DRAINAGE (CONTROL OF WATER) IN ROAD PAVEMENT CONSTRUCTION AND

MAINTENANCE
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
SUBGRADE DRAINAGE
EARTHWORKS CONSOLIDATION
FROST HEAVE
SUB-BASE DRAINAGE
WATER DAMAGE TO A ROAD PAVEMENT (FAILURE DUE TO HYDRAULIC PRESSURE)
WATER DAMAGE TO A ROAD PAVEMENT (FAILURE DUE TO BINDER STRIPPING)
ROAD PAVEMENT STRUCTURAL FAILURE
DTP DESIGN MANUAL HD 25/94
DRAINAGE 0F POROUS SURFACE COURSES
WATER TABLE LEVEL

INTRODUCTION

DRAINAGE is VERY! VERY! VERY! IMPORTANT, both in relation to road pavement construction
and maintenance.

These few notes are related to the maintenance of the drainage of a road pavement and do not
provide information on the initial design of the drainage system for new road construction , small
or large.

With a rural road network drainage of the road pavement will mostly be just down to the
maintenance of ditches adjacent to the highway, and ensuring that all culverts are free flowing,
not complicated is it, but it is surprising how often these simple maintenance procedures are
neglected.

You MUST keep the water-table low, below and surrounding the road pavement to prevent the
moisture content of the subgrade increasing, and hence decreasing the subgrade strength,
measured by the CBR value, on which the road pavement was designed.
If this is not done by the use of french drains, or even open ditches adjacent to the highway, the
road pavement will weaken and fail.

The water-table of naturally occurring ground will rise and fall from winter to summer, bear this in
mind when designing the road, and design for the highest water table (weakest subgrade)
conditions.
Good drainage will help to keep the water table (and strength) of the road pavement in
equilibrium.

Also the road pavement itself must be constructed so that it will drain in the event of a failure of
the integrity of the surfacing layers, i.e. if water is able to enter the road pavement there must be a
path for it to exit.
The internal drainage function of a road pavement is usually performed by the GSB layer, and this
layer MUST be drained in some way.
In my younger days this function was provided by a french drain on the lower side channel and
periodically piped to an outside drain or open ditch, but this practice seems to have become
redundant.

You must also be aware that many of the "new" "negative textured" proprietary bituminous
mixtures are open graded, i.e. porous, and allow the passage of water through the surface
course.
If the water present in the surface course is not prevented from entering the road pavement by
means of an impervious binder course or a completely impervious bond coat, water will enter the
road pavement from above and weaken it, even to the extent of road pavement failure.

Water below the road pavement must be kept low and not be allowed to rise up into the
construction layers, and water CAN flow upwards, by capillary action, this can be promoted even
further by frost action from above penetrating the road pavement and initiating a process that
actually sucks water up from below before it freezes.

IF WATER IS ABLE TO ENTER THE ROAD PAVEMENT, FOR WHAT EVER REASON, THE DESIGN
OF THE ROAD PAVEMENT SHOULD BE SUCH THAT THE WATER HAS A WAY OUT, THIS IS
USUALLY THROUGH A SUB-BASE LAYER THAT IS DRAINED TO AN INSTALLED DRAINAGE
SYSTEM OR ROAD SIDE DITCH.
IF WATER CANNOT FIND A PATH OUT OUT THE ROAD PAVEMENT FAILURE OF THE HIGHWAY
WILL BE PREMATURE AND SWIFT, AS THE WHEEL LOAD WILL NO LONGER BE CORRECTLY
TRANSFERRED DOWNWARDS THROUGH THE ROAD PAVEMENT TO THE UNDERLYING
SUBGRADE.

IT IS A MUCH BETTER POLICY, WITH APPROPRIATE HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES,

TO PREVENT WATER ENTERING THE ROAD PAVEMENT.
DO NOT LET SITUATIONS SHOWN ABOVE EXIST FOR LONG PERIODS OR SERIOUS ROAD
PAVEMENT FAILURE OF ALL LAYERS WILL RESULT.

SUBGRADE DRAINAGE

The subgrade is the layer of naturally occurring material the road is built upon, OR It can refer to
the imported fill material that has been used to create an embankment upon which the road
pavement is constructed.

The strength of the subgrade or the material constituting the subgrade is commonly measured
using the CBR test.

The strength of the subgrade is an important factor influencing the thickness of the road
pavement design.

Where the subgrade is weak, i.e. a low CBR, this will usually be associated with clay subgrades
and/or soils that have a high clay content, it will be necessary to have a capping layer over the
subgrade to increase the strength before the actual road pavement thickness is designed.

The strength of the subgrade can be maintained or even increased by good drainage, and bad
drainage will weaken an existing good subgrade.

EARTHWORKS CONSOLIDATION

Consolidation is the compression of soil under steady pressure due to the expulsion of water
from the voids.
So, you MUST remember soil can consolidate after it has been fully compacted, especially if the
soil has a high moisture content.
Consolidation may take many years depending on the drainage conditions of the embankment /
subgrade / foundation.
If the load is removed from the soil, water may return to the voids causing swelling, and heave of
any road built in this situation.

FROST HEAVE

The term frost heave is referring to the phenomena where a road will actually "heave", i.e. rise up
above its normal level due to the action of frost.
It is uncommon in this country because of the relative mildness of the winters, and the good
engineering practice that has been taking place for many years, i.e. our design standards have
specified that no frost susceptible material is included in the top 450mm. of any road pavement,
also good drainage to prevent water availability.

Where frost heave does take place the process is such that the freezing takes place from the
surface downwards, "sucking" water up from lower levels, laying down subsequent layers of ice
causing the road to expand upwards, i.e." heave".
For frost heave to take place you need road construction material that absorbs water and water
for it to absorb, so good drainage helps prevent frost heave.

SUB-BASE DRAINAGE

The sub-base also acts as a drainage layer,

BUT IT CAN ONLY DO SO IF YOU INCORPORATE A DRAINAGE SYSTEM (HOWEVER BASIC) TO

REMOVE THE WATER FROM THE SUB-BASE.

This can be as simple as taken the sub-base layer completely out to the edge of the road
construction where it can discharge into a ditch or channel, this simple option is not advisable
when the road is on the top of an embankment, the water from the sub-base layer should be
collected in some manner and piped down the embankment to prevent embankment erosion over
time.

Sub-base is also a load spreading layer, especially during construction, carrying site traffic and
protecting the subgrade, to an extent, (as long as conditions are not too wet).
If the sub-base becomes saturated it can no longer spread the wheel load in a correct manner
down to the underlying subgrade.

WATER DAMAGE TO A ROAD PAVEMENT (FAILURE DUE TO HYDRAULIC PRESSURE)

Once water has entered a road pavement, water damage is initially caused by hydraulic pressure,
i.e. vehicles passing over the road pavement impart considerable sudden pressure on the water
present in the road pavement, this pressure forces the water further into the road fabric and
breaks it up, this process can be very rapid once it begins.
Water that has entered the road pavement and is subject to the process of freezing (expansion)
and thawing during the winter also brings about the swift failure of the road pavement.

Eventually the water will descend to the subgrade layer below the road pavement and weaken this
layer thus lowering the CBR of the subgrade which the road pavement design was based upon,
and deep seated failure of the road will begin.

WATER DAMAGE TO A ROAD PAVEMENT (FAILURE DUE TO BINDER STRIPPING)

Most aggregates have a greater affinity for water than they do with bitumen, and with the presence
of water and movement of the aggregate it is quite possible for the binder film on the aggregate
particle to be broken and water to come in to contact with the aggregate surface.

Once the integrity of the binder layer has been broken it will depend upon the chemical nature of
the aggregate particle and the viscosity of the binder as to how long it will be before stripping of
the aggregate particles becomes an engineering problem.

Depending on the viscosity of the binder and the thickness of the binder film surrounding the
aggregate the stripping of the bitumen will occur hardly at all, fairly slowly or quite quite quickly.

This can be compared,

(a) to a film of highly viscous 50pen. grade bitumen enhanced with cellulose or mineral fibres
which will create a thick stable coating of bitumen around the aggregate particle,
to
(b) a low viscosity, highly workable, low temperature, hand-lay cutback material for emergency
patching or very low stress sites.

The second example strips quite readily, and in most cases should only be regarded as a
temporary measure before being removed and a more stable bituminous material used to replace
it.

There are many degrees of stripping between the two examples I quote, and it is a fact that some
aggregate sources are more prone to stripping than others.

The first example I mention with the more viscous (stiffer) bitumens will display differing levels of
stripping due to water action due to the nature of the bituminous mixture.
The more durable bituminous mixtures, i.e. hot rolled asphalt and stone mastic asphalt are
designed and produced to have high bitumen contents with almost all voids filled with bitumen to
provide an impervious matrix, that will be highly resistant to stripping.

With proprietary Thin Surface Course Systems (Thin Surfacings) surface courses (wearing
courses), many of these surfacing materials will actually be designed to allow the passage of
water through the material matrix.
And, even though they will contain penetration grade bitumens, because of their exposed position
in the road pavement structure these porous bituminous mixtures will have increased exposure to
water in the internal matrix of the material, and this will increase the potential rate of stripping of
the bitumen.
The rate of failure bituminous layer will be dependent upon thickness of binder film on the
aggregate particles, this usually being closely related to the binder content of the bituminous
mixture.

But, I do not want to cause panic amongst those less familiar with bituminous mixtures, it is
unlikely that you will have significant stripping with any material that has a 200pen. grade bitumen
or above (meaning stiffer i.e. 100pen., 70pen., 50pen.), with a sensible bitumen content, combined
with a reasonably proportioned, dense, aggregate grading.
(However bituminous mixture that allow the ingress of water also allow the access of oxygen and
the oxidation of the bitumen, but this is another topic not covered here.)

Most of the dense base (roadbases) and basecourse (binder course), and close graded surface
course (wearing courses )in BS 4987 (BS EN 13108:Part1 from 01-01-08), coupled with the
appropriated grade of binder will give you these properties.

Hot rolled asphalts found specified in BS 594 (BS EN 13108:Part 4 from 01-01-08) in general have
higher binder contents of stiffer grade bitumens and as such are very unlikely to incur binder
stripping.

BS 594 and BS 4987 are now superseded see HERE for details.

ROAD PAVEMENT STRUCTURAL FAILURE

This is when the pavement has failed, maybe not completely, but in a major way.

The pavement is no longer able to absorb and transmit the wheel loading through the fabric of the
road without causing fairly rapid further deterioration of the road pavement.

The layers making up the road pavement have failed for various reasons, but one of the most
common is poor drainage, either by :-
Lack of adequate drainage provision in the original road pavement design,
Lack of maintenance of the drainage so that it no longer functions in a correct manner and the
water table has risen thus weakening the road pavement,
Failure of the impervious nature of the surface course (wearing course), or the binder course
(basecourse) where the surface course is a porous textured material, thus allowing the passage of
surface water in to the road pavement matrix.

DTP DESIGN MANUAL HD 25/94 - ROAD FOUNDATIONS - CBR - CAPPING - DRAINAGE

This standard forms part of the :-

DESIGN MANUAL FOR ROADS AND BRIDGES : VOLUME 7 - PAVEMENT DESIGN AND
MAINTENANCE : SECTION 2 - PAVEMENT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION : PART 2 - HD 25/94 -
FOUNDATIONS

It is a very useful standard, describing the requirements for a road foundation, the ways of testing
for subgrade strength, the strengths needed, and the ways of creating a stronger subgrade prior
to road pavement construction.

It includes useful tables on subgrade CBR's and required capping layers, along with the drainage
requirements relating to foundations.

DRAINAGE 0F POROUS SURFACE COURSES

It has to be understood that in some circumstances surface course (wearing course) materials are
deliberately designed to be porous so that "spray" from vehicle wheels will be substantially
reduced, improving visibility in wet conditions.
The porosity of the interconnecting voids of the surface course matrix can be verified by a
"porosity test".

This test is a measure of the porosity of Porous Asphalt or other open textured bituminous
mixture, i.e. how quickly the water will drain through it, and the test is usually performed shortly
after laying to check that the material/surface complies with the specification.
The method of the test is to be found in BS DD 229 : 1996.

It will also be performed from time to time to to test that the interconnecting voids which allow
drainage have not become clogged.

The test is described in,

Clause 938:Porous Asphalt Surface Course, of Volume 1, of the Specification for Highway Works.

There is an average minimum requirement of 0.12s(-1).

WATER TABLE LEVEL

You MUST keep the water-table low to prevent the moisture content of the SUB-GRADE
increasing, and hence decreasing the CBR value on which the road pavement was designed.
If this is not done by the use of french drains, or even open ditches the road will weaken and fail.

The water-table of naturally occurring ground will rise and fall from winter to summer, bear this in
mind when designing the road, and design for the highest water table conditions.

Water below the road pavement must be kept low and not be allowed to rise up into the
construction layers, (and water CAN flow upwards, by capillary action).

The fact that road drainage needs periodic maintenance just like an other part of the road network
must not be ignored, and it is a lot less expensive than reconstructing failed road pavement.

Water that enters the road pavement from the surface MUST have a drainage path out.