Delivered by Engr Bobby Onyerionwu

B.s.c (Hons), M.N.S.E, M.N.I.S.E,

COREN
Preamble
California Bearing Ratio (CBR): - This requires
performance of laboratory tests to measure the
strength of the particular soil under consideration
(sub-grade, sub-base , base), the determination of a
strength index called CBR, and selection of a
thickness of pavement layer above the material tested
to preclude failure of that particular material by shear
under the design load.
Advantages of CBR method
 Test is relatively simple
 Test can be performed in the laboratory upon
comparatively small samples, which makes it very ideal
and convenient
Disadvantages of CBR method: -
 There is a non- uniformity of test results with certain types
of soils e.g. clay-gravels, clay-sands
 Difficulty in deciding moisture content conditions
 There is lack of considerations of fatigue effects i.e.
repeated loading effects
Design of Flexible pavements using road Note 31
Flexible pavements are pavements which deflect with applied load, thereby
facilitating load transfer to sub-grade through the individual layers.
TRAFFIC
The deterioration of paved roads caused by traffic results from both the
manitude of the individual wheel loads and the number of times these loads
are applied. For pavement design purposes, it is necessary to consider not only
the total no of vehicles that will use the road but also the wheel or axle loads.
The loads imposed by private cars do not contribute significantly to the
structural damage. For the purposes of structural design, cars and similar
sized vehicles can be ignored and only the total number of axle loading of
heavy vehicles that will use the road during its design life need to be
considered.
In this context, heavy vehicles are defined as those having an unladen weight of
3,000kg(3Tons) or more, in some circumstances especially for light traffic
roads, construction traffic can be a significant component of the overall traffic
loading and designers should take this into account
Design Life
For most roads an economic analysis of between 10 to 20 years
from the date of opening is appropriate, but for most Road
projects this period should be tested as part of the appraisal
period (overseas road Note 5, Transport and research laboratory
1988).
What ever appraisal period is chosen for a project, the road will
always have some residual value at the end of this period.
A pavement with design life of 15 years reduces the problem of
forecasting uncertain traffic trends for long periods of time. In
this context, design life does not mean at the end the pavement
will be completely worn and in need of reconstruction, It rather
means at the end of design period pavement will need to be
strengthened so that it will continue to carry traffic
satisfactorily for a further period.
Estimating Traffic Flow
Baseline traffic flow
In order to determine the total traffic over the design life of
the road, the first step to estimate baseline traffic flows.
The estimate should be the (Annual) Average Daily Traffic
(ADT) currently using the route, classified into the vehicle
categories of cars, light goods vehicles, trucks (heavy
goods vehicles) and buses.
ADT is defined is defined as the total annual traffic summed
for both directions and divided by 365.
It is usually obtained recording actual traffic flows over a
shorter period from which the ADT is then estimated.
For long projects, large differences in traffic along the
road may it necessary to estimate the flow at several
locations. It should be noted that for structural design
purposes the traffic loading in one direction is
required and for this reason care is always required
when interpreting ADT figures.
Traffic counts carried over a short period as a basis for
estimating the traffic flow, can produce estimates
which are subject to large errors because traffic flows
can have large daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal
variations.
In order to reduce error, it is recommended that traffic counts to
establish ADT at a specific site conforms to the following practice:
-
 The counts are for 7 consecutive days.
 The counts on some of the days are for a full 24 hours, with preferably
at least one 24-hours count on a week day and one during a weekend.
On the other days 16-hour count should be sufficient. These should be
grossed up to 24-hour values in the same proportion as the 16-hour/24-
hour split on those days when 24-hour counts have been undertaken.
 Counts are avoided at times when travel activity is abnormal for short
periods due to payment of wages and salaries, public holidays, e.t.c. If
abnormal traffic flows persists for extended periods, e.g during harvest
times, additional counts need to be made to ensure this traffic is
properly included
 If possible, the 7-day count should be repeated several times throught
the year.
Traffic forecasting
In order to forecast traffic growth, It will be necessary to
separate traffic into the following the following 3 categories:
-
 Normal Traffic: - Traffic which would pass along the
existing road or track even if no new pavement were
provided.
 Diverted Traffic: - Traffic that changes from another
route(or mode of transport) to the project road because of
the improved pavement, but still travel between the same
origin and destination.
 Generated Traffic: - This is additional traffic which occurs
in response to the provision or improvement of the road
Axle Loading
Axle equivalency: - The damage that vehicles do to a road
depends very strongly on the axle loads of the vehicles. For
pavement design purposes the damaging power of axles is
related to a ‘standard’ axle of (8,160kg)8.16 tons using
equivalence factors which have derived from empirical studies.
Equivalence Factor = [Axle Load(kg)/8160]4.5

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
SCANNED DOC\Key to Structural Catalog.jpg
SCANNED DOC\Road Note 31 design chart.jpg
SCANNED DOC\Chart 1.jpg
SCANNED DOC\Chat 2.jpg
SCANNED DOC\Chat 3.jpg