EARTHEN ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Group Members SUBMITTED TO

Subash Chandra Poudel(18) Er. Manish Prakash
Pujan Bade(19)
Subarna KC(20)
Raj Kumar KC (21)
Gokarna Sijwal(22)
Bhusan Neupane(23)
Gopal Thapa(24)
Ajit Shrestha(25)
Suraj Prajapati(26)
Bijay Kafle(27)
 EARTHEN ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Introduction
• Road constructed with the locally available earth material preferably.
• Borrow pits are located at the nearby sites preferably outside the land
width where , the required earth is available.
• Sub-grade and the surface of the earth roads are given in large camber
of 1 in 33 to 1in 20.
• A maximum value of camber 1 in 20 is limit because of higher camber
will result cross ruts and corrosion of pavement soils.
Fig: Earthen Road
Source: Google image
ered satisfactory for constructing earth roads:

Specifications Of Materials
Course Base course Wearing courses

Clay contents < 5% 10 to 18%

Silt content 9 to 32% 5 to 15%

Sand content 60 to 80% 65 to 80%

Liquid limit < 35% <35%

Plasticity index < 6% 4 to 10%

Construction Procedure
• Material: Suitable borrow pits are located by doing the survey of the
adjacent land which are easy to reach and at economical haulage
distance. The various organic materials like trees, shrubs and grass
roots are removed before the excavation of the earth.
• Location of the center line: The center line and the road boundaries
are marked on the ground by driving the wooden pegs. To follow the
desired vertical profile of the road, reference pegs are also driven at a
certain spacing which depends upon the estimated length of the road
construction per day.
• Preparation of the sub-grade:
Steps for the preparation of subgrade
(a) Clearing site
(b) Excavation and construction of fills
(c) Shaping of sub-grade
site clearance may be done manually using appliances like spade, pick
and hand shovel
Or Using the mechanical equipment like Bulldozer and scraper etc.
Excavation and construction of fills may also be done manually or
using the excavation, hauling and the compaction equipment.
Dozers are considered very useful for haulage of short distances
If manually compacted allow to consolidate under atmospheric
pressure
Pavement construction:
• The soil is dumped on the prepared sub-grade and pulverized
• The soil may be a mixture of more than one soil to get the desired
properties
• The moisture content is checked and if extra moisture is needed, is
added to bring it to OMC.
• The soil is mixed, spread and rolled in layers such that the compaction
thickness of each layer does not exceed 10 cm
• The camber of the finished surface is checked and corrected when
necessary.
Opening to traffic:
• The compacted earth surface is allowed to dry out for few days and
then is opened to traffic.
Erosion problem in earth road
• Erosion is the wearing away of soil by water and usually to a much
lesser extent, by wind.
• The most usual cause of erosion is rain.
• Erosion on the Carriage way (where the traffic runs) or in the side
drain of the road results from too much water being allowed to
accumulate there.
• Most roads have a slight gradient (that is, they run uphill or downhill
slightly) so, if much water does collect on them, it will begin to flow.
• As the volume of water increases so does its speed, causing the
amount of erosion to increase to a much greater extent.
Fig. Erosion in earthen road
Source: Google image
Solution
• This can be prevented by diverting aIl the water into the outward at
intervals so that no excessive build-up of water is allowed to occur.
References
• www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/JF/435/26-675.pdf
• http://transportationengineering2012onwards.blogspot.com/2014/0
3/steps-for-construction-of-earth-roads.html