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.

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 subgrade soil. Rigid pavement is laid
in slabs with steel reinforcement. The rigid pavements are made of cement concrete either plan,
reinforced or pre-stressed 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.

Rigid pavements have a high compressive strength, which tends to distribute the load
over a relatively wide area of soil. There are several advantages of properly constructed rigid
pavements: (1) Low maintenance costs; (2) Long life with extreme durability; (3) High value as
a base for future resurfacing with asphalt; (4) Load distribution over a wide area; decreasing base
and sub grade requirements; (5) Ability to be placed directly on poor soils; (6) No damage from
oils and greases; (7) Strong edges. The disadvantages of rigid pavements include: (1) High initial
costs; (2) Joints required for contraction and expansion; (3) Generally rough riding quality; (4)
High repair costs

Flexible pavement

They are pavements which reflect the deformation of subgrade and the subsequent layers
to the surface. Flexible, usually asphalt, is laid without reinforcement or with a specialized fabric
reinforcement that permits limited flow or repositioning of the roadbed underground 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

Flexible pavements consist of a series of layers, with the highest quality materials at or
near the surface. The strength of a flexible pavement is a result of building up thick layers and
thereby distributing the load over the sub grade; the surface material does not assume the
structural strengths as with rigid pavements. The advantages of flexible pavements include: (1)
Adaptability to stage construction; (2) Availability of low-cost types that can be easily built; (3)
Ability to be easily opened and patched; (4) Easy to repair frost heave and settlement; (5)
Resistance to the formation of ice glaze. The disadvantages include: (1) Higher maintenance
costs (2) Shorter life span under heavy use; (3) Damage by oils and certain chemicals; (4) Weak
edges that may require curbs or edge devices.