CHEAP FLEXIBLE WATERPROOFING TREATMENTS FOR RURAL ROADS R. S. Shukla, Scientist and V. K.

Jaitly, Scientist Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the development of bituminous primers and cut-backs for water-proofing of rural roads. The efficacy of the water proofing treatments has successfully been tried on a community development road near Delhi constructed with locally available soil, stabilized with brick-bats, lime, cement and molasses. Depending on the traffic intensity specific recommendation are made for their use. 1. Introduction 1.1 Rural roads may be defined as roads with low traffic volume in predominantly agricultural areas where type of traffic is mainly slow moving animal drawn carts. These roads differ from urban roads in the sense that while in construction of urban roads, the conventional specifications like soling, waterbound macadam base courses and bituminous wearing course are provided, in rural roads generally locally available materials such as soil, moorum, kanka, gravel, etc., are used. 1.2 The general concept of rural road today is to level the ground, to provide a shallow embankment of one half to one metre height, to allow it to get compacted by one or two rains and then open it for traffic. On such roads deep ruts are formed due to channelized bullock cart traffic. Formation of mud due to accumulated rain water in these channels makes the road impassable. water proofing treatments were given by use of flexible bituminous binders. Development of suitable primers and cut-back bitumens for water proofing treatments and their performance evaluation from the basic theme of this paper. Relevance of Mehras Method for Construction of Rural Roads 2.1 Special features of Mehras method of soil stabilization are: 2.1.1 The road crust consists of two courses, the base and the upper course. Thee base course soil has less clay and more sands and the upper course has more clay and less sand. The base course consisting of graded soil rich in sand is designed to protect the upper course from the capillary rise of subgrade moisure during wet season.

In the upper 35-60 per cent of broken brick aggregates or other soft local aggregates like 1.3 In early fifties efforts were made in Punjab tokankar, laterite, moorum or soft stones are wards stabilization of locally available soil by incorporated into the graded soil. This proportion of blending with sand and grafting with brick bats. This coarse aggregates increases shear strength and method known as Mehras method opened new bearing values of the soil aggregate mass and avenues for the improvement of rural roads. Later ensures that aggregates do not cause self crushing the methods of soil stabilization with other materials within the road crust under load and vibrations. such as cement2, lime3 and molasses were also developed. The soil subilized layers are prone to damage by abrasion action by the traffic. For the prevention of In order to improve the service value of the this phenomenon the Mehras method stipulates stabilised soil road by Mehras method, the Central that the wearing course should be covered with thin Road Research Institute constructed a 2.5 km long premix carpet to protect it from abrasion by bullock test-track in 1959 under community development cart traffic as well as from infiltration of rain water programme for connecting village Rajokri near from top. Delhi with Delhi-Gurgaon road (NH 8). In all, 21 specifications were laid using locally available soil, mixed with brick-bats, cement, lime and molasses. On some of the specifications

3. Development of Cut-Backs and Primers for Water Proofing Treatment 3.1 The test track was constructed in the month of December when atmospheric temperatures and pavement temperature were around 20C and 27C respectively. The fluxing charts prepared for surface dressing indicated a minimum flux of 10 per cent kerosene oil to impart a viscosity of 80000 centistokes for good wetting of fine aggregates to be used. This amount of flux was considered adequate for pneumatic tyred traffic. Over a period of one or two months the flux will evaporate away leaving behind bitumen 80/100 as a binder. 3.2 Since the road was to be used mainly by bullock cart traffic where surface deformation would be of much larger magnitude, the binder is required to be more pliable to accommodate such deformation without cracking with this view in mind the bitumen/kerosene oil blend was further cut with 15 to 20 per cent furnace oil. Two cut-backs with the following compositions were finally adopted for water proofing purposes: Composition Percentage cut-back cut-back No. 1 No. 2 75 15 10 70 20 10

grafting as such or in combination with a thin surface dressing and priming treatment was also studied. 4.2 The soil sub-grade was mainly silty with liquid limit of about 28 per cent and PI of 8. The optimum moisture content as determined by Proctor method was around 12-13 per cent. The CBR value of the sub-grade soil at optimum moisture and Proctor density was about 10 per cent. For intensity of traffic of about 15-20 bullock carts per day the thickness required was worked out as 12.5 cms5. For all specifications a thickness consisting 7.5 cm of base course and 7.5 cm of surface course was adopted. 4.3 For preparation of sub-grade the existing uneven surface was leveled and trenches of 3.5 m wide and 15 cm deep were cut. The subgrade soil was scarified to a depth of 15 cm and after correcting the moisture content to optimum, was compacted by a 8-10 tonne roller to 100 per cent Proctor density (1.8 gm/cc). 4.4 The base course was constructed with mechanically stabilized soil. For base course construction the soil was excavated from borrow pits, clods were broken to 10-12 mm size and spread on prepared sub-grade to loose thickness of 12.5 cm. Jamuna sand was added to control the send content to minimum of 40 per cent and PI of 4 to 6 per cent. The moisture content slightly higher than the optimum was added and whole mass was compacted to 100 per cent of Proctor density by a 8-10 tonne roller. The surface was finished to proper grade and profile. For comparison purposes, on three sections only local soil was used as base course. 4.5 Construction of Surface Course 4.5.1 For surface couse 16 sections were constructed with mechanically stabilized soil with cement, lime and lime/molasses mix. One section was laid with local soil and in two sections brick ballast grafting was done over the compacted layer of local soil. In remaining two sections the stone grafting was done over the mechanically stabilized soil. 4.5.2 Mechanically stabilized soil with brick aggregates. In the construction of mechanically stabilized soil (graded soil) with brick aggregates, the plasticity index was controlled to 9 to 12 per cent and the proportion of brick aggregates was

Type of material Bitumen 80/100 Furnace oil Kerosene oil

These cut-back were to be slightly warmed before using them for surface dressing work. 3.3 In addition to cut-backs two primers were also prepared for cold application as dust palliatives. The composition of the primers was as given below: Primer No. Primer No. 1 2 30 70 50 50

Type of material Bitumen 80/100 Furnace oil Diesel oil

4.1 The basic objective for laying the test-track was to improve the service value of the stabilized soil road (Mehras method) without the use of conventional premix carpet black top surface for light traffic. In all, 21 specifications were laid on an

approach road to village Rajokri connecting DelhiGurgaon road Fig. 1 gives the details of different specifications each about 120 m long. The effect of binder such as cement, lime and molasses either singly or in combination in varying degree of concentration was studied. The effect of brick or stone

controlled to 35 per cent by weight of total mix. On the prepared base a layer of mechanically stabilized soil was placed and brick aggregates of 30-40 mm size were added. The resulting mix was spaded, mixed, watered, wet mixed and compacted to Proctor density. The soil subilized layers are prone to damage by abrasion action by the traffic. For the prevention of this phenomenon the Mehras method stipulates that the wearing course should be covered with thin premix carpet to protect it from abrasion by bullock cart traffic as well as from infiltration of rain water from top.

4.5.3 Mechanically stabilized soil with brick aggregates and stone grafting. On the prepared base the stabilized soil mix with brick aggregates was spread loose to proper grade and profile. The stone aggregates of 25 mm size were spread to single layer thickness uniformly at the rate of 0.20 to 0.23 cu.m per 10 sq. m. The layer of stabilized soil along with superimposed layer of stone grafting was rolled. For effective grafting relatively light rolling was done on the first day. The hungry spots were made up with 25 mm aggregates and water was sprinkled on the surface. The rolling was resumed on the following day for proper embedment of stone layer. 4.5.4 Cement stabilized soil: The soil was excavated from borrow pits and was pulverized. Clay was added to control the plasticity to 9 to 12. The graded soil was stabilized with cement content of 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent by weight of soil. For one cu. M. of soil 75 kg cement was added to make up the cement content to 5 per cent. The mix was brought to proper moisture content. The mix was brought to proper moisture content. The material was spread on the prepared base and the laid material was remixed by a rotavator till uniform distribution of cement was obtained. The whole mass was compacted by a 8-10 tonne roller to final finish. The surface was cured for 2-3 days by sprinkling water over the surface. 4.5.5 Lime/molasses stabilization: Molasses is a bye-product of sugar industry. For preparing the mix the pulverized soil with sand was spread on the base. The lime and molasses were added in

and grated with stone aggregates and local soil grafted on the top with brick aggregates. The cutback treatment was given on four sections and remaining eight sections were given primer treatment. On two sections one half was treated with cut-back and the other half was primed. The cut-back sections were covered with a coarse sand amuna sand and roiled where as in primed sections where the primer was not completely absorbed were sanded lightly the following day. 5.2.2 Both primer and cut-backs were applied by perforated tins. The primer was applied at the rate of 7-10 kg per 10 sq. metre area and was allowed to cure for 24 hours before opening the road to traffic. The cut-back bitumen was applied at the rate of 10-12 kg per 10 sq. metre area. The surface was immediately covered with either coarse Badarpur sand or river Jammuna sand at the rate of 0.06-0.09 cu. M. per 10 sq. m area and rolled to final finish. The traffic was allowed as soon as the binder attained the ambient temperature. 6 Performance Evaluation 6.1 For performance evaluation the road sections were inspected occasionally and performance of each section was monitored visually. In the first nine months the performance of primed sections and sections covered with surface dressing with cut-backs were superior to section left uncovered. The addition of small added advantage, rather deformation on these sections was more than on sections with cement. The sections was more than on sections with cement. The sections treated with line molasses gave good performance. During rainy

different combinations of 1 to 5 per cent for lime and 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent for molasses. Over the graded soil the lime was added and mixed with a rotavator. After through mixing the molasses was added and mixed with a rotavator to ensure uniform dispersion of molasses. After adjusting the moisture content the laid material was compacted and rolled to compacted thickness of 7.5 cm. With lime molasses stabilization five sections were laid.

season these sections gave some rutting marks which were ironed out during dry weather. The performance of the sections with stone grafting was better then those having no stone grafting.

6.2 After one and half years of service most of the sections showed signs of distress in varying degree except sections 17 and 18 constructed with stone grafting and covered with primer and surface dressing. The sections covered with primer showed 5 Preparation of Cut-Back/Primer more abrasion 2,4,5,8,14,15,16,17 and 20 than 5.1 The cut-backs and primers were prepared at those constructed with surface dressing 3,7 and 18. site. Bitumen 80/100 was heated in a tar boiler. Among the section which stood without bituminous When bitumen attained a temperature of 100C, the treatment was with 2.5 per cent lime and 5 per cent required quantity of furnace oil was added and molasses. In general the behaviour of cut-back was whole mass was stirred by a wooden rod for 20-30 better than primer. The role of primer was only to minutes till a uniform homogeneous mix was suppress the dust but the cut-back treatment gave obtained. After through mixing the kerosene was an added advantage of carrying the traffic without added and stirred for another half an hour for much abrasion. Among the two cut-back the cutuniformity. Similar procedure was adopted for the back with 20% furnace oil behaved better than the preparation of primers. one with 15 per cent furnace oil. Similarly the primer with furnace oil gave better performance than with diesel oil although the overall bitumen Construction of Bituminous Surfacings The content in both of them was almost the same. bituminous treatment was given over 12 specifications consisting of graded soil with brick aggregates, graded soil with cement and brick aggregates, graded soil with brick aggregates

Cost Analysis 7.1 The cut-back and primer treatments work out cheaper than conventional premix carpet with seal coat generally recommended for soil stabilized roads. The cut-back treatment cost works out approximately half of the premix carpet whereas the cost of primer treatment is only one third of the premix carpet. Conclusions 8.1 The durability of soil stabilized roads can be enhanced by applying water-proofing treatments with a primer or cut-back. 8.2 The application of primer helps only to the extent of filling up of the surface voids and suppression of dust. It does not prevent abrasion. 8.3 A light application of suitably designed cut-back and flushed with coarse send prevents abrasion as well as helps in carrying the bullock cart traffic effectively. 8.4 The additional cost of primer or cut-back treatment is off-set by enhanced life of the stabilized soil road pavements. 8.5 The rural roads constructed with stabilized soil should be covered with primer. The traffic should be allowed till the weather is dry. 8.6 Before the on-set of monsoon the road surface should be covered with a suitably designed cut-back and flushed with coarse sand or fine grit. This treatment will carry a traffic intensity of upto 45 vehicles per day.

8.7 When traffic intensity goes above 45 vehicles a day, the road should be given a treatment of premix with seal coat. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Dr. M. P. Dhir, the Director, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi for his kind permission to publish this paper. They are also greateful to Shri Y. C. Gokhale, Deputy Director and Head of Flexible Pavements Division for reviewing the paper and offering valuable suggestions. References 1. Mehra S.R. Cheap all weather roads from soil and soft aggregates Fourth International Conference on Soil Mehcanics and Foundation Engineering, London, August 1957. 2. Bhatia H. S. Cement stabilized base in highway Construction Indian Concrete Journal Vol. XXX 10. 1957. 3. Mehra S. R. And Chaddha L.R. Use of line in soil stabilization Indian Roads Congress Gol. XIV3, 1995. 4. Dogra R N and Uppal I S Stabilization of soil with molasses and lime Indian National Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, No. 5, June 1959. 5. Mohan Rao Design of Roads for bullock cart traffic Road Research Bulletin No. 6, Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi-1959.