ROAD FAILURE

Our designed standards are as good as any other country but the combined effects of improper road maintenance and overloading interact destructively and magnify the impact of excess axle loading. This means both bad road maintenance and overloading have adverse effect on the road condition through time.

Recommendation:

Axle load control equipments, which can be best deal for reliable axle load measurement.

 Improper asesment of loading (traffic volume studies) and vehicle damage factor are the main reasons. Then comes the improper drainage design and construction practices.

When an indian visits foreign country he is amazed with one particular thing that is their HIGHWAYs. Every particular state in western country has a RAINGUAGE station. Depending on the various datas from that department, highways are planned and constructed there.

In India the road which is there in SHIMLA the same road is there in DELHI and everywhere througout the country the same manner goes. There are rainguage stations in many states but no contracter or developer is bothered about it. All that they bother is their fame and money throgh that project.

Secondly i want everyone of u to notice the HEATING TEMPERATURE OF BITUMEN which our famous contractors adopt. They hardly heat it to 1/3rd of the temperature to which a bitumen is to be heated before laying on road. Finally within a matter of 10-15 days we abserve tiny patches on the newly laid road. In case theres sudden rainfall these tiny patches get filled with water . The next day when we take out our vehicles and on observing those patches we try that the tyres of our vehicle dont pass through that patch of water, thinking that our vehicle gets spoiled. FINALLY that tiny  patch of water which is undisturbed for many days grows to a greater patch and hence road damage..........  so everywhere theres one common thing carelessness and negligence.

Design factor however plays a crucial role, it's mainly due to the improper preparation of layers such as Sub base,Granular Soil Base,and Wet Mix Macadum without proper design mix laid with poor compaction and without proper camber and drain,the roads get damaged quickly.The Employer or the Supervising Agency's role in this are also deplorable.

It is the consideration for heavy loads in design which matters. The standard axle for which the road pavements are designed in India is 8160 Kg and you know that what are the loads our trucks are carrying. The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) recommends calculatiopn of factor called "Vehicle Damage Factor" to take overloading into account. Although the IRC suggests some VDF values for different traffic volume but recommends that the VDF be better calculated by axle load survey. This survey is not done for all type of roads thus leaving a gap in the data required for the design.

Result is the damages which prompted you to ask this question. (IRC:37-2001 may be referred for details on pavement design) 

Dear All,

My idea of asking the question was the design based not the maintenance based,but everyone is taking the maintenance aspect only.Please go ahead with the design aspect.

I totally agree with what Pradeep has said here,,,and the contracts given by the government to people who are in this field don't give importance to the quality and every time there is no proper communication from the departments as mentioned by Pradeep...which is resulting in bad roads which has to be beared by people every time..

It has go to do mainly with the quality of the end product which we see, the top layer will be such that it will come off if once there is a heavy rain....and even if the roads are of good quality but there is lack of co-operation from the different departments of the Government like once the Power people come and dig up the road then the Telecom people and finally the sewage board....nobody has proper communication, by the time they've put tar newly for the roads some or the other departments mentioned above will come and dig up and then it goes on and on and also due to the new connections of power and sewage to new houses and buildings result in potholes in between the roads...this is frustrating as one can't even drive properly on these roads...

As far as flexible pavements are considered major points to be considered are the subgrade conditions,drainage pattern and the vehicular traffic  unfortunately most of our ODR, MDR & VR arefailing due to poor work quality