Types of Roads Road Components
Types of Roads Road Components
Types of Roads Road Components
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Osama Ragab
Sohar University
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ROADS (HIGHWAYS)
ROADS
• The path over which vehicles and other traffic may lawfully pass is
called road. It includes pathway, other related structures like culverts,
bridges and land required for future widening. The entire area required
and reserved for road along its alignment is called right of Way.
TYPES OF ROADS
- Depending upon the usage of roads during rainy season
1- All weather roads: All weather roads are not flooded during rainy
seasons except to a small extent at river crossing for a small length.
a- Pavement or carriageways.
b- Shoulders
a- Pavement or carriageways
• This is the width of road which is designed to handle volume of
expected traffic. The cross-section of carriageway consists of the
following components :
1- Subsoil
2-Subgrade
3- Base
4- Surfacing
Subsoil
• is the natural or prepared soil which will take the load of the road. It
is prepared by properly compacting the natural soil
Subgrade
• gives support to the road structure. It should remain stable and dry
throughout. Considerable attention is to be given to laying proper subgrade
to get stable road surface. The subgrade soil consists mainly of disintegrated
rocks like gravel, sand and clay. The desirable properties of subgrade soil
are:
1- Stability
2- Permanency of strength
3- Incompressibility
4- Minimum change in volume
5- Ease of compaction
6- Good drainage
The base
• may consist of two layers, top layers being called as base and bottom
one as sub-base. Base course and sub-base course distribute the load
through a finite thickness. Sub-base is made with stabilised soil or
selected granular soil, bricks or boulders. However, it is better if
graded aggregates with soil are used instead of boulders. Base course
is provided with broken stone aggregates.
Surfacing
• is the topmost layer of carriageway which takes load from traffic
directly. It has to provide a smooth non slippery and stable surface for
the vehicles. It should be impervious and should protect base and
subgrade from rainwater. It may be provided with bituminous material
Shoulders
• The width of carriageway is extended on both sides of carriageway by
a minimum of 2 – 5 m. It acts as service lane for the broken down
vehicle and in case of blocking of carriageway it serves as emergency
lane. The requirements of shoulders are:
1- Its colour should be different from that of pavement surface so that
they are distinct in vision.
2- They should have sufficient load bearing capacity so as to support
loaded trucks in wet weather also.
3- Surface of shoulder should be rough compared to pavement so that
drivers are discouraged to use it as regular lane.
Other Components of Roads
1- Traffic separators
2- Kerbs
3- Footpaths
4- Parking lanes
5- Cycle tracks
6- Guard rails
7- Fencing
• Traffic separators: are provided to separate the traffic moving in
opposite directions. It avoids head on collision between vehicles
moving in opposite directions. Traffic separator may be in the form of
pavement marking or parkway strips whose width vary from 3 to 5 m.
• Kerbs: are provided to show the boundary between carriageway and
shoulder or footpaths. They provide lateral stability to the base
course. There are three classes of kerbs which are based on the
height of the kerb and its function.
• Footpaths are provided for pedestrian to separate them from
vehicular traffics. They are usually required in city roads. The width of
footpath is kept 1.3 m or more, depending upon volume of
pedestrian traffic. To encourage pedestrian to use footpath, surface
should be smooth and comfortable.
• Sometimes parking lanes are provided in cities to streamline vehicle
parking.
• In urban areas, if cycles are also popular, separate cycle tracks are
provided. Usually a minimum width of 2m cycle tracks are provided.
• When the height of fill exceeds 3m, the guard rails are provided in on
the edge of shoulders to avoid accidental fall of vehicles down the fill.
• In express Highways fencing is provided to prevent animals or other
traffic entering roads haphazardly.
Typical cross-sections of various roads with
their components