Influence of Excessive Moisture in the Subgrade on the Durability and Load-Bearing Capacity of Road Pavements

摘要

When well performed, pavement renewal or alteration shall ensure the desired properties of the road during the assumed period of operation. Presence of water in the subgrade can be one of the main factors affecting the structural capacity of pavement and can result in cracking of the bituminous layers, even after a very short period of trafficking. Reconstruction of one of regional roads in Poland has been chosen to serve as an example of inappropriate approach to the problem of the presence of water in the road structure. The project included construction of new layers of pavement and increasing the design life of the whole pavement structure to 4.06 million ESAL of 100 kN (as per the Standard Catalogue of Typical Flexible and Semi-rigid Road Pavement Structures, issue of 1997). After a relatively short period of trafficking (3-5 years) localised alligator cracking appeared on the surface along with structural deformations. The pavement condition assessment including FWD tests was carried out to reveal excessive deflections (over 500 μrn) which classify the road for renewal. The analysis of data showed that the main cause of distress was softening of the subgrade caused by an ingress of precipitation water under the pavement layers through the roadway and shoulder edges. The deficiencies of the performed reconstruction occurred both in the roadway (including small step-outs in the cement-treated layer) and partly in the shoulders where the existing soil was in places replaced with impervious material, with the existing (cohesive) material left in place on a major part of the overall length.