HIGHWAY

MAINTENANCE,
REPAIR AND
REHABILITATION
DEFINITION
Defined as preserving and keeping the serviceable condition of highway as normal
as possible and best as practicable
Maintenance method consists of
Assessment of road condition
Diagnosis of the problem
Adopting Appropriate method
CLASSIFICATION OF ROAD MAINTENANCE
Road Maintenance
Road Side Maintenance
ROAD MAINTENANCE
Concerns all maintenance works on the roadway and on all structures within and immediately
adjacent to the roadway such as ditches, culverts,causeway bridges

There are following categories

1. Routine maintenance
2. Periodic maintenance
3. Recurrent maintenance
4. Special maintenance
5. Emergency maintenance
 ROUTINE MIANTAINCE
It covers the activities such as grass and bush cutting, grading and reshaping of unpaved shoulders
& cross slope, clearing culverts, maintenance of road signs, arboriculture. The works are done by
labor
 PERIODIC MAINTENANCE
Maintenance operations of large extent only at intervals of several years. Examples of activities
such as resealing (surface treatment, slurry sealing) resurfacing (thin overlay), renewals of
wearing course.
c) Recurrent maintenance: Maintenance operations of localized nature of limited
extent carried out at more or less regular intervals of six months to year,
depending upon traffic volume. Activities within this category are such as sealing
cracks, local surface treatment, filling up of pot-holes & patch repairs, edge repair
etc. The works are done by the use of minor equipment.
d) Special repairs: Strengthening of pavement structure reconstruction of
pavement widening of roads, repair of damages caused by floods, etc. providing
additional safe like islands, signs.
e) "Emergency Maintenance" is defined as those maintenance activities which
are carried out in case the traffic is disturbed and road closed due to any type of
unexpected damage on roads
ROAD SIDE MAINTENANCE
Concerns all the maintenance works on structures and surfaces
above and below the road having direct active and /or passive
influence on the road. This comprises culverts, protection works,
and retaining walls, cut slopes, unstable natural slopes, river
protection works and vegetation
 GENERAL CAUSES OF PAVEMENT
FAILURES
i) Defects in the quality of materials used
ii) Defects in construction method & quality control
iii) Inadequate surface or subsurface drainage
iv) Increase in magnitude of wheel loads due to increase in traffic volume
v) Settlement of foundation of embankment itself.
vi) Environmental factors: heavy rainfall, soil erosion, snow fall, frost action
INSPECTION ,PRIORITIZATION AND
PLANNING OF MAINTENANCE WORKS
Assessment of Maintenance Need
Depends upon serviceability standard laid down
Maintenance funds
Priorities for maintenance operations
PRIORITIZATION
Urgent work
Routine drainage work
Other routine work like dragging, Brushing or grading, patching, scaling
Other routine work like filing on unpaved roads, shoulder and slopes ,grass cutting, cleaning,
repainting
Periodic work like heavy grading,regraveling of unpaved roads, Surface dressing
Special work like overlaying, reconstruction
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
Minimum acceptable serviceability standards for maintenance of different categories of road
Field Surveys for evaluation of maintenance work
Various factor influencing the maintenance
Estimation of rate of deterioration
Type and extend of maintence requirements and various possible alternatives
Availability of funds
Maintenance cost availability of mateials,man power equipment
TYPES OF ROAD FAILURE AND ITS CAUSES
Failures in flexible pavement
Failures in Sub-grade soil: one of the prime causes of the flexible pavement is excessive
deformation insub-grade soil due to insufficient bearing capacity or a shear failure in sub-grade
soil. The failure of sub-grade may be attributed due to two basic reasons: Inadequate stability:
inherent weakness of soil itself, excessive moisture, improper compaction Excessive stress
application: insufficient thickness of pavement, excessive load than design value
 Failure in sub-base or base course:
a) Inadequate stability or strength: poor mix proportioning or inadequate thicknesses are main
reasons for the lack of stability or strength of sub-base or base course. Soft varieties of aggregates
or improper quality control during the construction results in poor base course.
b) Loss of binding action: internal movement of aggregates in base or sub-base course layers under
the repeated stress applications, the composite structure of the layers gets disturbed. This results in
the formation of alligator cracks in the surface.
c) Loss of base course material: when it is not covered by wearing course or the wearing course has
completely worn out. This is due to fast moving vehicles on road. This cause removal of binding
material in WBM base and stone aggregates are left in a loose state.
d) Inadequate wearing Course: Absence of wearing course or inadequate thickness or stability of
wearing course exposes the base course to the damaging effects of climatic variations mainly due
to rains, frost action and traffic.
e) Use of inferior materials: many failures mainly structural failures are due to the use of inferior
materials in the pavement.
f) Lack of lateral confinement for the granular base course
 Typical failures in flexible pavement
a. Alligator (map cracking):
It is most common type of failure and occurs due to relative movement of pavement layers
materials.This is caused by the repeated application of heavy wheel loads resulting in fatigue failure
or due to moisture variations resulting in swelling and shrinkage of sub-grade and other pavement
materials.Localized weakness in the underlying base course would also cause a cracking of the
surface course in this pattern.
POTHOLES
Small, bowl-shaped depressions in the pavement surface that penetrate all the way through the HMA
layer down to the base course. They generally have sharp edges and vertical sides near the top of the
hole. The main problem caused by potholes are Roughness (serious vehicular damage can result from
driving across potholes at higher speeds) and moisture infiltration.
RUT FORMATION (CONSOLIDATION):
Formation of ruts is mainly caused by the consolidation of one or
more layers of pavement. Repeated application of loads along the
same wheel path cause cumulative deformation resulting in
consolidation deformation of longitudinal ruts.
SHEAR FAILURE AND CRACKING:
Shear failures are associated with the inherent weakness of the pavement
mixtures, the shearingresistance being low due to inadequate stability or
excessive heavy loading. The shear failure causes upheaval of pavement
materials by forming a failure or cracking.
LONGITUDINAL CRACKS:
Due to frost action and different volume change in sub-grade
longitudinal cracking is caused inpavement traversing through the
full pavement thickness. Settlement of filling of side slopes also
would cause this type of failure.
REFLECTION CRACKING:
It is observed in bituminous overlays provided over existing cement
concrete pavements. The crackpatterns as existing in the existing
cement concrete pavement are mostly reflected on bituminous
surfacing in the same pattern.
FAILURES IN CEMENT CONCRETE
PAVEMENT
The failure of cement concrete pavements is indicated by the appearance of
the formation of structural cracking. The cement concrete pavements may be
develop cracks and deteriorate due to repeated loads and fatigue effects. The
failures are due to mainly two factors:

Deficiency of pavement material

Structural inadequacy of the pavement system

DEFICIENCY OF PAVEMENT MATERIAL
Soft aggregate
Poor finishing in joint construction
Poor joint filler and joint sealer
Poor surface finishing
In proper and in-sufficient curing
Above factors may arise the following defects in the rigid pavements:
i) Disintegration of cement concrete
ii) Formation of cracks
iii) Spalling of joints
iv) Poor riding surface
v) Slippery surface
vi) Formation of shrinkage cracks
vii) Ingress of surface water into pavement
STRUCTURAL INADEQUACY OF THE
PAVEMENT SYSTEM
Inadequate pavement thickness
Poor sub grade soil
Incorrect spacing of joint
Above would give result to the following type of failures:
i) Cracking of slab corner
ii) Longitudinal cracks
iii) Settlement of slabs
iv) Widening of joints
v) Mud pumping
TYPICAL FAILURES IN RIGID PAVEMENT
1. Scaling of cement concrete:
It is overall deterioration of the concrete. It is mainly due to
the deficiency in the mix or presence of some chemical impurities
which damage the mix. It may be due to excessive vibrations to mix.

2. Shrinkage cracks:
Shrinkage cracks develop during the curing of cement concrete
immediate after the construction. They may be in longitudinal as
well as in transverse direction.

.
 3. SPALLING OF JOINT :
If sometimes filler material is somehow dislocated and it is thus
placed at an angle. The concreting is done without noticing this faulty
alignment of the filler material. Thus this forms an overhanging of a
concrete payer on the top side and the joint later shows excessive
cracking and subsidence
4 MUD PUMPING:
In mud pumping the soil slurry is ejected out through the joint & cracks of
Cement Concrete pavement.
Factors which cause the mud pumping are:
Extent of slab deflection
Type of sub-grade soil
Amount of free water
TYPES AND METHODS OF PAVEMENT
REPAIR
MAINTAINANCE OF EARTHERN ROADS
MAINTAINANCE OF GRAVEL AND WATER BOUND MACADAM ROADS
MAINTAINANCE OF BITUMINUOS SURFACE
MAINTENANCE OF CEMENT CONCRETE ROADS
MAINTAINANCE OF EARTHERN ROADS

Frequent sprinkling of water

Reshaping of road way during and after monsoon
A surface treatment or provide stabilized layer at top
MAINTAINENCE OF GRAVER OR WATER
BOUND MACADAM ROAD
Spreading of thin layer of moist soil binder periodically usually after monsoon
Use of dust palliativities
Providing butiminous surfacedressing over WBM
Resurfacing after period of usefullife
Patch repair work on ruts and potholes
MAINTAINENCE OF BITUMINOUS
SURFACE
Patch repair
Pot holes repair
Surface treatment
Slurry Scaling
Repair of depression and settlement of pavement shoulder
Resurfacing
Repair of pavement edge and shoulder distress