Pavement Design - Thickness Design

The thckness design of the pavement is the determination of the overall thickness of the road
and the thickness of the individual layers. This is of course dependant on the type of material
chosen for the road. This is explained in more detail below. The procedure described in this
page is that in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, Volume 7.
The Map below is a clickable image.
The map alongside can be used as a guide to
the process of Thickness Design.
Clicking on the desired area of the map will
take you to the desired section. When you
have finished a particular section, if you
wish to return to the map then use the back
button on the browser or click on the map
link.
It is highly recommended that you follow
the logical progression of the map

Figure 1 - Foundation Design Process

As has been previously discussed, there are many methods of thickness design and nearly
every country has adopted different methods. A review of several of these methods has been
carried out by the Permanent International Association of Road Congress . The method
discussed in these pages is that commonly used in the United Kingdom.
1

At this point, it is necessary to have ascertained the vehicle loading on the road surface. This
is not an indication of the total traffic flow nor is it intended to design the road layout. It is
solely relevant to the engineer and used to design the pavement thickness. This is covered in
more detail and hopefully somewhat better explained on the traffic loading page. Thus you
should now have two pieces of information, the CBR value and a vehicle loading in the left
hand lane (right hand lane outside the UK) in millions of standard axles (msa).

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Design Implementation
As has been previously discussed, there are four standard designs in common use in the
United Kingdom at present:

Flexible

Rigid

Flexible Composite

Rigid Composite.

The design procedure for each type of pavement is essentially quite similar and it is standard
to produce alternative designs for each of the types.
An explanation of the different materials that are used in road design is contained in the
Materials section of this page. If you are unsure as to the meaning of any acronyms then
holding the mouse over the highlighted text will produce an explanation in the dialogue box
at the bottom of the page.

Flexible Pavement
A flexible pavement is constructed of several layers as shown below:

Figure 2
Flexible Pavement Layout
The sub-base has already been designed on the foundation page, a link to which is at the
bottom of this page.
The total thickness of the combined bituminous layer is then determined from
Figure 2.1 - Design Thickness for Flexible Pavements.

This is on a separate page so as to reduce the page download time. It may take a few seconds
for the page to download but please be patient. It is essential that you look at the chart before
progressing any further.
The final design of the pavement is then dependent on the material chosen for the wearing
course. It is standard to use a wearing course consisting of either

45mm or 50mm of Hot Rolled Asphalt (HRA)

50mm of Porous Asphalt (PA).

If PA is used then it's contribution to the bituminous design thickness is 20mm. A 60mm base
course of either HRA , Dense Bitumen Macadam (DBM), or High Density Macadam (HDM)
is required below a PA wearing course.
If HRA is used then a base course is optional. If used it may be of any permitted material and
should be at least 50mm thick.
Base courses over HDM should also be HDM
Example
Design traffic
Roadbase
Design Thickness

75 msa
HDM
320mm

Design Options given that HDM is the chosen material and thus from the design chart the
total thickness is 320mm
1. 45mm HRA wearing course
55mm HDM base course
220mm HDM roadbase
Choosing a HRA wearing course with a standard thickness of 45mm. Assuming the
use of a HDM roadbase and an optional base course, the base course should be at least
50mm thick and must be of the same material as the roadbase. The remainder is made
up of the HDM roadbase.
2. 45mm HRA w/c
275mm HDM r/b
Choosing a HRA wearing course with a standard thickness of 45mm. Assuming the
use of a HDM roadbase and no optional base course, the remainder is made up of the
HDM roadbase.
3. 50mm Porous asphalt w/c
60mm HDM b/c
240mm HDM roadbase

Choosing a PA wearing course with a standard thickness of 50mm. Assuming the use
of a HDM roadbase then a 60mm base course is required. The contribution of the PA
wearing course is 20mm and the remainder is made up of the HDM roadbase.
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Rigid Pavement Design

A flexible pavement is constructed of several layers as shown below:

Figure 3
Rigid Pavement Layout
Again the sub-base has already been designed on the foundation page, a link to which is at
the bottom of this page.
The total thickness of the combined bituminous layer is then determined from
Figure 2.2 - Design Thickness for Rigid Pavements.

Reinforcement Design
As can be seen from the design chart the thickness of the concrete slab is dependent on the
area of reinforcement used. Normal design procedure is to produce a design for each of the
four curves shown, that is the different areas of reinforcement. The area of reinforcement is
generally 0.3% of the total cross sectional area. However if cracking is to be prevented then
the area is increased to 0.6%. This is known as a continuously reinforced pavement.

Joint Design
There are three types of joint, expansion contraction and warping. Typical designs are shown
in Figure 4 below. Contraction and expansion joints are called Transverse joints and the
warping joint is a longitudinal joint.
Contraction joints allow the slab to shorten as it's temperature drops.
Expansion joints allow the slab to expand as it's temperature increases above that at which it

was cast.
Warping joints tie the slabs together and can be thought of as hinges in the slab.

Figure 4
Pavement Joint Types
At the contraction joint, there is a crack inducer so that if cracking does occur then it is in the
area of reinforcement.
Joint Spacing- The spacing of the joints depends on the type of pavement you wish to
design.

UnReinforced Concrete (URC) For a URC pavement, the joint spacing is dependent
on the slab thickness. For slabs thicker than 230mm contraction joints should be every
5m. For slabs under 230mm thick contraction joints should be every 4m. Expansion
joints should replace every third contraction joint, ie. at a spacing of 12m or 15m.

Jointed Reinforced Concrete For contraction joints this is generally at a standard

distance of 25m, unless there is 500mm2/m of reinforcement when the spacing is
taken from the design chart. For expansion joints, replace every third contraction joint
with a expansion joint. For example a pavement with contraction joint spacing of 25m
has an expansion joint spacing of 75m.

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Flexible Composite Pavement Design

Flexible Composite pavements also have a similar design procedure to the other forms of
pavement. Design charts however have not been included but can be found in the Design
Manual for Roads and Bridges, Volume 7, Section2, Part3, Chapter3.
This design consists of a standard flexible pavement with a Cement bound roadbase. The
thicknesses are dependent on the materials chosen but can be read directly from the design
manual.
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Rigid Composite Pavement Design

Rigid Composite pavements have a similar design procedure to the other forms of pavement.
The layout of the pavement is shown below. Design charts however have not been included
but can be found in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, Volume 7, Section2, Part3,
Chapter3.

Figure 4
Rigid Composite
Pavement Layout
This design consists of a standard rigid pavement with a bituminous overlay. The thicknesses
are dependent on the materials chosen but can be read directly from the design manual.
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Materials
As has already become obvious, there are many different alternatives when it comes to
choosing the materials to use in the pavement design. The material chosen depends on many
factors, including availability, cost, and feasibility of design.
It is standard practice to design the road using each of the available options and then to
compare them using the above criteria.

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Roadbase Materials
Flexible
Flexible Pavements are constructed of the following materials, details of which can be found
in British Standards2,3.

Dense Bitumen Macadam (DBM) is a continuously graded material of a relatively low

binder content (100 penetration). It has less resistance to fatigue cracking than other
materials.

Hot Rolled Asphalt (HRA) is a gap graded material with a high binder concentration
(50 Penetration). It is easy to lay and has good fatigue resistance but is susceptible to
slow moving heavy traffic (eg uphill).

High Density Macadam (HDM) is a continuously graded material with a greater

percentage of finer material than DBM. It is less easy to lay but has high resistance to
cracking and deformation and has the highest stiffness.

DBM50 is DBM with a 50 penetration binder. It is marginally inferior to HDM but is

superior to ordinary DBM.

Dense Tar Macadam is similar to DBM but uses a tar binder. This improves
performance but is more temperature susceptible.

Rigid
All rigid and rigid composite should be constructed using Pavement Quality Concrete,
manufactured, cured and laid in accordance with the Specification for Highway Works
(MCHW1)4 series 1000. The use of joints is discussed in the pavement design section above.

Surfacing Materials
This is also known as the wearing course and is described as such in the design charts.
There are three possibilities for the wearing course, Hot Rolled Asphalt (HRA), Porous
Asphalt (PA) or concrete. The use of concrete has been described above should be used as
described.

Hot Rolled Asphalt (HRA) is a gap graded material with a high binder concentration
(50 Penetration). It is easy to lay and has good fatigue resistance but is susceptible to
slow moving heavy traffic (eg uphill). The surface texture is formed by rolling pre
coated chippings into an asphalt mat. This technique requires careful judgment to
achieve the desired result. HRA is sufficiently string to be considered structurally as
part of the combined bituminous layer thickness as given by the design charts.

Porous Asphalt (PA) is an open graded material designed to facilitate rapid drainage
of surface water from the road, reducing spray. It also has the added bonus of
reducing traffic noise. The material is less stiff and a 50mm layer makes only a 20mm
contribution to the combined bituminous layer.

Design Criteria
The designs discussed above are based on the Design Manual for Roads and bridges, which
in turn is based on the work of the Transport Research Laboratory. This design manual is only
applicable to roads to be built in the United Kingdom and only for trunk roads, Motorways
and other multi-laned roads.
When comparing the relative benefits of the types of road, it is necessary to compare both
over a similar time period. This is normally the design life, which is typically 20 years for
flexible and flexible composite pavements and 40 years for rigid and rigid composite
pavements. As such, it is necessary to include all maintenance costs and residual values of the
road.

Analytical Design
The design charts presented above are based mainly on empirical results and full scale
experiments. Some work however has included an analytical approach to the design. This is
based on the stresses and strains induced in the pavement by an applied wheel loading. It is
however very complicated and rarely used and as such is not covered in these pages.

Problems
Using the same example as in the traffic analysis page, that is a design loading of 5.13
millions of standard axles (msa), calculate the following:
1. Given the following soil test data suggest appropriate capping and sub-base layers for
the road:
Moisture Content (%)

Bulk Density (Mg/m3)

CBR (%)

5.0

1.575

23.0

7.5

1.844

20.0

10.0

2.189

5.2

12.5

2.132

2.1

15.0

2.082

1.0

2.
3. If the road were to be constructed using a flexible pavement design, suggest
appropriate thicknesses for the wearing course, base course and roadbase layers.

4. If the road were to be constructed using a rigid pavement design, suggest appropriate
thicknesses for the concrete slab. Comment on the amount of reinforcement and the
spacing of the expansion and contraction joints.

Go to the Foundation Design Page.

Go to the Introduction Page
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References
1) Permanent International Association of Road Congress, Report to XVth congress, Mexico City, 1975, from
the Technical Committee on Flexible Pavements
2) BS4987; Parts 1 and 2 Coated Macadam for Roads and Other Paved Areas, BSI, 1988
3) BS594; Part 1 Hot Rolled Asphalt for Roads and other Paved Areas, BSI, 1992
3) Department of Transport, Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works, Vol 1, Specification for
Highway Works, 1993

e-mail: D.G.Toll@Durham.ac.uk.

Last Updated: 25 February 1997

Pavement Design
The road pavement is the actual surface on which the vehicles will travel. It's purpose is two
fold, to provide friction for the vehicles and to transfer normal stresses to the underlying
soils. The procedure described in this page is that in the Design Manual for Roads and
Bridges, Volume 7 (Available on-line at
http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/dmrb/index.htm).
The design Process can be split up into different areas. These are as follows:

Foundation Design - That is the design of the Subgrade and sub-base

Thickness Design - That is the design of the actual road surface

Unfortunately to include both of the areas on this page would cripple your browser so they
have been split up and this page contains only the introduction and links to the different areas.

Introduction
There are four types of pavement currently in use in the United kingdom at present:

Flexible - pavements with a bitumen bonded surfacing and roadbase.

Flexible Composite - The surfacing and upper road base are bituminous on a lower
roadbase of cement bound material

Rigid - Pavements with a concrete surface slab which can be un-reinforced, joint
reinforced or continuously reinforced.

Rigid Composite - continuously reinforced concrete slab with a bituminous overlay.

Although there has been considerable advance in the theoretical design of pavements, most of
the current work is based on empirical methods and design charts. For this reason only these
methods will be covered in these pages.
Normally a design is carried out for each of the alternatives and then the most economical
chosen. However, if for environmental or technical reasons one is impractical then it may be
omitted.
The general form of the different types of pavement is shown below. It can be seen that
common to all types of construction is the Sub-base and subgrade. It is this aspect of the
design which is treated first. However, it is first necessary to decide on a failure criteria on
which to base the design.

Failure Criteria
This has been the subject of extensive research and is the result not of theory but of full scale
tests and observations of real life situations. Croney states that permanent deformation in the
near side wheel tracks of a flexible pavement of 20mm, when measured from a 1.8m straight
rule, was normally accepted as the point at which reconstruction was considered necessary.
1

It was also noted that at this point the surface was beginning to crack. This led to water
ingress and subsequently rapid deterioration.
The critical condition was much harder to define although it was found generally that
overlays were being provided between deformations of 10 and 20mm. Cracking at these
points was generally limited to longitudinal cracks in the wheel tracks.
The advantage of this method is that it is easily measured by visual inspection and a straight
edge.
Methods used in the United States including asking passing motorists to rate the trafficability
between 0 and 5 and a slope variance device. Salter contains more information on both these
methods as well as other relevant ones.
2

Flexible

Rigid

Rigid Composite

Figure 1 - Pavement Types

The roadbase and sub-base are generally only divided into upper and lower for highly
trafficked roads.
The nest step is the foundation design. This can be found by following the link below.
Go to the Foundation Design Page.
Go to the Thickness Design Page
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References
1) D. Croney, "Failure Criteria for Flexible Pavements", Proceedings Third International Conference on
Structural Design of Asphalt Pavements, University of Michigan, 1972.
2) R. J. Salter, "Highway Design and Construction", MacMillan Education, London, 1988.

e-mail: D.G.Toll@Durham.ac.uk.

Last Updated: 18 February 1997