Chapter-1, Introduction to Highway Engineering 2011/2003

Chapter-I
1. Introduction

1.1. Highway Engineering

Highway engineering is a specialization of civil engineering profession which normally
engaged in the design and construction of roadways, streets, railways, airfields and
highway architectures.

It is the process of design and construction of efficient and safe highways and roads.
Standards of use in states include AASHTO as the standard for policy in geometric design.
In our country Ethiopia we have ERA standards as a guide for a highway design (Geometric,
Pavement and Drainage design).

1.2. Scope of Highway Engineering

Phases Details
1. Development, planning and locations - Historical background
- Basis for planning
- Master plan
- Engineering surveys and
- Highway alignment
2. Highway design, Geometrics and - Road geometrics and their design
Structures - Rigid and flexible pavements
- Design factors and thickness design ;
Overlay design
- Design of the drainage system

3. Traffic performance and its control - Traffic studies and analysis

- Need for new road links
- Traffic regulation and control
- Intersection design and their controls with
signs, signals and markings

4. Materials, construction and maintenance - Highway materials and mix design

- Highway construction
- Earthwork
- Construction of different types of
pavement

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(Earthen, soil stabilized, water bound

macadam, bituminous surfaces and cement
concrete roads)
-Pavement failures, evaluation, maintenance
and drainage system
5. Economics finance and administration - Road user cost and economic analysis of
highway projects
- Pavement types and maintenance
measures;
- Highway finance and phasing of
expenditures,
- Administration

1.3. Pavement Engineering

A branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to design and maintain
flexible and rigid pavements. This includes streets and highways and involves knowledge
of soils, hydraulics and material properties. The field of pavement design is dynamic in that
concepts are continually changing as new data become available. There are many methods
of design available, such as AASHTO- standard for policy in highway design and in case of
our country ERA PDM etc. This is because opinions regarding suitability of designs vary
from place to place.

In particular, materials available for construction of pavements have a major influence on

design. There are however principles of design that is common to all problems irrespective
of other extenuating circumstances.

Pavement engineering involves the determination of the type and thickness of pavement
surface course, base, and subbase layers that in combination are safe, cost effective, and
structurally adequate for the projected traffic loading and specific project conditions. This
combination of roadbed materials placed in layers above the subgrade (also known as
basement soil) is referred to as the ‘pavement’ or the ‘pavement structure’.
The study of highway pavements involves the study of soils and paving materials, their
behaviour under load, and the design of pavement to carry that load under all climatic
conditions. All pavements derive their ultimate support from the underlying sub grade;
therefore, knowledge of basic soil mechanics is essential.
Highway engineers were aware that performance of pavement was dependent to a large
extent upon the types of soils over which the highway was constructed. As a result
correlation of pavement performance with sub grade types were established.

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1.4. Requirements of Pavements

The surface of the roadway should be stable and non-yielding, to allow the heavy wheel
loads of road traffic to move with least possible rolling resistance. The road surface should
also be even along the longitudinal profile to enable the fast vehicles to move safely and
comfortably at the design speed.
The earth road may not fulfil any of these requirements, especially during the varying
conditions of traffic loads and the weather.
- At high moisture contents, the soil becomes weaker and soft and starts yielding
under heavy wheel loads, thus increasing the tractive resistance.
- The unevenness of the surface along the longitudinal profile of the road causes
vertical oscillations in the fast moving automobiles, increasing the fuel consumption
and the wear of the vehicle components, resulting in a considerable increase in the
vehicle operation cost.
- Uneven pavement causes discomfort and fatigue to the passengers of fast moving
vehicles and cyclists.
Therefore, in order to provide a stable and even surface for the traffic, the roadway is
provided with a suitably designed and constructed pavement structure. Thus a pavement
consisting g of a few layers of pavement materials is constructed over a prepared soil sub
grade to serve as a carriage way.
The pavement carries the wheel loads and transfer the load stresses through a wider area
on the soil sub grade below. The reduction in the wheel load stresses due to the pavement
depends both on its thickness and the characteristics of the pavement layers. The objectives
of a well designed and constructed pavement is to keep elastic deformation of pavement
within the permissible limits, so that the pavement can sustain a large number of repeated
load applications during the design life.
Based on the vertical alignment and environmental conditions of the site, the pavement
may be constructed over an embankment, cut or almost at the ground level. It is always
desirable to construct the pavement well above the maximum level of the ground water to
keep the sub grade relatively dry even during monsoons.

1.5. Types of Pavement Structures

Based on the structural behaviour, pavements are generally classified in to two categories:
A. Flexible pavements
B. Rigid pavements

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A. Flexible Pavements
It is normally called asphalt pavement in a layman’s view. It ranges from a sub grade
roadway to a well constructed asphalt concrete. Flexible pavements are those which on the
whole have low or negligible flexural strength and are rather flexible in their structural
action under the loads. They reflect the deformation of the lower layers on to the surface of
the layer.

Flexible pavement Provides sufficient thickness for load distribution through multilayer
structure. The stresses & strains in the subgrade soil layers are within the required limits.
The strength of subgrade soil would have a direct bearing on the total thichness of the
flexible pavement. It is designed to take advantage of the decreasing magnitude of stresses
with depth. The load is largely transmitted to the sub grade soil through the lateral
distribution of stresses with increasing depth. The pavement thickness is designed such
that stresses on the subgrade soil are kept within its bearing capacity and the sub grade is
prevented from excessive deformation. Its structural strength and smoothness depends to
a large extent on the deformation of the subgrade soil.
Atypical flexible pavement consists of four components:
i. Soil sub grade Surface course(asphalt concrete)
ii. Sub base course Base course
iii. Base course Sub base
iv. Surface course Sub grade (compacted soil)

Fig. 2.1 A typical flexible pavement

Flexible pavements transmit the stresses to the lower layers by grain to grain transfer
through the points of contact in the granular structures.
i. Surface course
- The surface course is the top course of an asphalt pavement, sometimes called
wearing course.
- It is usually constructed by dense graded hot asphalt mix.

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- It is a structural part of the pavement, which must be tough to resist distortion

under traffic and provide a smooth and skid resistant riding surface.
- The surface must be waterproof to protect the entire pavement and subgrade from
the weakening effect of water.
ii. Base course
- The base course is the layer of material immediately beneath the surface course.
- It may be composed of well graded crushed stone (unbounded), granular mixed
with binder, or stabilized materials.
- It is the main structural part of the pavement and provides a level surface for laying
the surface layer.
- If constructed over the sub grade, it prevents intrusions of the fine subgrade soils
into the pavement structure.
iii. Sub base course
- It is the layer of material beneath the base course constructed using local and
cheaper materials for economic reason on top of the subgrade.
- It provides additional help to the base and the upper in distributing the load.
- It facilitates drainage of free water that might get accumulated below the pavement.
iv. Sub grade
- It is the foundation on which the vehicle load and the weight of the pavement layers
finally rest.
- It is an in situ or a layer of selected material compacted to the properly drained,
desirable and compacted to receive the pavement layers.

Types of Flexible pavements

All granular materials with or without bituminous binder, fall under flexible pavements.
The followings are the types of flexible pavements:
 Sub grade roads (earth roads)
 Gravel roads
 Surface treatments
 Concrete Asphalt

a) Earthen Roads
- Designed for a very low traffic where the soil can be trafficable.
- Used when there is economic limitation.

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- The natural subgrade soil can be made to carry the traffic load after clearing and
shaping.
- Such earth roads give seasonal services and require reshaping after seasonal
changes.
b) Gravel Roads
- Better than earth roads
- Constructed by spreading gravel over the subgrade, shaping and compacting to
avoid excessive strain at the sub grade level.
- Usually provides services in all seasons with less frequent reshaping as compared to
earth roads.
- Designed to carry low to medium traffic and serve as stage construction.
- The surface material should be kept to certain standard such as grading.
c) Surface Treatments
- Typically, a surface treatment is a thin layer of material (about ½ to ¾ in thick)
applied to the surface of a road in single or multiple lifts.
- Surface treatments generally consist of a bituminous material applied to crushed
stone.
- Since the surface treatment is relatively thin, it is usually not intended to support
loads by itself.
- A surface treatment is applied to a granular type base by a pressure distributor
truck. This type of vehicle is equipped with a tank containing the surfacing material
and a spray bar with nozzles that spread the binder over a given width of roadway
d) Concrete Asphalt
- It is a constituent of quality crushed aggregates and bituminous material.
- It is usually constructed by dense graded hot asphalt mix.
- It is a structural part of the pavement, which must be tough to resist distortion
under traffic and provide a smooth and skid resistant riding surface.
NB: We will discuss the marshall method of asphalt concrete mix design and the
structural design of AC in chapter 4 & 7 respectively.
The quality and the cost increases as we go from the earthen (subgrade) roads to the
Concrete asphalt. Concrete Asphalt is the best flexible pavement and it is commonly used in
our country, Ethiopia.

B. Rigid Pavements

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Rigid pavements are an all-weathered pavement, those which possess note worthy flexural
strength or flexural rigidity. The stresses are not transferred from grain to grain to the
lower layers. It is made up of Portland cement concrete either plane, reinforced or pre-
stressed concrete. It does not deform to the shape of the lower surface as it can bridge the
minor variations of lower layer. It is capable of transmitting the wheel load stresses
through a wider area below. The effect of subgrade soil properties on the thickness of rigid
pavement is less important than that of flexible pavement. The structural capacity here is
largely provided by the slab itself. Thus, the performance of rigid pavements is more
governed by the strength of the concrete slab that the subgrade supports.

Cement concrete
Base course
Soil subgrade (compacted soil)

Fig 2.2 Rigid pavement

The subgrade may provide a uniform support for the slab. However where the sub grade
soil cannot provide a uniform support, there is always a necessity to build a sub-base
course under cement concrete slab.
Types of Rigid Pavement
Concrete pavements can be classified in to four types:
• JPCP- Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement
• JRCP- Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement
• CRCP- Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement
• PCP- Pre stressed Concrete Pavement
We may have a semi-rigid pavement constructed from pozollana ash instead of Portland
cement.
 JPCP: In jointed plain concrete pavement,
- The pavement consist an unreinforced concrete slab cast in place
continuously and divided into bays of predetermined dimensions by the
construction of joints.
- The bays dimensions are made sufficiently short so as to ensure that they do
not crack.

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- The bays are linked together by tie bars, which is to prevent horizontal
movement and thus ensure load transfer through aggregate interlock.
 JRCP: In Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement,
- The pavement consist cast in place reinforced concrete slab divided in to
bays separated by joints.
- The reinforcement is made to prevent developing cracks.
- The bays are linked together by tie bars to prevent horizontal movement and
thus ensure load transfer through aggregate interlock.
- The amount of distributed steel increases with the increase in joint spacing
and is designed to hold the slab together after cracking.
 CRCP: Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement,
- These are reinforced concrete pavements designed joint-free for the purpose
of eliminating joints which are the weak spots in rigid pavements.
- The expansion and contraction movements are prevented by a high level of
base restraint.
- The frequent transverse cracks are held tightly closed by a large amount of
continuous high tensile steel longitudinal reinforcement.
 PCP: Prestressed concrete pavement,
- PCP has less probability of cracking and fewer transverse joints and
therefore results in less maintenance and longer pavement life.

Composite Pavement
Composite pavements are pavements composed of cement concrete as a bottom layer and
hot-mix asphalt as a top layer to obtain an ideal pavement with the most desirable
characteristics, i.e. it is a combination of flexible and rigid pavement. The cement concrete
slab provides a strong base and the hot-mix asphalt provides a smooth and non-reflective
surface; in other words, it is an asphalt overlay. However, this type of pavement is very
expensive and is rarely used as a new construction. It is normally constructed in a heavily
trafficked road and is common on a bridge construction.

1.6. Comparison of Flexible and Rigid Pavement

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• The manner of load transfer

• Design precision

• Design life

• Maintenance requirement

• Initial cost

• Suitability for stage construction

• Surface characteristics

• Permeability

• Traffic dislocation during construction

Exercise: Explain the above comparison.

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