The incidence and investigation of slippage failures

K R. PEATTIE, BSc, PhD, ARCST, FICE, FASCE, FIHE, Technical

Director, Asphalt and Coated Macadam Association

SYNOPSIS. An unusual number of failures involving slippage

of the wearing course on the basecourse occurred in roads
constructed in 1972-73. Theoretical analysis showed that
the shear stress between these layers is influenced to the
greatest extent by the stiffness of the roadbase. About 9 0 %
of the failures were in roads having wet-mix or dry-bound
granular roadbases. The stiffness of these materials can be
low if their grading, moisture content or compaction are un­
satisfactory. The primary cause of the failures is the use
of roadbases of low stiffness. The temperatures of the base
course and wearing course during laying might also have some
effect.

INTRODUCTION
1. During 1972 and 1973 the Asphalt and Coated Macadam
Association received an increasing number of reports of road
failures in which the rolled asphalt wearing course had
slipped on the underlying basecourse. The failures were
mainly concentrated in parts of North and East England and
in Scotland. Most of them occurred on newly constructed
roads shortly after they were opened to traffic. Informa­
tion was received about 34 failures of which two thirds had
been laid between October and April. The roadbase in at
least 70% of the failures consisted of wet-mix macadam or
dry-bound granular material.
2. Because of the widespread geographical location of the
failures and because they appeared to be significantly
affected by certain design or constructional features out­
side the control of the surfacing contractor the Director of
Transport and Road Research was asked whether his Laboratory
would co-ordinate an investigation.

Rolled asphalt road surfacings. ICE, London, 1979 3

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

DETAILED INVESTIGATIONS
3. A Working Party consisting of representatives of the
Department of Transport (DTp) and the Transport and Road
Research Laboratory (TRRL), the County Surveyors' Society,
(CSS), the Asphalt and Coated Macadam Association (ACMA), the
British Quarrying and Slag Federation (BQSF), the British
Tar Industries Association (BTIA) and the Refined Bitumen
Association (RBA) was set up and published an interim report
(ref.l) which covered 56 failure sites. At this stage the
type of bituminous basecourse material and the use of a tack
coat were eliminated as factors significantly influencing
the failures. The report listed four factors which appeared
to play a significant role; geographical location, the time
of year when the pavement was constructed, the type of road-
base material and the type of binder in the wearing course.

4. The majority of failures were located in central

Scotland, the North-East of England and a diagonal area
extending from the Humber nearly to the Severn. The two
areas in England include counties which laid large quantities
of wet-mix macadam roadbases during 1970-74. The situation
was similar in Scotland. Most of the failures occurred on
new roads where the wearing course had been laid between the
end of October and the beginning of May. While individual
failures were serious and costly the total extent of the
problem must also be considered. Most counties reported no
slippage failures and it was estimated that the area of the
failures was only about 2% of the area of roads laid during
1970-74 containing wet-mix roadbases. Slippage failures
therefore formed an even smaller proportion of the total
area of new roads laid during that period.
5. About 9 0 % of the failures occurred on roads with road­
bases of either wet-mix macadam or dry-bound granular
material. This is an extraordinarily high proportion. A
survey carried out by the CSS showed that these roadbases
were used in about 1 0 % to 2 0 % of new roads between 1970-74.
When taken in conjunction with the geographical relationship
observed between slippage failures and the use of these road
bases it was clear that their use was by far the most sig­
nificant factor contributing to slippage failures.
6. By 1978 ACMA had compiled data about 78 slippage
failures from both the Working Party and its own sources.
The geographical distribution was similar to that found
earlier although a small number of failures was reported
from other parts of Great Britain. The majority of the

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 PEATTIE

failures occurred in areas where wet-mix and granular road­

bases were most extensively used.
7. Details of the incidence of the type of construction and
roadbase materials in the slippage failures are given in
Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1. Incidence of type of construction

Type Number of failures
New Construction 59
Resurfacing 7
Reconstruction 4
Unknown 8
78

Table 2. Incidence of roadbase materials

Type Number of failures
Wet-mix macadam 43
Dry-bound granular 11
Bituminous 4
Composite 4
Unknown or constructed on ^
an old road
78

8. Fig.l shows the incidence of the type of construction.

New works account for 76% of the number of sites considered.
The distribution roadbase materials is shown in Fig.2. Wet-
mix macadam is involved in 55% of the failures and dry-bound
granular roadbases in a further 14%, giving a total of 69%
for the two materials. Even if only half the failures in
which the type of roadbases was unknown is attributed to
this group it means that they were involved in over 8 0 % of
the failures.
9. The numbers of sites at which the wearing course and
basecourse were laid in each month are given in Table 3 and
Fig.3. In spite of the large number of "Not Knowns" it is
clear that the wearing courses in particular, at the failure
sites, tended to be laid between October and March. At
about 65 of the failure sites at which the date of laying
was known the wearing course was laid during this period.

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

76%

NEW

10% 9%
5%
NOT REPORTED RESURFACING RECONSTRUCTION |

Fig.l. Type of Construction

55%

WET-
MIX

21%
14% NOT
5% 5%
DRY REPORTED
BITUMEN ICOMPOSITE

Fig.2. Type o f Roadbase

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 PEATTIE

20%

15 WEARING COURSE
PERCENTAGE

0 F
10
FAILURES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NOT
MONTH KNOWN
32%

PERCENTAGE
15 BASECOURSE
0
OF 10

FAILURES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NOT
KM
MONTH °WN

Fig.3. Relationship between failures and date of laying

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

Wheel Load

Wearing Course

Base Course

Roadbase

Sub-Base

\ V A \ Y A \ V A \ m m W A \ \
Subgrade

Fig.4. Typical flexible pavement structure

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 PEATTIE

Table 3. Month of laying of wearing course and basecourse

Month Number of failures
Wearing Course Basecourse
January 2 3
February 6 5
March 8 2
April 4 2
May 4 3
June 3 3
July 1 4
Augus t 4 6
September 6 6
October 8 10
November 8 5
December 8 4
Not Known 16 25

10. Surface deflections were measured at some of

investigated with somewhat confusing results. At :
locations deflections measured at points where slippage
failure had occurred were no greater than those found at
other points where performance was entirely satisfactory.
On the other hand, high values of surface deflection were
associated with points of slippage at other sites. The
reasons for these apparently contradictory results and for
the inability of surface deflection to assist in explaining
the failures or to predict their occurrence will be dis­
cussed in more detail in the next section of the paper.
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM
11. During slippage in a typical flexible pavement struc­
ture such as that in Fig.4 the wearing course moves
horizontally relative to the basecourse. This will occur
when the shear stress developed by traffic between these
layers is greater than the shear or bond strength holding
them together. In 1966 the RRL (ref.2) published the
results of a survey of the bond strength between dense
bituminous layers in newly-constructed roads which showed
that 55% of the samples taken from untrafficked roads did
not have good bond. Samples taken from roads after one
year's traffic nearly all (95%) exhibited good bond. The
report stated that initial adhesion may well be non-existent
but that it should increase sufficiently rapidly under
traffic to prevent sliding. However, it is now clear that
circumstances can exist in which the growth in bond strength

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

CBR 2%
CBR AV.
CBR 6%
100 300 500 700 900
2
Base modulus E2 MN/m

i
CM

380

9
340
b

1
i 300

I 260
20 AO 60 8 0 Subgrade modulus
MN/m?
2 4 6 8 CBR E4

Fig.5. Relationship between shear stress and layer modulus

(Brown & Pell Ref.3)

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 PEATTIE

is insufficiently rapid to ensure that it exceeds the shear

stresses developed by traffic.
12. A number of multi-layer elastic structures was analysed
by Brown and Pell (ref.3) to assess the effect of variations
in the stiffnesses of the materials in the different layers
of a pavement on the magnitude of the shear stress developed
by traffic between wearing course and basecourse. The
absolute values of interfacial shear stress depend on the
stiffnesses assumed for the different layers employed in the
analyses. Furthermore there is no quantitative information
about the shear strengths developed between these layers in
practice. However, such analyses can indicate which layers
are most likely to contribute to slippage.
13. Fig.5 which is taken from ref.3 shows that the shear
stress is much more sensitive to changes in the stiffness of
the roadbase than of the subgrade. The effect of varying
the stiffness of the sub-base is very similar to that pro­
duced by the subgrade. Variations in the stiffness of the
wearing course also affect the shear stress between that
layer and the basecourse but to a lesser extent than changes
in the stiffness of the roadbase. Furthermore, because
variations of this size can be produced by normal tempera­
ture changes experienced during the course of a year they do
not have any special significance in relation to slippage.
The analysis therefore suggests that a roadbase of low
stiffness is the most likely cause of high shear stresses.
Sub-bases or subgrades of low stiffness can also contribute
but the effects will be much less marked.
14. Attention was also directed to the apparently con­
tradictory results obtained from measuring surface deflec­
tion at sites associated with slippage failure. An early
application of elastic theory to the determination of
surface deflection (ref.4) showed that it was much more
significantly affected by the stiffness of the subgrade than
of the roadbase. The same effects were also found by Brown
and Pell (ref.3) using considerably more complex structural
models. Fig.6, taken from their work, shows that while
deflection correlates well with subgrade strain there is no
overall correlation between interfacial shear stress and
surface deflection.

15. If surface curvature or some related factor is measured

in addition to deflection a better estimate may be made of
the quality of the materials in the pavement layers and of
overall performance. This principle has recently been

11

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

JE 380, X
z X
X (a) T
8
) c X
-fe 3A0|
X
X
b X x X
X
X
X
<u 300X X
8 X
X
X
i ,x X
~ 260^
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Standard deflection jum

(b)

A
S
/
x y. \
> x
V x /
A s
X

X
X

300 400 800 600 730 800 900 WOO

Standard deflection j j m

Fig.6. Relationship between deflection and shear stress and

vertical strain (Brown & Pell Ref.3)

12

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 PEATTIE

applied in a number of procedures for the design of overlays

for flexible pavements (ref.5,6 and 7 ) .

DISCUSSION
16. Analysis of elastic layered structures showed that the
stiffness of the roadbase was the factor having the greatest
influence on the shear stress developed between wearing
course and basecourse under traffic.
17. An extraordinarily large number of the pavements in
which failures occurred contained roadbases of wet-mix
macadam or dry-bound granular material. The fact that
numerous counties employ these materials with complete
success suggests that they are not inherently unsatisfactory.
However, they must have some features that can lead to low
stiffness under certain conditions. These are likely to
include deviations from the specified gradings and water
contents and insufficient compaction. The Working Party
found that very little checking of the composition or other
aspects of the granular materials had been carried out at
any of the sites where slippage failures had occurred.
There were some indications that the grading of the wet-mix
macadam was rather fine which could lead to low stiffness.
Inappropriate moisture contents, either used while
manufacturing the wet-mix or developing subsequently as a
result of leaving the roadbase exposed for appreciable
periods of time before the bituminous basecourse was applied
could also produce roadbases of low stiffness.
18. During the investigation of the slippage failures most
of the sites involved new construction but there have also
been reports of failures of this type occurring after re­
surfacing. These could also be due to low stiffness in the
roadbase because of the not uncommon practice of removing
the old wearing course and then waiting a considerable time
before applying the new surface. If the basecourse is per­
meable it will allow water to penetrate into the roadbase of
the existing structure thereby weakening it.
19. Another important factor was that many of the new roads
were constructed between October and March when low temper­
atures and high rainfall are likely to occur. Part of the
investigation by the Working Party involved a pilot-scale
trial which is described by Kennedy and Lister (ref.8).
This showed that laying a wearing course at higher than
normal temperatures or laying it on a cold basecourse could
reduce the initial bond developed between the two layers

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 SLIPPAGE OF ROLLED ASPHALT WEARING COURSES

although no actual slippage failures occurred in these

trials. These effects, both of which might exist during the
winter months of the year, could therefore well be con­
tributory factors in some of the slippage failures.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

20. The slippage failures were caused by the presence of
roadbases of low stiffness. Laying the wearing course on a
cold basecourse may have been a contributory factor, as may
have been the laying of wearing courses at higher than
normal temperatures.
21. New roads containing wet-mix macadam and dry-bound
granular roadbases were particularly susceptible to this
type of failure. It is significant that there were no
slippage failures on motorways where these materials are not
used as roadbases. Therefore, any factors which will pro­
duce and maintain satisfactory stiffness in roadbases of
these types will minimise the recurrence of such failures.
This means that careful attention must be paid to the com­
position, particularly with respect to the aggregate grading
and moisture content,of the roadbase. Not only must the
initial moisture content be correct but the roadbase must
not be left uncovered for lengthy periods lest water enters.
It is also vital to ensure that these roadbases are
thoroughly compacted before the upper layers are laid.

22. Where re-surfacing is being carried out it is important

to ensure that, once the old wearing course has been removed
the underlying layer which may well be porous is not left
uncovered for lengthy periods otherwise water may penetrate
and weaken the roadbase. Finally, attention must be paid to
temperatures; wearing courses should not be applied to cold
basecourses nor should the wearing course material itself be
laid at unduly high temperatures.
23. Adherence to these various factors should result in a
significant reduction in slippage failures and, the publicity
that has already been given to these points appears to have
had a significant effect.

REFERENCES
1. Interim report of the Working Party on the slippage
of rolled asphalt wearing courses. TRRL Sup. Rep 213 UC
TRRL. DoE 1976.

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 PEATTIE

2. MAYER F.E. Survey of the adhesion between layers in

dense bituminous materials. RRL Technical Note No. 93.
RRL. M.O.T. July 1966.
3. BROWN S.F. and PELL P.S. The potential for a
theoretically based approach to flexible pavement design
The Queens Highway, ACMA. No. 107 October 1976. pp 11-16
4. PEATTIE K.R. Surface deflection of road structures.
Symposium on Road Tests for Pavement Design, .Paper 8,
pp 27. Lisbon 1962.
5. CLAESSEN A.I.M. and DITMARSCH R. Pavement evaluation
and overlay design. The Shell method. Proc. 4th Int.
Conf. Struct. Design of Asphalt Pavements. Univ. Mich.
Ann Arbor 1977 Vol. 1 pp 649-664.
6. ULLIDTZ P. Overlay and stage by stage design. Proc.
4th Int. Conf. Struct. Design of Asphalt Pavements.
Univ. Mich. Ann Arbor 1977. Vol. 1. pp 722-738.
7. PEATTIE K.R. The design of overlays. Course on
bituminous materials and flexible pavement design.
Univ. of Nottingham, pp L1-L12. April 1978.
8. KENNEDY C.K. and LISTER N.W. Experimental studies of
slippage. Conf. on Performance of Rolled Asphalt Road
Surfacings. Inst. C.E. 16 Oct. 1979.

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