CHAPTER 7

Construction the roadbed

The first task in the building of a railway is the construction of the roadbed or permanent
way. In the lesson 7-1 (Soil as Structure) the importance of this lesson is to know the
major structural parts of roadways, like the sub-grade or sub-base, the Base Course
and The Pavement. These 3 ways have a big contribute to the road. When one of this is
lost, the roadbed will be not durable. Because this is the steps in constructing the
roadbed and when there’s a roadbed we will have a good and safety railway.

In lesson 7-2 (Types of Base Course),the importance of this topic is the primarily uses
of the Base Course like , provide uniform and stable support, minimize damaging effects
of frost action, provide drainage ,prevent pumping of fine-grained soils at joints, prevent
volume change of the sub-grade, increase structural capacity of the pavement, and
expedite construction. There are 2 types of Base Course the granular base course or
also known as untreated soil mixture and the Treated base course, these two types has
a big contribute to the roadway. It said that the Granular base course is a road surface
of untreated soil mixture, the materials that can be used as Gravel road are stone
pebbles, crushed rock that is combined with clay, lime, iron oxide or other fine materials
sufficient enough to serve as binder of the coarse particles. In this topic we also need to
know the requirements of Untreated Gravel Road Surface. Knowing these requirements
we can figure out if those road or highway is fully constructed or durable to use.

In my last topic, 7-3 (Treated Base Course) I will be discussed the importance of
Pavement, and Asphalt in railroad. Though concrete once was used for paving roads,
parking lots and other projects, asphalt paving is the preferred choice today. To begin to
understand why asphalt paving is superior to concrete paving also called cement
paving, one should know how asphalt and concrete are made. We know that the main
used materials in doing a road is concrete but in my topic they introduce Asphalt as a
material also because its binder, however, the characteristic of a Asphalt is bitumen, a
dark, sticky substance derived from crude oil. When roads, parking lots or driveways are
built using asphalt construction, hot asphalt or bitumen mixed with fine aggregate we
will knew that road is durable and high quality.

So the summary of the importance is we need to know all about the uses of the
discussed topic and the advantages and disadvantages. Then we also need to know the
basic steps in preparing a Roadbed. When we know this we can say that the road or
that road is in a compatible road or a safe road.