TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
2. Pavement Condition ...................................................................................................... 1
3. Pavement Analysis ........................................................................................................ 1
4. Recommendations and Conclusion ............................................................................... 5
List of Tables
Table 1: The AADT for the Base Year 2006 adopted for the Pavement Design
Table 2: Axle Load Survey Data of Butwal-Bardaghat Road (worst case adopted)
Table 3: Field and Laboratory Test Results
Table 4: Cumulative esa for the design period of 10 years
List of Figure
Figure 1: Map Showing Location of Melamchi Access Road
Acronyms
AADT : Annual Average Daily Traffic
CBR : Californiya Bearing Ratio
CRM : Crusher Rum Material
cm : Centimeter
DBST : Double Bitumen Surface Dressing
DCP : Dynamic Cone Penetration
esa : Equivalent Standard Axle
EF : Equivalent Factor
FD : Field Dencity
FM : Field Moisture
GON : Government of Nepal
km : Kilometer
Kg : Kilogram
mm : Millimeter
MWSDP : Melamchi Water Supply Development Project
MWSDB : Melamchi Water Supply Development Board
MAR : Melamchi Access Road
MDD : Maximum Dry Density
ORN : Overseas Road Note
OMC : Optimum Moisture Conetent
PCC : Palin Cement Concrete
TRRL : Transport Road Research Laboratory
UK : United Kingdom
Summary of Detailed Design of Pavement Final Report
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Introduction
The 18 km long road from Melamchi Pul Bazar to Timbu is a part of Lamidada – Melamchi
Pul Bazar – Timbu – Helambu road. Figure 1, attached shows the location of the project
site. The road was started to build by Department of Roads and later on it was decided to
use as access road of Melamchi Water Supply Development Project. Then onwards the
Melamchi Water Supply Development Board is carrying out the improvement and
upgrading of the road from Lamidada to Timbu/Helambu. The project has decided to use
this road as access road to the headwork construction site and for the transportation of
construction materials and equipments to and from the site. In future this road will be
extended to Helambu, one of the tourist centers of Nepal. Therefore during the
construction of Melamchi Water Supply Development Project certain portion of this road
will be used as access road for the project and in future it will be extended up to Helambu.
2. Pavement Condition
The 18 km long road from Melamchi Pul Bazar to Timbu is under construction. Five
different contract packages were formed for the construction of this road. The contract
packages include construction of retaining walls, road side drain construction, filling in
embankment, sub-grade preparation and laying of 30 cm thick crusher run material (CRM)
up to the top level of road side drain. Thus, major initial portion of pavement work is
already under construction.
At the time of site investigation, it was observed that the alignment of the road section
under consideration passes through the foot of hill along the bank of Melamchi River.
Major road formation of this section is made up with gravel/boulder mixed soil. Hence, the
sub-grade material of this road section is comparatively strong with the exception of few
stretches. It was also informed that road stretches with weak sub-grade were improved by
providing 30cm thick capping layer below 30cm thick CRM. During site investigation
rutting on completed CRM surface along both wheel paths are observed at many sections
of this access road by the traction of wheels of moving vehicles and sweeping actions of
vehicles moving at high speed. Besides that serious washout of CRM road surfacing
materials by rainwater also observed at many locations. Gullies are formed at sections of
roads with high grades. Environmental degradation is found causing by dust pollution at
human settlements. New settlements are observed growing fast along the side of the
roads.
3. Pavement Analysis
The following points are considered for the analysis of pavement material:
1. Design life of pavement;
2. Number and load of vehicles that will ply in this road;
3. Strength of road formation (sub-grade strength); and
4. Type of pavement material used.
Every engineering structure has design life. In this connection, usually road pavements
are economically designed for 15 to 20 years of life from the date of opening. The road
under consideration is an access road to Melamchi Water Supply Development Project.
The project could be expected to complete within next 10 years irrespective of delays.
Therefore a design life of 10 years is appropriate as per objective of the access road
project.
EastConsult (P.) Ltd. 1 GON-MWSDB
Summary of Detailed Design of Pavement Final Report
The loads imposed by jeep and cars do not contribute significantly to the structural
damage of the road pavement. For the purpose of structural design, therefore, only the
number of commercial vehicles and their axle loading are considered. The commercial
vehicle is defined here as a goods and public service vehicle of unladen weight exceeding
3000 kg. In this regards trucks – heavy and light, buses – big and mini are included. As
discussed and computed earlier, the traffic data adopted for the design of the road under
consideration is presented in the Table 1, below.
Table 1: The AADT for the Base Year 2006 adopted for the Pavement Design
Description Local Traffic Traffic generated Total
by Construction
Activities
Truck 45 76 121
Mini Truck 3 6 9
Bus 38 64 102
Total 86 146 232
For the projection of traffic within its design life span, its growth rate has to be determined.
As discussed earlier a growth rate of 7.50 % per annum is adopted for the projection of
traffic within its design life of 10 years.
The deterioration of paved roads caused by traffic results, from both the magnitude of the
individual wheel loads and the number of times these loads are applied. Therefore for the
evaluation of pavement strength, it is necessary to consider not only the total number of
vehicles that will use the road but also the wheel loads. Structurally heavily loaded
vehicles rather than more number of vehicles plying in this road damage the road
pavements. Therefore, in order to analyze the damaging phenomenon of these
commercial vehicle axle load survey should be carried out. Based on data obtained from
axle load survey, the conversion factor as suggested by Overseas Road Note 40 (TRRL,
UK) is followed to convert the axle load of these commercial vehicles to standard axles.
The conversion equivalent factor is determines as follows:
Equivalent Factor (EF) = (axle load in kg/8160) 4.5
During construction period of Melamchi Water Supply Development Project, the project
has to use this access road for the movement of construction materials and others
accessories of the project. As we know at the time of construction, the construction
vehicles are usually heavily loaded. Therefore, the damaging behavior of vehicles plying
in this road at the time of construction period of Melamchi Water Supply Development
Project will also be high. After the completion of the project, since the commercial vehicles
are moderately loaded the damaging behavior of these commercial vehicles is also less
with comparison to those construction vehicles. Due to lack of axle load survey data, the
axle load survey data carried out at Butwal-Bardaghat Road (a section East West
Highway) is adopted. The axle load survey data is presented in the Table 2, below. This is
worst case adopted.
Table 2: Axle Load Survey Data of Butwal-Bardaghat Road
Vehicle Front Rear Total
EF
Mean Axle EF Mean Axle EF
Load Load
Heavy truck 5008 0.108 12784 7.710 7.818
Light truck 2600 0.005 5920 0.232 0.237
Big bus 3955 0.037 6755 0.423 0.460
EastConsult (P.) Ltd. 2 GON-MWSDB
Summary of Detailed Design of Pavement Final Report
Mini bus 2000 0.001 3000 0.011 0.012
With the information and assumption as mentioned above, cumulative number of traffic
and its cumulative equivalent standard axles for the period of 10 years design life is
computed. The following formula is used for calculating the traffic volume in different
years.
A = P x (1+r) n
Where,
A= traffic at the n years
P= present volume of traffic
r= growth rate
n= no. of years
The cumulative traffic at the end of design life is converted to equivalent standard axle
(esa) using the appropriate equivalent factor presented above.
In order to evaluate the sub-grade strength of this road, Dynamic Cone Penetration test at
the interval of 1 km was conducted along the road. At the same time field density tests
were also conducted near DCP test point and representative sample was brought to
laboratory for other tests. All together 20 numbers of DCP test and field density test were
conducted at site and 20 Compaction tests were conducted at laboratory for the
determination of degree of compaction of existing sub-grade material. From the selected
samples 5 soaked California Bearing Ratio Test was conducted. The CBR value at 95% of
MDD is read out with an assumption that at the time of construction the sub-grade
materials will be compacted to this density. Further to this, among these five CBR values
design sub-grade CBR value is determined according to procedure outlined in The
Asphalt Institute Manual Series No.1 (MS-1). The design sub-grade CBR value so
computed is 8%. The test reports of both field and laboratory tests are presented in
relevant appendices and the results are tabulated in Table 3, below.
Table 3: Field and Laboratory Test Results
Field Test Laboratory Test
[Link]. Chainag DCP CBR FD FM MDD OMC [Link] CBR
e m
mm/blo % gm/cc % gm/cc % % %
w
1 0+100 10.91 24 2.040 8.3 1.989 10.3 103
2 0+860 18.33 14 1.976 10.8 1.988 6.5 99 10.5
3 1+860 8.13 33 2.111 7.2 2.109 6.5 100
4 3+060 10.00 26 1.821 6.0 1.904 12.1 96
5 4+060 15.00 17 1.988 12.2 1.990 9.8 100 15.5
6 5+260 11.85 22 1.782 8.6 7.978 8.9 22
7 6+450 4.67 59 1.923 10.0 1.992 10.1 97
8 6+930 7.50 36 1.512 8.4 1.980 8.7 76
9 8+150 5.00 55 2.212 4.8 2.118 7.9 104
10 9+020 7.14 38 2.198 7.0 2.143 9.2 103
11 9+660 11.67 23 1.661 15.3 1.962 9.3 85
12 10+410 6.15 44 1.792 8.1 2.122 6.1 84
13 11+400 19.17 13 1.831 11.0 1.812 11.6 101 7.2
14 12+510 7.00 39 1.928 5.8 2.079 8.9 93
15 13+284 6.50 42 1.955 3.4 2.119 6.6 92
EastConsult (P.) Ltd. 3 GON-MWSDB
Summary of Detailed Design of Pavement Final Report
16 13+700 18.33 14 1.132 5.5 1.863 13.3 61 8.5
17 14+530 12.73 21 1.651 10.9 1.912 10.8 86
18 15+320 6.43 42 1.166 6.3 1.891 11.6 62
19 16+560 6.77 40 1.637 4.6 1.983 8.7 83
20 17+450 45.38 5 1.572 5.5 1.864 5.6 84 20.0
The cumulative traffic volume calculated based on the traffic data presented above and
with 7.50 % growth rate and its esa is presented in the following Table 4, below.
Table 4: Cumulative esa for the design period of 10 years
[Link]. Description Equivalent Cumulative traffic Cumulative esa for
factor for design period design period of 10
of 10 years years
Truck
1 Heavy 7.818 6.25E+05 4.89E+06
Light 0.237 4.65E+04 1.10E+04
Bus
2 Big 0.460 5.27E+05 2.42E+05
Mini 0.012
Total 5.14E+06
Hence the pavement design is carried out according to guidance and procedure given in
Road Note No.29, TRRL and ORN-31, TRRL UK and with the following considerations:
1. The pavement is designed for 10 years of life span;
2. The Sub grade CBR value of 8 % is adopted as the design CBR of sub-grade;
and
3. Equivalent standard axle for this road is assumed to be in the range of
5.14 x 106 esa.
Option 1:Pavement Design with asphalt concrete surfacing
Hence, for cumulative equivalent standard axle of 5.14 x 106 esa and sub-grade CBR of
8 %, according to fig.6 and fig.10 of Road Note 29, the pavement thickness required is;
Sub-base with 30% min. CBR - 150 mm
Base course with 80% min. CBR - 195 mm
Asphalt surfacing - 100 mm
----------
Total 445 mm
According to Road Note 31, Chart 3, for the above mentioned requirements, the pavement
thickness required is;
Sub-base with 30% min. CBR - 250 mm
Base course with 80% min. CBR - 175 mm
Asphalt surfacing - 50 mm
----------
Total 475 mm
Option 2:Pavement Design with surface dressing surfacing (DBST or Otta Seal)
Also with surface dressing concept, according to Road Note 31, Chart 1, (TRRL, UK) for
the above mentioned requirements, the pavement thickness required is;
EastConsult (P.) Ltd. 4 GON-MWSDB
Summary of Detailed Design of Pavement Final Report
Sub-base with 30% min. CBR - 250 mm
Base course with 80% min. CBR - 200 mm
Surface Dressing - 50 mm
----------
Total 500 mm
4. Recommendations and Conclusion
The road under consideration is only an access road for Melamchi Water Supply
Development Project. Therefore road pavement with asphalt concrete surfacing may not
be economically feasible for the project. Further to this the road from Lamidada to
Melamchi Pul bazaar is also proposed to build with Otta seal surfacing. Therefore we also
recommend building this road with surface dressing option. For this purpose the pavement
type and thickness recommended by Road Note 31, Chart 1 is recommended.
The road pavement works with different material and different thickness are built in road in
order to transfer the stresses developed by traffic plying in this road to road formation,
sub-grade within its stress bearing range without developing depression and rutting in
road surface during the design period. Therefore, thicker section will be required for
material with low strength bearing capacity.
In our case, partial road pavement construction work, i.e., placing and compacting 30 cm
thick CRM is already completed or in progress. The CBR value of used CRM material is in
the range of 38% to 48%. Rutting on completed CRM surface along both wheel paths are
observed at many sections of this access road. Washouts of CRM by rainwater and
traction/sweeping actions of moving vehicles are also serious.
Besides dust nuisance caused to local people settled on the roadside and daily walkers
are observed critical. Therefore block topping of the road is found necessary to
recommend for long life of road itself and reducing dust nuisance to local people and daily
walkers in order to avoid protests of local people affecting project schedule and activities
Hence, analyzing the strength and thickness of laid CRM and requirement of pavement
type and thickness as recommended by Road Note 31, we propose to build the pavement
of this access road as follows:
1. Scarify the top 10 cm of CRM and mixing, watering and re-compacting the
scarified material to form smooth surface. This operation may need few fine CRM
materials to fill the voids of hungry surface. This re-compacted CRM material will
fulfill the requirement of 250 mm thick sub-base materials;
2. Lay and compact 200 mm thick crushed base course material with minimum CBR
value of 80% at 98% compaction;
3. Provide Double Surface Dressing Treatment (DBST) to form a riding surface. As a
thin option, Otta seal treatment could be done in place of DBST; and
4. Raise road side drain walls by 200 mm using High Strength PCC;
EastConsult (P.) Ltd. 5 GON-MWSDB