TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... 2

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................. 3

OBJECTIVE ......................................................................................................................................... 4

CASE STUDY ....................................................................................................................................... 4

PAVEMENT FAILURE ....................................................................................................................... 6

FACTORS ASPHALT BITUMEN FAILURE................................................................................... 8

METHOD TO OVERCOMES AND REMEDIES PAVEMENT FAILURES.............................. 11

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................. 12

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 14

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ABSTRACT

Pavement is a multi-layer system that distributes the vehicular loads over a larger area.
It helps to make them durable and able to withstand traffic and the environment. But when
there are many numbers of traffic loads thru on them and cannot withstand anymore with the
traffic loads, the pavement will contribute to the failures. The objectives are to identify the
surface deformation which is include rutting, corrugation, shoving, shallow depression and
swell, to find out the different reasons that causes the failure in Kolej Kediaman Bestari, Batu
Pahat and to suggest suitable maintenance methods. A 2m length of the road was selected for
the study. The survey was carried out and the reasons for the surface deformation happened
and other failures in pavement were studied. Finally, the required maintenance solution for
each type of failures was identified and the best maintenance option was selected.

Keywords: pavement, rutting, shoving, corrugation, pavement failures

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INTRODUCTION

In this study, we choose the road in Kolej Kediaman Bistari, Batu Pahat Johor as a study
area for pavement failure. It is a known fact throughout the world that the conditions of any
road largely depend upon its geotechnical properties. Types of failure existing on the roads are
corrugations, cracks, shallow depressions, edge subsidence, rutting, edge damage, local
aggregate loss, potholes and shovel. Pavement failure on this area occurs when an asphalt
surface no longer holds its original shape and develops material stress, which causes issues.
The possible causes of road failures are insufficient strength properties of bituminous mixes,
movement of over loading vehicles, bad drainage condition and natural disaster. Due to lack
of properly and timely maintenance the failure area is gradually increased. A pavement is the
durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such
as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but
these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete The pavement structure
normally consists of a few layers of strong materials to ensure adequate stability under traffic
loads.

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OBJECTIVE

1. To determine type of failure in case study.

2. To determine what kind of prevention that can use to prevent that failure.

CASE STUDY

This study was carried out on pavement failure at Kolej Kediaman Bistari, Batu Pahat
that is located at Parit Raja, Batu Pahat. Based on picture above, shown that a road was
experience pavement failure. The performance of pavement is mostly influence by the number
of load repetition by heavy vehicle such as buses.

Pavement failure occurs when an asphalt surface no longer holds its original shape and
develops material stress, which causes issues. The pavement failure issues include cracking,
potholes, depressions, rutting, shoving, upheavals and ravelling.

Firstly, the cracking failure caused in the asphalt concrete is a series of interconnected
cracks due to such distress. The tensile stress is maximum at the base where the cracks are
formed. Next, depression in flexible pavements in certain areas have lower elevation compared
to the surrounding pavement level. This issue can be caused either by the foundation soil
settlement due to continuous loading which this can be noticed when raining.

In addition, the corrugations are distress seen in the pavement at regular intervals in the
form of ridges and valleys. The ridges form of corrugation will be perpendicular to the traffic
direction. Shoving is a form of plastic movement that is seen in the form of wave and there are
observed perpendicular to the direction of the traffic.

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 Besides, road surfaces is a portion of the same has broken away cause this failure issue.
The occurrence of fatigue cracking will interlock to form alligator cracking. These chunks
between the cracks formed in the pavement will become loose and will be picked out under
continuous loading and stresses. While for rutting failure, it is formed in the wheel path surface
that will make the other sides of the wheel to undergo uplift and it is occur as pavement rutting
and subgrade rutting.

Lastly, swelling is long and gradual wave that can be ten feet long which can be
characterized by the upward bulge in the pavement surface where the main reason behind
swelling is frost action in the subgrade.

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PAVEMENT FAILURE

Pavement, in civil engineering, durable surfacing of a road, airstrip or similar area. The
primary function of a pavement is to transmit loads to the sub-base and underlying soil.

Modern flexible pavements contain sand and gravel or crushed stone compacted with a
binder of bituminous material such as asphalt, tar or asphaltic oil. Such a pavement has enough
plasticity to absorb shock. In flexible pavements, wheel loads are transferred by grain-to-grain
contact of the aggregate through the granular structure. The flexible pavement, having less
flexural strength, acts like a flexible sheet, such as bituminous road. The wheel load acting on
the pavement will be distributed to a wider are and the stress decreases with the depth. Taking
advantage of these stress distribution characteristic, flexible pavements normally has many
layers. Hence, the design of flexible pavement uses the concept of layered system. The lower
layers will experience lesser magnitude of stress and low quality material can be used.

Rigid pavements are made of concrete, composed of coarse and fine aggregate and
Portland cement and usually reinforced with steel rod or mesh. Wheel loads are transferred to
sub-grade soil by flexural strength of the pavement and the pavement acts like a rigid plate
such as cement concrete roads. Rigid pavements have sufficient flexural strength to transmit
the wheel load stresses to a wider area below. The allowable number of load repetitions to
cause fatigue cracking depends on the stress ratio between flexural tensile stress and concrete
modulus of rupture.

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 Pavements form the basic supporting structure in highway transportation. Each layer of
pavement has a multitude of functions to perform which has to be duly considered during the
design process. Different types of pavements can be adopted depending upon the traffic
requirements. Improper design of pavements leads to early failure of pavements affecting the
riding quality also. To reduce road defects in general, during the construction or maintenance
of the road, the municipality must ensure that the construction work are performed as properly
and required. Also to construct the roads that have high traffic volume must be increase the
thickness of the asphalt layer must be increased more than 70 mm (To avoid defects that are
due to high traffic volume) and the level of the asphalt layer should be at the same level of the
soil beside the road.

Pavement failure occurs when an asphalt surface no longer holds its original shape and
develops material stress which causes issues. Pavement failure issues include cracking,
potholes, depressions, rutting, shoving, upheavals, and ravelling. Pavement failure is caused
by a number of variables including, water intrusion, stress from heavy vehicles, expansion and
contraction from seasonal temperature changes, and sun exposure. It is important to keep up
with proper maintenance like crack and asphalt sealing to prevent cracks from spreading or
forming.

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FACTORS ASPHALT BITUMEN FAILURE

1. Water
When water penetrates the asphaltic surface either through poor surface or subsurface
drainage system, it weakens the sub-grade and base course supporting the Asphalt.
Asphalt failure often begins with the oxidation of an untreated pavement surface
which causes the asphalt to become dry and brittle. The top layer of fine particles
erodes, exposing the larger aggregate and leading to small cracks on the surface.
These cracks will grow if left untreated, allowing water to penetrate to the base of the
pavement. When water enters the base of the pavement, the base material shifts and
settles leading to further cracking and a depression in the surface. As water pools in
the depressed area, the asphalt further deteriorates and becomes unstable.

2. Excessive loading from High Traffic

The performance of pavements is mostly influenced by the loading magnitude,
configuration and the number of load repetitions by heavy vehicles. Excessive loading
weakens the asphalt and this can cause alligator cracks on the road

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3. Low Subgrade CBR Value
The subgrade is the underlying soil that supports the applied wheel loads. Poor soil
tends to give a weak subgrade. If the subgrade is too weak to support the wheel loads,
the pavement will flex excessively which ultimately causes the pavement (asphalt) to
fail. If natural variations in the composition of the subgrade are not adequately
addressed by the pavement design, significant differences in pavement performance
will be experienced.

4. Poor construction procedure

Failure to obtain proper soil compaction, improper moisture conditions during
construction, quality of materials and adequate layer thickness (after compaction) all
directly affect the performance of a pavement. These conditions stress the need for
skilled staff and the importance of proper supervision by a qualified is highly
recommended.

5. Failure of Wearing Course

Wearing course or surface course is the layer having more strength than all the other
pavement layers. This is because the wheel load is directly applied on this layer.
Along with the vertical load, it has also to resist the abrading effect of wheel and
weathering effect of climate.

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Therefore, design and construction of wearing course should be done properly. A pervious
layer of wearing course can damage all the underlying layers. The following measure should
be employed during design and construction of wearing courses

 Proper mix design

 Sufficient thickness
 Good quality of binder
 Proper amount of binder
 Good quality aggregate

High degree of quality control should be employed during construction of wearing course.
Oxidation or aging of binder, also make the bituminous surface brittle and creates cracks on
pavement surface. This results in ingress of moisture to underlying layers and weakening of
the layers.

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METHOD TO OVERCOMES AND REMEDIES PAVEMENT FAILURES

Based on our case study, which is at Kolej Kediaman Bistari the type of pavement is Asphalt
Bituminous. Therefore, here are the method to overcome and remedies for those pavement
failures due to surface deformation.

i. Corrugations/ Washboarding
Highway department guidance suggests that choice of gravel can be key to
mitigating corrugations. They cite "sieve analysis" tests that use a series of screens
or sieves to characterize the sizes of particles contained within a gravel sample.
Highway department guidance suggests a range of particle sizes from stones that
are in the 1-inch (25 mm) range, mixed with progressively finer particles to include
a small fraction of fine particles that bind the larger particles together. They also
mention the role of equipment that can re-blend and smooth surfaces that have
corrugated. The possible recovery measures for corrugation include scarifying the
bituminous surfacing with corrugation and removing the surfacing along with top
portion of the existing base course and re-compacting the material: After applying
prime coat and tack coat another bituminous surface course may be laid using a
mechanical paver.

ii. Rutting
Specifications require that asphalt roads be constructed in a way such as to prevent
rutting, and other deficiencies. These specifications can regulate construction such
as, how the asphalt is rolled, the thickness of base, or the aggregate content in the
hot mix asphalt (HMA). Through these specifications, JKR ensures that the public
receives quality asphalt roads by stating a required minimum thickness of the
subbase. When it comes to pavement thickness typically rutting occurs when the
subbase is insufficiently thick or soft allowing the material to be depressed. Keeping
to a stiffer, stronger subbase is the key to reducing the chances of rutting occurring.
Subbase is very important to road systems as it provides the support for which the
road is built on. This is why the design procedures set by JKR must be followed,
and the construction process should follow the plans given by the engineer. In
addition, the possible remedial measures for this type of distress include:
1. Cleaning the affected surface
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 2. Application of tack coat and covering the ruts
3. Filling the ruts using either a dense graded bituminous mix or open graded pre-
mix followed by seal coat
4. Compaction by rolling
5. Providing a thin bituminous resurfacing course to achieve good riding quality.
The remedial measures may include either total reconstruction of the pavement
starting from laying new subgrade or partial reconstruction of the affected portion
along the pavement, starting from the subgrade depending upon the severity of the
failure

iii. Shoving
The recovery measure for shoving is the removal of the materials to firm base and
relaying a stable mix. Locations and causes of shoving are similar to those for
corrugations so the prevention for shoving are similar to corrugations. Control the
stability in bituminous mix to mitigating shoving.

iv. Shallow Depression

Localized pavement surface areas with slightly lower elevations than the
surrounding pavement. Depressions are very noticeable after a rain when they fill
with water. Depressions are small-localized areas. A pavement depression should
be investigated to determine the root cause of failure. Depressions should be
repaired by removing the affected pavement then digging out and replacing the area
of poor subgrade. Patch over the repaired subgrade. Remedial measures include
filling with pre-mix materials, excavating and rebuilding the localized depressions,
and reconstruction is required for extensive depressions.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The aim of this work was to determine the geotechnical properties of soils developed
over the road in Parit Raja area and relate the properties to the pavement failure in the section.
Data from this study suggest that the geotechnical properties composition of the shale are
responsible for road failure in the area. From the study that have been carried out, it was
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discovered that poor geotechnical properties of the soils making up the pavement led to its
failure. These are indications of substandard material properties used for the construction of
the road. Proper soil investigations are a necessity for any construction work. Therefore, some
method of soil improvement, such as soil stabilization is required to improve the strength of
the soil and prolong the useful life and durability of the road. When considering an additive;
like lime, fly ash, cement or asphalt, lab tests like the Atterber limits and AASHTO T-99 can
be used with trial mixes to determine engineering properties and optimum proportions for the
modified or stabilized materials. Good drainages should be provided to avoid the ingress of
water into the road pavement thereby minimizing the risk of weakening the properties of the
soil that might have been used in the pavement design. Proper pavement maintenance practices,
guidelines and policies should be employed in executing any road design and construction
project.

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REFERENCES

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solutions/
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ongGombi-Biu.pdf
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EvaluationofFlexiblePavementFailures.pdf

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