CRITERIA FOR DESIGN AND REHABILITATION OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS

Abstract

Highway network is an important factor for the social and economic development of any region or country. The economic development of the nation links its direct benefits with the efficient system of transportation. An efficient highway network requires well designed pavements, which should be stable and non yielding to cope up with the high range traffic volumes. In India, a major portion of road network is constituted by flexible pavements. CBR method continues to be in use in India for design and rehabilitation, which is satisfactory so long as material and conditions of loading for which they were developed do not change. The correlation between CBR and pavements performance for large number of design inputs is not likely to yield any definite conclusions where there is a variation in climatic and environmental condition along with the loading. So, a more scientific and rational approach that sees maintenance and construction as interacting strategies over time and defines a pavement assessment procedure to determine the correct timing and nature of maintenance, is needed particularly for Indian conditions. For design and rehabilitation purposes, failure criteria expressed quantatively in more exact physical term is needed. Although the failure conditions is of importance in design, the maintenance engineer is more concerned with the critical condition at which it will be more appropriate and most economical to apply the strengthening/resurfacing measures to extend the service life of a pavement beyond the original design life.