ABSTRACT

The main principle of our project is to study the existing state highway and design of two
lane flexible pavement by considering the traffic volume at Pragnapur to Bhongir road.
The present road is insufficient for traffic which causes severe disturbance. In order to
facilitate easy transportation we require to widen the existing pavement.
The sequential step involved in the project are, Initially traffic volume study is conducted to
determine the passage of number of vehicles per day and to determine the wheel load, based
on the analysis of traffic volume the road widening technique is applied and then survey the
road by theodolite surveying and elevations and depressions are evaluated.
In the second phase the soil test is conducted to determine the soil properties like CBR test is
conducted for determining the soil bearing capacity.
In the third phase pavement thickness is determined for the design of widening pavement.
The tests are conducted for this project are like soil test, abrasion test, CBR test, bitumen test,
etc.
The codes referred for the design of pavement are IRC:37-2001, IRC:73-2007

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Pavement is the actual travel surface especially made durable and serviceable to withstand
the traffic load commuting upon it. Pavement grants friction for the vehicles thus providing
comfort to the driver and transfers the traffic load from the upper surface to the natural soil.
In earlier times before the vehicular traffic became most regular, cobblestone paths were
much familiar for animal carts and on foot traffic load.
Pavements are primarily to be used by vehicles and pedestrians. Storm water drainage and
environmental conditions are a major concern in the designing of a pavement. The first of the
constructed roads date back to 4000 BC and consisted of stone paved streets or timber roads.
The roads of the earlier times depended solely on stone, gravel and sand for construction and
water was used as a binding agent to level and give a finished look to the surface. All hard
road pavements usually fall into two broad categories namely
1. Flexible Pavement
2. Rigid Pavement

Flexible pavement:
Are those pavements which reflect the deformation of sub grade and the subsequent layers to
the surface. Flexible, usually asphalt, is laid with no reinforcement or with a specialized
fabric reinforcement that permits limited flow or repositioning of the roadbed under ground
changes.

The design of flexible pavement is based on load distributing characteristic of the

component layers. The black top pavement including water & gravel bound macadam
fall in this category.

Flexible pavement on the whole has low or negligible flexible strength flexible in
their structural action). The flexible pavement layers transmit the vertical or
compressive stresses to the lower layers by grain transfer through contact points of
granular structure.

The vertical compressive stress is maximum on the pavement surface directly under
the wheel load and is equal to contact pressure under the wheels. Due to the ability to
distribute the stress to large area in the shape of truncated cone the stresses get
decreased in the lower layer.

As such the flexible pavement may be constructed in a number of layers and the top
layer has to be strongest as the highest compressive stresses.

To be sustained by this layer, in addition to wear and tear, the lower layer have to take
up only lesser magnitude of stress as there is no direct wearing action die to traffic
loads, therefore inferior material with lower cast can be used in the lower layers.

Rigid pavement:
The rigid characteristic of the pavement are associated with rigidity or flexural strength or
slab action so the load is distributed over a wide area of sub-grade soil. Rigid pavement is
laid in slabs with steel reinforcement.

The rigid pavements are made of cement concrete either plan, reinforced or prestressed concrete.

Critical condition of stress in the rigid pavement is the maximum flexural stress
occurring in the slab due to wheel load and the temperature changes.

Rigid pavement is designed and analyzed by using the elastic theory.

Width of carriage way:

Width of the carriage way or the width of the pavement depends on the width of the traffic
lane and number of lanes. Width of a traffic lane depends on the width of the vehicle and the
clearance. Side clearance improves operating speed and safety. The maximum permissible
width of a vehicle is 2.44 and the desirable side clearance for single lane traffic is 0.68 m.
This require minimum of lane width of 3.75 m for a single lane road. However, the side
clearance required is about 0.53 m, on either side and 1.06 m in the center. Therefore, a two
lane road require minimum of 3.5 meter for each lane. The desirable carriage way width
recommended by IRC is given in Table 1

IRC Specification for carriage way width

Single lane

3.75

Two lane, no kerbs

7.0

Two lane, raised kerbs

7.5

Intermediate carriage

5.5

Multi-lane

3.5

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Written By: Tom V. Mathew and K V Krishna Rao

IRC method of design of flexible pavements:

Overview:
Indian roads congress has specified the design procedures for flexible pavements based on
CBR values. The Pavement designs given in the previous edition IRC:37-1984 were
applicable to design traffic upto only 30 million standard axles (msa). The earlier code is
empirical in nature which has limitations regarding applicability and extrapolation.