Highway Maintenance and Rehabilitation
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) defines road maintenance as the
“preservation of roads and bridges as nearly as possible to its original condition when first
constructed or subsequently improved”.
Maintenance is all about keeping the road in good condition and effectively slowing down
its deterioration.
Importance
Roads make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring
important social benefits. They are of vital importance to make a nation grow and develop. In
addition, providing access to employment, social, health and education services makes a road
network crucial in fighting against poverty. Roads open more areas and stimulate economic and
social development. For those reasons, road infrastructure is the most important of all public assets.
Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs,
increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation,
poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities.
3 Types of Maintenance Activities
A.) Routine Maintenance - It is Considered the most important. Routine maintenance is
carried out two to three times a year to ensure that the road stays in good condition, and
that small problems are dealt with before they become larger problem. Routine
maintenance includes minor modifications and improvements such as Fixing potholes,
Crack filling/ Sealing, Skin patching, Cleaning, Grass cutting, Traffic painting, and
Landscaping.
B.) Periodic Maintenance – It is performed periodically to keep the condition, size and
strength of highways to be as the same as their initial characteristics. This type of
maintenance is usually carried out every few years.
C.) Emergency Maintenance – It is performed when highways are destructed or
deteriorated by natural disasters or unexpected incidents, this includes activities to
repair road surfaces, bridges, or culverts.
Components of Road Maintenance
A.) Road Surface Maintenance - Unlike construction involving high volume of work,
maintenance operation, deals with small amount of work at separate locations. Road
maintenance requires speed performance to cause the least possible disruption and
danger to traffic.
Goals:
I.
II.
III.
To Preserve the road in its originally constructed condition.
Protect adjacent resources and user safety.
Provide efficient, convenient travel along the route.
Requirements:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
For Gravel Roads- blading and periodic re-shaping or resurfacing.
For Surface Treatment of low type bituminous pavement, maintenance
could be patching, seal coating, remixing, and relaying.
For Slick Asphalt Surface, roughening, burning or non-skid seal is required.
For Concrete Road, maintenance could be removal and replacement or
filling of damaged areas. Sometimes joint sealing or mud-jacking or undersealing is relatively common maintenance work.
B.) Maintenance of Shoulder and Approach - The goal of shoulder maintenance is to
restore the road shoulders to a condition where they capable of satisfying their main
objectives, namely to; provide a safe and smooth transition for road users.
Requirements:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Sod shoulders should be removed and periodically bladed down to the
roadway elevation to avoid entrapment of water in the travelled way
Grass prevents shoulder erosion. If necessary, fertilized, re-seeded, or
treated to keep them in good conditions.
Gravel and earth shoulder should be maintained by blading under favorable
weather conditions.
Rutting or setting of the shoulder should be corrected at once by
reconstruction or re-surfacing.
C.) Maintenance of Roadside
I.
If the roadside is full of grass, mowing closer to the shoulder is the answer.
If necessary, grass at the roadside be fertilized or treated with lime. In some
areas, reseeding may be required.
II.
If the roadside has dry grass considered as fire hazard, burning or plowing
is the solution.
III.
If bushes cover the back-slope, trimming is necessary to maintain clearance
and sight distance
IV.
D.) Drainage Maintenance
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Cleaning of ditches, culvert, drop inlets and catch basins to accommodate free
flow of water.
Removal of sediments, branches and other debris gathered at trash racks,
culvert, and structure entrances.
Repair of eroded channels and dikes.
Riprap and bank protection to prevent recurrence.
E.) Maintenance of Concrete Pavement - Concrete pavement which is occasionally called
rigid pavement is a concrete layer that is in contact with traffics directly and it is used
for different purposes and applications.
I.
Sealing of the cracks of transverse and longitudinal construction and expansion
joints.
II.
Weak sub-grade should be replaced with suitable materials, the new concrete
slab should be as thick as the original pavement.
III.
Additional cement is necessary to produce high early strength concrete or an
accelerator such as calcium chloride is used for patching.
IV.
Spalled joint can be repaired with cement grout containing epoxy mixed with
catalyst.
Highway Rehabilitation
Pavement rehabilitation is an activity primarily to provide good riding and skid
resistance or to improve the structural effectiveness of the pavement. Restoring to the
original safe usable condition without addition to the original capacity. Treatment Life is
about 10-20years.
Objectives:
A.) To improve the smoothness of the road surface.
B.) To extend the pavement life.
C.) To improve the skid resistance of the road.
D.) To construct the sections with poor foundations.
E.) To improve the drainage facilities.
Resurfacing, Restoration and Rehabilitation
Resurfacing, restoration, and rehabilitation (RRR) work is defined as work
undertaken to extend the service life of an existing highway and enhance highway safety.
This includes the placement of additional surface materials and other work necessary to
return an existing roadway to a condition of structural and functional adequacy.
Objectives:
A.) Replace the defective joints.
B.) Repair the spalled joints.
C.) Reworking or strengthening of sub-base.
D.) Recycling existing materials to improve their structural integrity.
E.) Adding under drains.
F.) Improving shoulders
G.) Removing and replacing deteriorated materials.
Highway Beautification
Beautification can help relax tense drivers and overall make driving on the highway
a more pleasurable experience, in addition to the positive environmental effects that result.
It can also attract tourist that will greatly increase the economy of the country.
Recycling Equipment and Materials
Recycling Equipment’s and Materials Saves:
A.) Money
B.) Natural Resources
C.) Work
D.) The Environment
E.) Energy
F.) Investment
G.) Time
Methods in Recycling
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Cold In-place Recycling or cold in-place recycling-partial depth (CIR) partial depth
pulverization (2 to 5 inches) of the asphalt bound layers in a pavement, addition of
a recycling agent, emulsified asphalt or foamed asphalt, mixing of the recycling
agent and pulverized/sized material, laydown and compaction.
Cold Central Plant Recycling (CCPR) where existing stockpiles of recycled
materials are mixed in a stationary recycling unit or a central plant pugmill, is
similar to CIR. The only difference is that the materials are processed off site rather
than on the road. CCPR and CIR are often combined and referred to as cold
recycling.
Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) (cold in-place recycling-full depth) pulverization of
the asphalt bound layers (6 to 12 inches) of the pavement and a portion of the
underlying materials, with or without the addition of a stabilizer (Portland cement,
lime, emulsified asphalt, foamed asphalt), spreading and compaction.
Hot In-Place Recycling (HIR) – Surface Recycling Softening of the asphalt bound
surface through heating (heated to 250 to 300 °F or 120 to 150 °C) and scarifying
(1 to 2 inches) with tines or a milling head. The scarified material is mixed with a
rejuvenating agent (recycling agent), placed with standard hot mix asphalt paver
and compacted.