Investigation on Causes of Pavement Failure and Its Remedial Measures

Abstract: Pavement failure is defined in terms of decreasing serviceability caused by the development of cracks and ruts. Before going into the maintenance strategies, we must look into the causes of failure of bituminous pavements. Failures of bituminous pavements are caused due to many reasons or combination of reasons. Application of correction in the existing surface will enhance the life of maintenance works as well as that of strengthening layer. It has been seen that only 3 parameters i.e., unevenness index, pavement cracking and rutting are considered while other distresses have been omitted while going for maintenance operations. Along with the maintenance techniques there are various methods for pavement preservation which will help in enhancing the life of pavement and delaying of its failure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible causes of pavement distresses, and to recommend remedies to minimize distress of the pavement. The report describes lessons learnt from pavement failures and problems experienced during the last few years on a number of projects in India. Based on the past experience’s various pavement preservation techniques and measures are also discussed which will be helpful in increasing the serviceable life of pavement. A comprehensive literature concerning the factors of road deterioration, common road defects and their causes were reviewed. The investigation involved field survey and laboratory testing on those projects to examine the existing pavement conditions. The results revealed that the roads investigated experienced severe failures in the forms of cracks, potholes and rutting in the wheel path. The causes of those failures were found mainly linked to poor drainage, traffic overloading, expansive subgrade soils and the use of low-quality materials in construction. Based on the results, recommendations were provided to help highway engineers in selecting the most effective repair techniques for specific kinds of distresses.