FAILURES, MAINTENANCE AND

REHABILITATION OF
TRANSPORTATION
INFRASTRUCTURES
TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURES
Transportation infrastructures are foundational structures and
systems for transporting people and goods.

Common Types of Transportation

Infrastructures
 Roads  Ship Canals
 Railways  Ports
 Bridges and Tunnels  Airports Runways
ROADS
Roads such as streets, avenues and highways. Includes paved
roads, unpaved roads and roads with unique surfaces like
cobblestone and such.

Roads Failure Causes

 Rutting due to high variation
in ambient temperature
 Uncontrolled heavy axle loads
 Inadequate Stability
 Loss of binding action
 Poor Design and Fabrication
 Congestion
 Environmental Hazard (Flood,
Earthquake etc.)
 Accidents
 Poor Maintenance
TYPE OF ROAD FAILURES
THE FOUR MAJOR TYPES OF PAVEMENT FAILURE ARE:
1. Cracking
 Fatigue Cracking
 Longitudinal Cracking
 Transverse Cracking
 Block Cracking
 Slippage Cracking
 Reflective Cracking
 Edge Cracking
2. Surface Deformation
 Rutting
 Corrugations
 Shoving
 Depressions
 Swell
3. Disintegration

 Pot Holes
 Patches
4. Surface Defects
 Ravelling
 Bleeding
 Polishing
 Delamination
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 or betterment of roadway such as resurfacing.
Types Road Maintenance
1. Surface maintenance maintenance
2. Roadside and drainage maintenance 4. Snow and ice control
5. Traffic service
3. Shoulder and approaches
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
 Constant reversal of stresses
 Defects in manufacture
 Braking of wheels
 Fatigue caused by shearing stresses
 Effect of weather and Temperature
 Maintenance of rail joints
 Axle load of locomotive
 Design of rail joints
 Frequency of rail renewal
 Corrosion
 Poor Maintenance
TYPE OF RAILWAY FAILURES
1. Crushed Head 2. Transverse and Compound
Fissure
4. Split Head 5. Horizontal Fissure
 6. Square of Angular Breaks
7. Rail misalignment
 Railway Maintenance and Rehabilitation
Includes
1. Ballast Checking 4. Use of special alloy rails
2. Lubricating Places such as where wear is more
curves on the side of the 5. Renewal of Rails
head of the rails
3. Tightening of joints and
Fittings
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.
 Inadequate Stability
 Effect of seawater/water especially to
the bridge columns
Inadequate ground Investigation
 Poor Design and Fabrication
 Congestion of Vehicles
 Environmental Hazard
( Flood, Earthquake, Tsunami etc.)
 Accidents (Car crash, Boat Crash,
Train Crash etc.)
 Inadequate Support method of
excavation
TYPE OF BRIDGE AND TUNNEL FAILURES

1. Steel Materials
 Corrosion of Steel
 Paint Deterioration
 Loose Connections
2. Concrete Material
 Collapse  Material Deterioration
 Spalling  Surface Defect
 Wear/Abrasion  Delamination
 Water Leak at Deck
3. Expansion Joint
 Abnormal Spacing
 Difference in Level
 Rupture
 Drainage Blocked

4. Drainpipe
BRIDGE AND TUNNEL
MAINTENANCE AND
REHABILITATION INCLUDES
 Exposed steel work 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.
 Checking of steel cables for corrosion.
 Checking of supports
PORTS
A port is a maritime facility which may comprise one or more wharves
where ships may dock to load and discharge passengers and cargo.
Although usually situated on a sea coast, some ports can be miles
inland, with access to the sea via river or canal.

SHIP CANALS 
A 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
 Effect of seawater to the construction materials
 Severe Corrosion
 Congestion of Ships
 Environmental Hazard (Flood, Earthquake, Tsunami etc.)
 Accidents (Boat Crash)
 Poor Maintenance
 Type of Ports and Ship Canal failures
 Material Deterioration  Damage of components

 Scouring
  Collapsing of wharf / Settlement of
 Sedimentation
Foundation
Ports and Ship Canal Maintenance and
Rehabilitation 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 passengers.

Airport Runways Failure Causes

 Poor Design and Fabrication
 High variation in ambient
temperature
 Poor Maintenance
 Degradation
 Congestion of Aircrafts
 Environmental Hazard (Flood,
Earthquake, Tsunami, Bird Strikes
etc.)
 Accidents
Type of Airport Runways failures
1. Cracking

2. Surface Deformation
3. Disintegration

4. Surface Defects

5. Rubber Deposits
Airport Runways Maintenance and
Rehabilitation Includes
Airport maintenance means any work carried out to keep airports
runways excellent condition, keep their operations running smoothly
and meet the high safety standards
1. Maintenance of Visual Aids
 Airport Light maintenance
 Basic maintenance programme for approach, runway and taxi way lighting
systems
 Special types of lights
 Cleaning procedures for lights
 Light measurement
 Lamp replacement
2. Signs
 Markings

3. Maintenance of Airport Electrical Systems

 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
4. Maintenance of Pavements
 Surface repair
 Repair of cracks
 Portland cement concrete pavements
 Bituminous pavements
 Repair of joints and cracks
 Joints in concrete pavements
 Concrete joint maintenance
 Joints in bituminous pavements
 Repair of pavement edge damage
 Edge repair
 Corner repair
 Repair of other pavement surface deficiencies
5. Sweeping
 Purpose of sweeping
 Surface monitoring
 Cleaning of surfaces
 Purpose of cleaning pavements
 Removal of rubber deposits
 Fuel and oil removal

6. Removal of snow and ice

 Procedures for snow removal
 Surface de-icing
 Surface anti-icing
7. Drainage
 Cleaning of slot drains
 Drain pipes or culverts between surfaces and collector basins
 Oil and fuel separators
 Water hydrants

8. 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
infrastructure 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.
THANK YOU!