of compacted crushed stone. Over time, variations were developed using binding materials like water, traffic compaction, bitumen, and cement to increase durability.

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133 views5 pages

Dream Civil: The Way of Learning

This document discusses the history and construction of macadam roads. John Loudon Macadam developed the first scientifically-based road construction method using layered stone of decreasing size. The standard macadam road construction process involves preparing the subgrade and adding sub-base, base, and surface layers made of compacted crushed stone. Over time, variations were developed using binding materials like water, traffic compaction, bitumen, and cement to increase durability.

Uploaded by

Arni
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dream Civil

The Way of Learning

Home Articles

Macadam Road | Types of Macadam Road | Construction of Macadam Road | Cross


section of Macadam Road

There are different stages of road development. Among all of them, Macadam Road is the most
successful type of road.

John Loudon Macadam (1756 -1836 AD) was the surveyor-general of the road in England who put
forward an entirely new method of road construction. The macadam method was the first method
based on scientific thinking. It realized that the stresses due to wheel load get decrease at the lower
layers and so it is not necessary to provide large layer pavement.

The importance of subgrade, drainage and compaction was also recognized. So the subgrade was
compacted and was prepared with a slope of (1 in 36 ).

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Construction of Macadam Road
The standard size of the road was taken as 4.5 m in macadam road. The total thickness of the base,
sub-base and surface course was taken as 25 cm. The construction of the macadam road consists of
the following steps:

a. Sub Grade Preparation

Compacted subgrade having cross-slope 1 in 36 was prepared.

b. Sub Base Preparation

It was the layer above subgrade which was constructed using stones passing through 5 cm sieve. Its
thickness was 10cm.

c. Base Course Preparation

The base course was prepared from broken stones passing through 3.75 cm sieve. Its thickness was
10 cm.

d. Surface Course Preparation

It was prepared using broken stones passing through 1.9 cm sieve. Its thickness was 5 cm.

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It is the process of road construction when it was introduced by John Macadam.

Types of Macadam Road


Over time, different modified macadam roads were developed. Using binding materials in macadam
roads become more popular because of the increased durability and life of the road. Macadam road
can be classified into four types.

a. Water Bound Macadam


Over time, different road building technology was applied to roads by several engineers. One of them
is Richard Edgeworth. He filled the gaps between the surface stones using the mixture of stone dust
and water to make the surface more smooth. This method of construction is named as water bound
macadam.

The macadam road whose wearing coarse is constructed with clean crushed aggregates
which are mechanically interlocked by rolling and bounded together with the mixture of filler
material(sand or clay) and water that is laid on a prepared base course. It is abbreviated as
WBM road.

Advantages

a. Made from local materials and labours.

b. It is economical to construct.

c. No skilled manpower is required.

Disadvantages

a. They are permeable.

b. Short life.

c. Production of dust during service.

Also Read Construction, advantages & disadvantages of water bound macadam road.

b.Traffic Bound Macadam


In this macadam, broken stones or gravels are generally used at a wearing course. Multi-layers of
stones and gravels are provided in this type.

This road is consolidated by the action of traffic. It is used in rural as well as urban areas. The
compacted thickness of each layer may vary from 2.5 to 5.0 cm

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c.Bituminous Macadam
In bituminous macadam, bitumen is used as a binding material to bind stone chips and also to bind
base and sub-base courses. It is also called as Tar Bound Macadam.

Dust become a serious problem on macadam roads; so bituminous macadam was introduced.
Flexible pavement is a little modified type of Bituminous Macadam.

d. Cement Macadam
Cement macadam is quite similar to bitumen macadam. Cement is used as a binding material instead
of bitumen. Rigid Pavement is a modified type of Cement Macadam.

Read More: Earth Road, Types of Earth Road, Construction of Earth Road

Read More: Low-Cost Road, Types of low cost road, Construction of Low-cost road

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