CE-325

Transportation Planning & Management

Lecture 10

PAVEMENT TYPES
Engr. Amjad Khan
MS Transportation Engineering (NUST)
 PAVEMENT TYPES

COMPOSITE
FLEXIBLE RIGID PAVEMENT
PAVEMENT PAVEMENT
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Conventional flexible pavements are layered systems with better
materials on top where the intensity of stress is high and inferior
materials at the bottom where the intensity is low . Adherence to this
design principle makes possible the use of local materials and usually
results in a most economical design. This is particularly true in regions
where high-quality materials are expensive but local materials of
inferior quality are readily available.
 FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT
Figure shows the cross section of a conventional flexible pavement .
Starting from the top, the pavement consists of seal coat, surface
course, tack coat, binder course, prime coat, base course, sub base
course, compacted subgrade, and natural subgrade. The use of the
various courses is based on either necessity or economy, and some of
the courses may be omitted.
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Seal Coat Seal coat is a thin asphalt surface treatment used to
waterproof the surface or to provide skid resistance where the
aggregates in the surface course could be polished by traffic and
become slippery.
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Surface Course The surface course is the top course of an asphalt
pavement, sometimes called the wearing course. It is usually
constructed of dense graded HMA . It must be tough to resist
distortion under traffic and provide a smooth and skid-resistant riding
surface . It must be waterproof to protect the entire pavement and
subgrade from the weakening effect of water . If the above
requirements cannot be met, the use of a seal coat is recommended
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Binder Course The binder course, sometimes called the asphalt
base course, is the asphalt layer below the surface course. There are
two reasons that a binder course is used in addition to the surface
course . First, the HMA is too thick to be compacted in one layer, so it
must be placed in two layers . Second, the binder course generally
consists of larger aggregates and less asphalt and does not require as
high a quality as the surface course, so replacing a part of the surface
course by the binder course results in a more economical design .If the
binder course is more than 3 in . (76 mm), it is generally placed in two
layers.
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Tack Coat A tack coat is a very light application of asphalt, usually
asphalt emulsion diluted with water, used to ensure a bond between
the surface being paved and the overlying course. It is important that
each layer in an asphalt pavement be bonded to the layer below. Tack
coats are also used to bond the asphalt layer to a PCC base or an old
asphalt pavement.
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Prime Coat A prime coat is an application of low-viscosity cutback
asphalt to an absorbent surface, such as an untreated granular base on
which an asphalt layer will be placed . It’s purpose is to bind the
granular base to the asphalt layer. The difference between a tack coat
and a prime coat is that a tack coat does not require the penetration of
asphalt into the underlying layer, whereas a prime coat penetrates
into the underlying layer, plugs the voids, and forms a watertight
surface. Although the type and quantity of asphalt used are quite
different, both are spray applications.
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Base Course and Sub base Course The base course is the
layer of material immediately beneath the surface or binder
course . It can be composed of crushed stone , crushed slag, or
other untreated or stabilized materials .
The sub base course is the layer of material beneath the base
course .The reason that two different granular materials are used
is for economy.
Instead of using the more expensive base course material for the
entire layer, local and cheaper materials can be used as a sub
base course on top of the subgrade .

If the base course is open graded, the sub base course with more
fines can serve as a filter between the subgrade and the base
course.
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Base Course
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Subgrade The top 6 in . (152 mm) of subgrade should be
scarified and compacted to the desirable density near the
optimum moisture content . This compacted subgrade may be
the in-situ soil or a layer of selected material
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Metro bus project Islamabad
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Metro bus project Islamabad
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Metro bus project Islamabad
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Metro bus project Islamabad

FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

Metro bus project Islamabad

FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

Metro bus project Islamabad

FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

Metro bus project Islamabad

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Rigid Pavements
 Rigid pavements are constructed of Portland cement concrete and
should be analyzed by the plate theory, instead of the layered
theory. Plate theory is a simplified version of the layered theory
that assumes the concrete slab to be a medium thick plate with a
plane before bending which remains a plane after bending.
 The reason that the layered theory is applicable to flexible
pavements but not to rigid pavements is that PCC is much stiffer
than HMA and distributes the load over a much wider area. The
existence of joints in rigid pavements also makes the layered
theory inapplicable .
 In contrast to flexible pavements, rigid pavements are placed
either directly on the prepared subgrade or on a single layer of
granular or stabilized material . Because there is only one layer of
material under the concrete and above the subgrade, some call it a
base course, others’ a sub base.
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If opportunity doesn't knock, build a
door (Milton Berle)