Topic 6:

FAILURES, MAINTENANCE AND

REHABILITATION OF TRANSPORTATION

INFRASTRUCTURE

TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURES

Transportation infrastructures are foundational structures and systems for transporting people and goods.

Common Types of Transportation Infrastructures

 Roads

 Railways

 Bridges and Tunnels

 Ship Canals

 Ports

 Airports Runways

Roads - roads such as street, avenues and highways, includes paved roads, unpaved roads and roads with
unique surfaces like cobblestone and such.

Roads Failures Causes

 Rutting due to high variation in ambient temperature

 Uncontrolled heavy axle roads

 Inadequate Stability

 Loss of Binding action

 Poor Design and Fabrication

 Congestion

 Environmental Hazard (Flood, Earthquakes etc. )

 Accidents

 Poor Maintenance
TYPE OF ROADS FAILURES

The Four Major types of Pavements Failure are:

1. Cracking
- Refers to a variety of types of pavements distresses that occur on the surface of
pavements.

 Fatigue Cracking

- Also known as alligator or crocodile cracking, is a series of interconnected cracks

that appear in either asphalt or concrete.

 Longitudinal Cracking

- Runs parallel to the pavements centreline ( or lay down direction ).

 Transverse Cracking

- Run perpendicular to the pavement centreline ( or lay down direction ) and are not
part of any pavement joints or seams.

 Block Cracking

- Is a series of large (typically one foot or more), rectangular cracks on an asphalt

pavements surface.

 Slippage Cracking

- Are crescent – or – half-moon-shaped cracks having two ends pointed away from the
direction of traffic.

 Reflective Cracking

- Is a type of failure in asphalt pavement, one of the most popular surface types.
- Due to repeated stress concentration, a crack starts in the overlay that has a similar
shape to the crack in the old pavements.

2. Surface Deformation
- The change in road surface from the intended construction profile.
 Rutting

- A permanent, longitudinal surface depression that occurs in the wheel paths of a

flexible asphalt road surface due to the passage of traffic.

 Corrugations

- Is a series of close.ly spaced ridges and valleys (ripples) occurring at fairly regular
intervals (usually less than 5ft [1.5 m ]) along the pavement.

 Shoving

- The formation of ripples across a pavements, also called wash-boarding

 Depressions

- Localized pavement surface areas with slightly lower elevations than the surrounding
pavement.

 Swell

- Localized upward movement in a pavement due to swelling of sub-grade.

-
3. Disintegration
- the breaking up of a pavement into small, loose pieces including the dislodging of
aggregate particles.

 Pot Holes

- Created when the top layer of pavements and the material beneath – called the base
or sub-beneath – cannot support weight of the traffic. Two factors present in such
failure: TRAFFIC and WATER.
4. Surface Defects

 Ravelling
- the disintegration of an asphalt road surface.
  Bleeding

- Is a film bituminous material on the pavement surfaces that creates a shiny

glass like, reflecting surface that usually becomes quite sticky.
- Bleeding caused by excessive amount of asphaltic cement tars in the mix or
low air void content, or both.

 Polishing

- Present when close examination of a pavement reveals the portion of

aggregate extending above the asphalt is ether very small, or these are not
rough or angular aggregate particles to provide good skid resistance.

 Delamination

- A condition that occurs between asphalt layers underneath a roadway that

can lead to surface pavement cracking and tearing.

Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Includes:

Physical Maintenance:

- Activities such as sealing, patching, filling joints etc.

Traffic Service activities:

- Including painting pavement markings, removing snow ice and litter.

Rehabilitation:

- Includes restoring of betterment of roadway such as resurfacing.

TYPES OF ROAD MAINTENANCE

1. Surface Maintenance

2. Roadside and Drainage Maintenance

3. Shoulder and Approaches Maintenance

4. Snow and Ice Control

5. Traffic service

RAILWAYS

Railways including high speed rail, subways and elevated railway such as cable car.

Railways Failure Causes

 Impact of moving loads

 Effect of acceleration and deceleration

 Poor Maintenance

 Effect of weather and temperature

 Corrosion

TYPES OF RAILWAY FAILURES

1. Crush head

- Progress toward the center of the rail head, and with subsequent fretting at
the crack faces and shearing of material, this area of lower structural integrity
“crushes” under the heavy loading.

2. Transverse and compound fissure

- Means a progressive crosswise fracture starting from a crystalline center or

nucleus inside the head from which it spreads outward as a smooth, bright, or
 dark round or oval surface substantially at a right angle to the length of the
rail.

3. Split Head
- These cracks run parallel to the longitudinal axis of the rail and are caused by
presence of non-metallic inclusions, poor maintenance of joints and high
dynamic stresses. It can not be easily detected in early stages by USFD
(Ultrasonic Flaw Detection) due to their unfavorable orientation.

4. Horizontal Fissure

5. Square of angular breaks

- Rails breaks either in vertical plane or angular plane.

6. Rail misalignment

RAILWAY MAINTENANCE AND REHABILITATION INCLUDES

1. Ballast checking

2. Lubrication places such as curves on the side of the head of the rails

3. Tightening of joints and Fittings

4. Use of special alloy rails where wear is more

5. Renewal of rails
BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

A bridge is a structure to cross an open space or gap. Bridges are mostly made for crossing rivers,
valleys or roads. While a tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through the surrounding
soil/earth/rock and enclosed except for entrance and exit, commonly at each end.

BRIDGE AND TUNNELS FAILURE CAUSES

 High variation in ambient temperature

 Uncontrolled heavy axle loads

 Poor design and fabrication

 Environmental Hazard

 Accidents

TYPES OF BRIDGES AND TUNNEL FAILURES

1. Steel Materials

 Corrosion of Steel

 Paint Deterioration

 Loose Connection

2. Concrete Materials

 Collapse

 Spalling

 Wear/Abrasion

 Material Deterioration

 Water leak at Deck

3. Expansion Joint

 Abnormal Spacing

 Difference in Level

 Rupture

 Drainage Blocked

5. Drainpipe
 BRIDGE AND TUNNEL MAINTENANCE AND REHABILITATION INCLUDES

 Exposed steel word must be cleaned and repainted

 Cleaning and resealing of deck joint

 Damage to guard rail, must be repaired and strengthened

 Resurfacing of deck

 Scour around and under piers and abutments should be removed

 Sealing, Patching, Filling joints and such

 Cheking of steel cables for corrosion

 Checking of supports

PORTS

 Port is a maritime facility which may comprise one or more wharves where ships may dock to
load and discharge passenger and cargo.

SHIP CANALS

 Ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas or lakes
to which it is connected, as opposed to a barge canal intended to carry barges and other vessels
specifically designed for river and/or canal navigation.

 PORTS AND SHIP CANAL FAILURE CAUSES

 Poor design and fabrication

 high variation in ambient temperature

 Effects of seawater to the construction materials

 Severe corrosion

 Congestion of Ships

 Environmental Hazards

 Accidents

 Poor Maintenance

TYPES OF PORTS AND SHIP CANALS FAILURES

1. Material Deterioration
 - The item is subject to one or more of the following defects; rusting, rotting,
corrosion, decay.

2. Damage of components

3. Scouring

- the lowering or loss of top bed soil (erosion) around the bridge piers,
abutments, spurs etc. due to the water flow currents.
4. Sedimentation

- the process of allowing soil particles, minerals, sand, or clay, to deposit in

low slope areas.
5. Collapsing if wharf/Settlement of foundation

PORTS AND SHIP CANAL MAINTENANCE AND REHABILITAION INCLUDES

 Steel repair and painting

 Implementation of coatings for corrosion protection

 Epoxy injection into small cracks on deck and supported beams

 Removal of plastered concrete and cleaning of surface

 Subject rebars replacement and re-concreting of damage section

  Placement of anti scouring devices.

AIRPORT RUNWAYS

A complex of runways and buildings for the take-off, landing, and maintenance of civil aircraft,
with facilities for passenger.

AIRPORT RUNWAYS FAILURE CAUSES

 Poor design and fabrication

 High variation in ambient temperature

 Poor maintenance

 Degradation

 Congestion of Aircrafts

 Environmental Hazard

 Accident

TYPES OF AIRPORT RUNWAYS FAILURES

1. Cracking
2. Surface Deformation
3. Disintegration
4. Surface Defects
5. Rubber Deposits

Airports Runways maintenance and Rehabilitation Includes:

Airports maintenance means any work carried out to keep airports runway excellent condition
keep their operations running smoothly and meet the high safety standard.

1. Maintenance of Visual Aids

 Airports Light maintenance
 Basic maintenance programme for approach ,runway and taxi way lighting system
 Special types of light
 cleaning procedure of lights
 Light measurement
 Lamp replacement
1. Signs
 Markings
2. Maintenance of Airport Electrical System
 Power cables and distributors in field
  Transformers and regulators (including standby units)
 Transformer stations for electric power supply Relay and switch cabinets (including
switch cabinets in sub-stations)
 Control cables, monitoring units, control desk
 Secondary power supplies (generators)
 Fixed 400 Hz ground power supplies
 Apron floodlighting

3. Maintenance of Pavements
 Surface repair
 Repair of cracks
 Bituminous pavements
 Repair of joints and cracks
 Concrete joint maintenance
 Joints in bituminous pavements
 Repair of pavement edge damage
 Edge repair
 Corner repair
 Repair of other pavement surface Deficiencies
4. Sweeping

 Surface monitoring

 Cleaning of surfaces

 Purpose of cleaning pavements

 Removal of rubber deposits

 Fuel and oil removal

5. Removal of snow and ice

 Procedures for snow removal

 Surface de-icing

 Surface anti-icing

6. Drainage

 Cleaning of slot drains

 Drain pipes or culverts between surfaces and collector basins

 Oil and fuel separators

 Water hydrants
 7. Maintenance of Unpaved Areas

 Maintenance of green areas within strips

 Maintenance of grass on unpaved runways and taxiways

 Maintenance of green areas outside strips

 Treatment of cut grass

SUMMARY

 Transportation infrastructure plays a vital role in helping our transportation remain its
function, transportation is important because it enables communication, trade and other forms of
exchange between people that in turn establishes civilizations.

 Though over time some of this infrastructure experience failures due to a lot of factors.

 That's why Maintenance and rehabilitation is being carried out regularly to these transportation
infrastructures at a fixed interval or as and when damage is observed.

 This maintenance might scale to minor inspection, repairs to major rehabilitation and as such.

 It is important to know that maintenance of transportation infrastructures ensures safety to users,

improves its performance, reduce possible repair cost, extend its expected life span and provide
information for future engineers, designers & constructors for future designs and builds of
Transportation Infrastructures.