Identification of problems in rigid pavements in Ampara district and proposed solutions

Abstract

Construction of rigid pavements is nowadays most widely used in road construction industry. Rigid pavements tend to fail with time due to many reasons. Although the reasons for the failures and the remedial measures are well documented in literature still the problems are common in the road construction industry of Sri Lanka. Hence, the aim of the present study is to shed some light on this issue. The objective of the present study is to identify the problems associated with rigid pavements and recommended solutions in Ampara district, Sri Lanka. Through literature survey, problems in rigid pavements and how to identify them were found. Then 108 randomly selected rigid pavements covering a total length of 98 km in Ampara district were examined by field survey to identify the problems present in recently constructed rigid pavements. The failure types were identified with the help of literature survey and the exerted reasons on the failures were studied. Altogether 10 types of various failures were identified in randomly selected all rigid pavements, and 5 major types of failures were focused and stated in this paper. Polished aggregate was the most common problem among the identified failures followed by scaling and transverse cracking. The reasons and solutions were given to those problems by observing those failures and discussing with the responsible road owning authorities. Some solutions were given in order to prevent failures of newly constructed rigid pavement in future.