Daniel Andiga Wibisana

Pavement Design

Heddy Rohandi Agah

September 8, 2015

History of Road Development and Technology

A road is a paved surface made for travelling from one place to another, whether by foot,

vehicles or other type of transport. Roads have been improved in the past to make movement

much easier and more effective. Roads are constructed to reduce time travel and connect one

place from another. The first roads appeared on earth’s surface were formed by humans who

walked on the same paths over and over again. The first improvement of these roads would be

clearing the paths from trees and other obstacles such as rocks and big stones for easier

movement. As modes of transport are developing, roads continue to develop as well to satisfy the

demand for transport. In about 4000 B.C., the oldest constructed roads that could be dated were

discovered in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. These roads were stone paved streets.

The Romans were one of the first to build stone paved roads in North Africa and Europe

to help support their military operations, to support the movement of their army legions and

battle equipment. Years later, the Arabs started to build roads that were covered with tar. These

roads were constructed by conditioning the soil, using multiple layers on top of the crushed

stones and lifting the road foundation at the center for water drainage. Techniques of road

construction improved over time by the study of road traffic, stone thickness, road alignment,

and slope gradients. Initial road construction materials were stones that were laid in a regular,

compact design, and covered with smaller stones to produce a solid layer. Some of these roads

still remain today and the fundamental techniques help form the basis of roads today.

Roman Roads

The main Roman roads in the UK were built for military purposes connected camps. The primary purpose of these roads was for foot soldiers, so the roads were built straight without regard to grade and they generated high noise levels, were rough and labor intensive. The roman roads designed in the UK consisted of 4 layers that included:

Summa Crusta (surface): Smooth, polygonal blocks fixed in underlying layer. Nucleus: base layer composed of gravel and sand with lime cement. Rudus: third layer composed of rubble masonry and smaller stones with lime mortar. Statumen: Two or three courses of flat stones set in lime mortar.

This is an illustration of Roman pavement structure. These structures had sloped surfaces for water drainage and also often incorporated with ditches or underground drains.

Telford and Macadam

The modern history of road pavements began in England in the late 1700s with Thomas Telford, who constructed roads using unbound aggregate to help transport horse-pulled cargo. Telford attempted, where possible, to build roads on relatively flat slope in order to reduce the number of horses needed to pull a cargo. Telford pavement section consisted of three layers. The bottom layer was comprised of large stones as foundation. On top of this were placed two layers of stones of smaller size followed by a gravel of another smaller size. Telford also built his roads sloped downwards for water drainage.

John Macadam developed paving material of stone and aggregate. According to him, angular aggregate laid over a compacted subgrade would perform better. He used a sloped subgrade surface to improve drainage on which he placed angular aggregate (hand-broken, maximum size 75 mm) in two layers. On top of this, the wearing course was placed (about 50 mm thick with a maximum aggregate size of 25 mm). The total depth of a typical Macadam pavement was about 250 mm.

This Macadam pavement was later developed into Tar Macadam pavement, which uses coal tar as the binder between the gravel and aggregate. Roads pavement have now became Bituminous pavement because they use a binding agent. During the mid-1800s, sheet asphalt was used in pavement design. This design is composed of 3 layers. Sheet asphalt is placed on a concrete base consisting of a wearing course, asphalt cement and sand. The layer underneath, the binder course, is composed of broken stone and asphalt cement. And finally a base layer of hydraulic cement concrete or pavement rubble (old granite blocks, bricks) The final thickness of this asphalt pavement was based on the weight of the traffic, the strength of the concrete and the

soil support. Today there are 2 types of pavements that are used, which are flexible and rigid pavement. Flexible pavement consists of asphalt mixtures and aggregates placed over a subgrade. Rigid pavement consists of cement concrete or reinforced concrete slabs.

The Roman roads are considered the beginning of road construction, Telford Pavements are

known as the second step of this process, followed by the Macadam Pavements that ultimately

lead to the Bitumen Roads. Concrete roads have added another dimension to stability and

strength of the roadways.

Roads in Indonesia

In Indonesia, road development system was done by Herman William Daendels, governor

general of Indies. In the 19th century, he started a road development project in Java, connecting

West and East of Java to anticipate aggression from the British. This road project is called

Anyer-Panarukan Highway. This highway is considered as the basis of modern and massive road

development in Indonesia. Other colonial government projects such as Kelok Sembilan Roads

that connected Payakumbuh and Pekanbaru still exists and can be used today. Ever since

Independence Day, Indonesia makes effort to integrate all transportation networks to reach

isolated areas and unify the nation. Road networks, including tols have been built all over the

country. Since era of Independence, road construction technology in Indonesia found new

findings and development. One well known technique is the Cakar Ayam foundation. Another

road construction technology is LPBH technology or Sosrobahu, which is used for pier head

construction for pillars.

References

http://www.brighthubengineering.com/structural-engineering/59665-road-construction-history-and-procedure/

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/immawidyawatiagustin-484945-history-of-road-in-indonesia-by-imma/

http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/pavement-history/