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Design of Flexible Pavements Using British Road Note
Design of Flexible Pavements Using British Road Note
Axle load surveys must be carried out to determine the axle load
distribution of a sample of the heavy vehicle using the road. Data
collected from these surveys are used to calculate the mean
number of equivalent standard axles for a typical vehicle in each
class. These values are then used in conjunction with traffic
forecast to determine the predicted cumulative equivalent
standard axles that the road will carry over its design life
Axle load surveys
If no recent axle load data are available, it is recommended that
axle load surveys of heavy vehicles are undertaken whenever a
major road project is being designed. Ideally, several surveys at
periods which will reflect seasonal changes in the magnitude of
axle loads are recommended.
Portable vehicle- wheel weighing devices which will enable a small
team to weigh up to 90 vehicles per hour should be used.
The weighing site should be level, if possible, constructed in such
a way that vehicles are pulled clear of the road when being
weighed. The portable weigh bridge should be mounted in a
small pit with its surface level with the surrounding area. This
ensures that all the wheels of the vehicle being weighed are
level and eliminates the errors which can be introduced by even
a small twist or tilt of the vehicle
On certain roads it may be necessary to consider
whether the axle load distribution of the traffic
travelling in one direction is the same as that
travelling in the opposite direction. Significant
differences between the two streams can occur on
roads serving docks, quarries, cement factories, e.t.c.
where the vehicles travelling one way are heavily load
but are empty on the return journey. In such cases the
result from the traffic on the more heavily trafficked
lane should be used when converting commercial
vehicle flows to equivalent number of standard axles
for pavement design.
Determination of cumulative equivalent standard axles: -
In order to determine the above, over the design life of the road,
the following procedures should be followed: -
Determine the daily traffic flow for each class of vehicle
weighed using the result of the traffic survey and any other
recent traffic count information that is available.
Determine the average daily one- directional traffic flow for
each class of vehicle.
Make a forecast of the one-directional traffic flow for each class
of vehicle to determine the total traffic in each class that will
travel over each lane during the design life
Determine the mean equivalence factor for each class of vehicle
and for each direction from the results of this axle load survey
and any other surveys that have recently been carried out .
The products of the cumulative one-directional traffic flows for
each class of the vehicle over the design life of the road and the
mean equivalence factor for that class should then be calculated
and added together to give the cumulative equivalent standard
axle loading for each direction. The higher of the two
directional values should be used for design.
Traffic Classes.xlsx
Cummulative EAL.jpg
On dual carriage roads and on single carriage way roads with
more than two lanes, it should be assumed that the slow traffic
lanes will carry all the heavy vehicles unless local experience
indicates otherwise or the traffic flow exceeds about 2000 heavy
vehicles per day in each direction.
The Sub-grade
The strength of the road sub-grades is commonly assessed in the CBR and this is
dependent on the type of soil, its density and its moisture content.
For designing the thickness of a road pavement, the strength of the sub-grade
should be taken as that of the soil at a moisture content equal to the wettest
moisture condition likely to occur in the sub-grade after the road is opened to
traffic. In the tropics, sub-grade moisture conditions under impermeable
road pavement can be classified into 3 main categories: -
Category 1. Sub-grades where the water table is sufficiently close to the ground
surface to control the sub-grade moisture content.
Category 2. Sub-grades with deep water table and where rainfall is sufficient
to produce significant changes in moisture conditions under the road.
Category 3. Sub-grades in areas with no permanent water table near the
ground surface and where the climate is dry throughout most of the year with
an annual rainfall of 250mm or less.
For each of the categories, the moisture content is normally
given by the optimum moisture content given by the BS
(light) compaction test, 2.5kg rammer method.
The sub-grade CBR is then computed and assigned to one of
the sub-grade strength classes as shown in the table
below.
The table below shows a fast method of computing the sub-
grade CBR class under sealed roads in the presence of a
water table.
Estimated subgrade strength class for roads in the presence
of water.xlsx
Design example.xlsx
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