Unit-5

Highway Maintenance and Repair

5.1 Introduction:

 Highway maintenance is concerned with the task of preserving, repairing

and restoring a system of roadways with its elements to keep the
serviceable conditions of highway as normal as possible and as best as
practicable.
 Maintenance of good networks involves a variety of operations from
planning, programming and scheduling to actual implementation in the
field and monitoring.
 The maintenance activities include identifications of defects and the
possible causes thereof, determination of appropriate remedial measures,
implementation of these in the field and monitoring of the results.
 Highway maintenance programs are developed to carry out the above task
and to contain the detrimental effects of weather, organic growth,
deterioration, traffic wear, damage, etc.
 If maintenance work are not done at all or done faulty, the pavement
structure is inadequate for present day traffic and loading thereby reducing
the useful life drastically and causing waste of huge investment of funds
and sincere efforts of engineers.
 Maintenance is an important activity which helps in providing better service
facilities longer life and better appearance.
 For poor design roads, the maintenance cost may be higher than the initial
cost so at the time of alignment studies, proper consideration should be
given.
 Road maintenance concerns with all the maintenance works on the
roadway (carriageway and shoulder) and on all structures within and
immediately adjacent to the roadway such as side ditches, culverts,
causeways, bridges, etc.
# General causes of pavement failure:

The general causes of pavement failure needing maintenance different types of

maintenance activities are:

 Defects in the quality of the material used.

 Defects in the construction method an improper quality control during
construction.
 Inadequate surface or sub surface drainage of the road resulting in the
stagnation of water in the sub-grade or in any of the pavement layers.
 Increase in the magnitude of wheel load and the number of load repetitions
due to increase in traffic volume.
 Settlement of foundation of embankment of fill materials.
 Environmental factors like heavy rainfall, soil erosion, high water table,
snowfall, frost action, etc.

# Types of maintenance activities:

Depending upon the various types of failure and remedial road maintenance
operations, it can be broadly divided into:

1) Road Maintenance
2) Road side Maintenance

1) Road Maintenance:
It concerns all maintenance works on the road (carriage way & shoulder)
and on all structures within and immediately adjacent to the road way such
as side ditches, culverts, causeways, bridges etc.
2) Road Side Maintenance:
It concerns all maintenance works on structures and surfaces above and
below the road having directly active and/ or passive influence on the road.
This comprises culverts, protection works, retaining wall, area drains, river
protection works and vegetation structures.
 In general the following types are classified as road maintenance.
 Routine Maintenance
 Recurrent Maintenance
 Preventive Maintenance
 Periodic Maintenance
 Emergency Maintenance

Routine Maintenance:
 Maintenance operations of localized nature required continually on
any road whatever its engineering characteristics or traffic volume
may be.
 The works are generally done by labor and can be contracted out
(petty contractors).
 It covers the activities such as grass and bush cutting, grading and
reshaping of unpaved shoulders, clearing of ditches and culverts,
road sign maintenance, repair of road side structures, etc.

Recurrent Maintenance:

 Maintenance operations of localized nature and of limited extent carried

out at more or less regular intervals of six months to two years with a
frequency that depends on traffic volume.
 The works in general need to be done by the use of minor equipment.
 Activities for paved road within this category are such as sealing cracks,
local surface treatment, repair of depressions, holes and ruts, pothole
patching, edge repair, local reconstruction etc.

Preventive Maintenance:

 Maintenance operation of road surface, geological and geotechnical

nature to protect the road way.
 The activities within this category are sealing of raveling/stripping and
meandering cracks, sealing of longitudinal and transverse cracks, laying
 of net on the slopes, trimming of loose materials including stones on
slope, installation of sub surface drains.
 The construction of the masonry retaining structures, river bank
protection, slope protection with bio-engineering etc.

Periodic Maintenance:

 Maintenance operations of large extent required only at intervals of

several years.
 Examples of activities within this category for a paved road are such
as resealing (surface treatment, slurry sealing), resurfacing (thin
overlay), repairing of earth retaining walls, repairing parapet wall,
railing at bridges and culverts etc.

Emergency Maintenance:

Emergency maintenance can be divided into two types depending upon

the nature of work as follows:

 Urgent emergency maintenance works needed for reopening the

road or construction of a temporary diversion to allow the traffic
to pass around the obstruction such as slides, road wash outs.
Urgent maintenance activities are removal of debris and other
obstacles, placement of warning signs and diversion works, etc.
 Reinstatement of the road after the critical period is over (in
general after the rainy season) by reconstruction or repair of the
pavement, the structures and the drainage as constructed before.
In addition, construction of new river training structures and the
road side structures as the case may be.
# Difference between Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction:

The work performed to upkeep a pavement in its as constructed condition is

consider as maintenance, whereas measures improving the structural strength of
the pavement is considered as rehabilitation.

The upgrading of road elements as well as partial change in horizontal and vertical
alignment for better route including strengthening of pavement structure is
considered as reconstruction.

# Maintenance of Earthen Roads:

 The usual damages caused in the earthen roads needing frequent

maintenance are:
1) Formation of dust in dry weather
2) Formation of longitudinal ruts along wheel paths of vehicles.
3) Formation of cross ruts along the surface due to surface water.
 Remedial measures are:
1) Frequent sprinkling of water, use of dust palliatives, spreading
of moist soil.
2) Reshaping of the road way during and after monsoon.
3) A surface treatment or provide a stabilized layer on the top.
 Periodic maintenance by spreading moist soil along ruts and
reshaping of the camber is necessary.
 Cross ruts may be due to excessive cross slope which cannot be
avoided in untreated earth roads in heavy rainfall areas and hence
ruts should be repaired from time to time during and after
monsoon or a suitable treatment or stabilized layer treatment is
provided on the top.
 Application of calcium chloride retains some water due to the
hygroscopic nature of the mix.
# Maintenance of Gravel Roads:

 Maintenance of gravel roads should be done on the same ways as

that of earth roads but in no case soil should be spread over the
gravel surface.
 Only gravel should be used.
 For this reason additional material should be staked along the
road on the berms before the onset of monsoon.
 The volume of the gravel staked should be sufficient to be spread
over the full width of the road.

# Maintenance of WBM Roads:

 WBM roads are damaged rapidly due to heavy mixed traffic and
fast moving vehicles and adverse climatic conditions.
 In dry weather dust is formed and during rains mud is formed.
 Due to combined effects of traffic and the rainwater washing
away the soil binder from the surface, the stone aggregates get
loose on the surface layer.
 Potholes and ruts are also formed.

Remedial Measures:

 Spreading a thin layer of moist soil binder on the surface

as a part of periodic maintenance particularly after the
monsoons can prevent the aggregate from getting
loosened from the surface course.
 Potholes and ruts are remedied by patch repair works. It
is done by cutting out a rectangular shape of the
defective area to remove the stone up to the defective
depth. Then the coarse aggregate of the same size, the
patch is filled up and compacted well by ramming such
that is about 1 cm above the general pavement surface
to allow the further compaction under traffic. Wet soil
 binder is applied on the surface of the patched area and
the surface is rammed again.
 Dust nuisance can be prevented by providing, a) dust
palliatives, b) moist soil, c) bituminous surface dressing
course over WBM.
 After useful life of WBM road or when it fails extensively,
resurfacing is carried out. If the thickness requirement of
the old road was inadequate, the thickness of the WBM
pavement is increased during the resurfacing.

# Maintenance of Bituminous Roads:

Regular and frequent inspections are essential for repairing failures in early stages.
Rainy weather inspections are very helpful, in that surface defects can be
detected readily and marked for further corrections. The maintenance works of
bituminous surfaces mainly consists of;

a) Patch Repairs
b) Base Repairs
c) Surface treatments
d) Resurfacing
e) Maintenance of waves and Corrugations