HIGHWAY

CONSTRUCTION
IIIT RK valley

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◦ Bitumen – One of the most popular types of construction ever since its inception in the early 1920s is Bitumen
paving. In this construction technique, a layer of Bitumen is laid on top of an equally thick gravel base.
◦ Advantages of this form of road construction are that the pavement produces relatively little noise, its relative low
cost compared to other materials, and that it is relatively easy to repair and maintain as well.
◦ However, Bitumen is known to be significantly less durable and strong than most other choices, and isn’t the best
for the environment either.

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◦ Concrete – Concrete is another popular choice for roadways, though it is typically only used for local
roads and not other types of construction.
◦There are three major types of concrete road surfaces, JPCP, JRCP, and CRCP; the distinguishing
feature between the three being the joint system that is used to help prevent cracks from forming.
◦Concrete is more long-lasting than Bitumen and significantly stronger as well, but is quite expensive to lay
and maintain.

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◦ Composite – Composite materials are often used in types of construction that are more related to
maintenance, recycling, and rehabilitation.
◦Composite materials are combinations of both Bitumen and concrete, and are typically employed in
one of two methods.
◦Bitumen overlays literally are placed over a damaged surface, or alternatively pavement may be cracked
and seated instead, forming a true new surface.

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Recycling – There are three typical types of construction techniques related to recycling the surface
of distressed or damaged pavement.
◦ Rubblizing, Cold/Hot in-place Recycling, and Full-depth Reclamation.
◦ Rubblizing involves reducing the road to gravel and then applying a new surface, both hot and
cold in-place recycling relies on using bituminous pavement to reinforce the road (at different
temperatures and admixtures, of course), Full-depth involves both total
and reclamation
pulverization and the addition of binding agents or other
additives.

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◦ Bituminous Solutions – Bituminous and other temporary solutions are types of construction that
are only suitable for use on very low-traffic thoroughfares.
◦Chip sealing techniques, thin membrane surfacing are one of the examples of bituminous surface
options. These are all more commonly employed as sealing coats or finishes than as full road
surfaces.

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Earthworks
◦The Process of earthworks is to excavate the existing land to a suitable level so that road
construction may begin. The earthworks can take the form of either excavation in the form of cuts or
the construction of embankments to carry an elevated highway.
◦Normally in a road design project, both will be necessary and movement of earth from one part of
the site to the next will be necessary.
◦This should be done with as little waste created or as little extra material required as disposal or
collection is expensive.

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Excavation

◦The most important feature of the excavation is the material you are working with. This will
be known from the Site Investigation.
◦Poor information can lead to technical problems and to cost overruns.
◦There are many ways of classifying the soil in terms of it's ease of excavation including
seismic techniques.
◦The most common in the United Kingdom at present however is the Ease of Digging scale.

This classifies the soil in one of four categories:

E = Easy digging - Loose free running soils eg sands, fine gravels. M= Medium - Denser
cohesive soils eg clayey gravel, low PI clays
M-H = Medium to Hard - eg broken rock, wet heavy clay, gravel with boulders
H = Hard - material requiring blasting and hard high PI clays

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◦Another important feature of rock is the amount of fissuring.
◦There are two methods of assessing this, the percentage Rock Quality Data method and the Spacing of
joints method. Each of these leads directly to an estimate of the uniaxial compressive strength and thus an
indication of the excavation method. Both these can be found in the Manual of contracts document, Series
600.
◦ Excavation increases the volume of material. It is therefore necessary to use a bulking factor to
determine the volume of material that will be created by excavation. Bulking factor is defined as:
◦ Bulking Factor = Volume after Excavation/
Volume before Excavation
Similarly a shrinkage factor is defined for the compaction of a soil at it's final destination.:
◦Shrinkage Factor = Volume after Compaction/
Volume before Excavation

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 Earthworks Balance
◦In order to minimize material waste or borrow, it is necessary to produce what
is called a Mass Haul diagram.

◦This is essentially a plot of cumulative volume of soil against distance along

the road, often called the chainage.

◦ Cut volumes are taken to be positive and fill volumes to be negative.

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Earthmoving Equipment
◦This section will highlight some of the principal earthmoving equipment and their areas
of application.
◦ Bulldozer - This is used primarily for pushing soil. Vehicles are generally tracked and
require large amounts of traction. Many bulldozers incorporate hydraulic attachments at
the rear for breaking up soil and rock. The best known of the vehicles.

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◦Drag Line - This vehicle allows excavation below it's own level. It is essentially
a bucket on the end of a jib and is used solely for bulk excavation as it is
relatively uncontrolled.

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◦Dump Truck - These are wheeled vehicles and as such are able to move much
faster. This is offset by a lack of traction and dump trucks are always the first to
get stuck. They are used for transferring material from one part of the site to
another.

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◦ Shovels - These again are normally wheeled vehicles and are used to fill up
the dump trucks. Typically they take 2-3 loads to fill an average dump truck.

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