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Study on Drainage Related Performance of Flexible Highway Pavements

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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016

Study on Drainage Related

Performance of Flexible Highway
Pavements
Zishan Ahemad Abdul Farukh
U. G. Student, PRMIT&R,
Amravati(Mah.), India

Prof. V. P. Ravekar
Assistant Professor, PRMIT&R,
Amravati(Mah.), India

Abstract: Moisture in the pavement system can lead to moisture damage, modulus reduction, and strength loss.
Complete saturation of pavement systems can happen only when positive total heads are present and apportioned in
such a way that saturation of the pavement system is reached. These pernicious effects can be decreased by
preventing water from entering the pavement system. Pavement service life can be 1.5 times more, if infiltrated water
can be drained off without delay. Pavement systems having good drainage can be expected to have a design life of 2 to
3 times that of undrained pavement systems. This paper gives a study of drainage related performance of flexible
pavements.

Keywords: surface drainage, pavement performance, flexible pavement, pavement distresses, drainage
quality.

d) Frost heave and reduction of strength during

1. INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known fact that water in pavement
systems is one of the principal causes of premature
pavement failure. Indian road network at over 3.3
million km falls under one of the world's longest
road networks. Most of the highways built in our
country have very slow draining systems, largely
because standard design practices emphasizes on
density and stability but place little importance on
subsurface drainage. The poor sub-surface drainage
on these roads leads to large amount of costly
repairs or replacements long before reaching their
design life. Subsurface drainage is a key element in
the design of pavement systems. Indiscriminate
exclusion of this element will assuredly lead to the
premature failure of pavement systems, thereby
resulting in high lifecycle costs. Excessive water
content in the pavement base, sub-base, and sub-
grade soils can cause early distress and lead to a
structural or functional failure of pavement, if
counter measures are not undertaken. Water-related
damage can cause one or more of the following
forms of deteriorations:
a) Reduction of sub-grade and base/sub-base
strength,
b) Differential swelling in expansive sub-grade
soils,
c) Stripping of asphalt in flexible pavements,
frost melt, and
e) Movement of fine particles into base or sub-
base course materials resulting in a reduction of the
hydraulic conductivity considerably.
Proper surface drainage can reduce the
amount of water infiltrating through the pavement
and is a strategy that goes hand in hand with proper
subsurface drainage. Most free water will enter the
pavement through joints, cracks, and pores in the
surface of the pavement. Water also will enter from
backup in ditches and groundwater sources.
Drainage prevents the buildup of free water in the
pavement section, thereby reducing the damaging
effects of load and environment. Based on
documented case histories, studies have shown that
pavement life can be extended up to three times if
adequate subsurface drainage systems are installed
and maintained.
1.1. Highway Drainage System
Highway drainage may be classified into the
following categories:
1. Surface drainage
2. Sub-surface drainage
3. Cross Drainage Works
5. Disposal of acceptable quality of water
1. Surface drainage:
Removal and diversion of surface water from the
roadway and adjoining land is termed as surface
drainage. The surface water is to be collected and

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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
the disposed off. The water is first collected in
longitudinal drains, generally in side drains and
then the water is disposed off at the nearest stream,
valley or water course. Cross drainage structures
like culverts and small bridges may be necessary
for the disposal of surface water from the road side
drains. Surface drainage deals with arrangements
quickly and effectively leading away the water that
collects on the surface of pavements, shoulders,
slopes of embankments and cuts and the land
joining the highway. The water so collected is led
to natural water-channels or artificial channel, such
that they do not interfere with the proper
functioning of any part of the highway, including
the embankment, pavement shoulders, medians,
slopes, and structures.
2. Sub-surface drainage
Diversion or removal of excess soil-water from the
sub-grade is termed as sub-surface drainage.
Changes in moisture content of sub-grade are
caused by fluctuations in ground water table
seepage flow, percolation of rain water and the
movement of capillary water and even water vapor.
In sub-surface drainage of highway, it is attempted
to keep the variation of moisture in sub-grade soil
to minimum. Veeraragavan A. Et al carried out
“sub surface drainage is a key element in the design
of pavement system. An optimum performance of a
pavement system can be achieved by preventing
water entering by means of a well-designed
subsurface drainage system. Most of the highway
and airfield pavements built in our country in the
past 30 years or so have very slow drainage system,
largely because standard design practices
emphasizes on density and stability but place little
important on sub surface drainage. Water may seep
upward from a high ground water table, or it may
flow laterally from the pavement edges. Ground
water can be particularly troublesome for
pavements in low-lying areas. When pavements are
constructed below the permanent or a seasonally
high water table, drainage systems must perform or
rapid pavement failure will occur. This moisture,
when combined with traffics loads, voids in
pavement sections, and freezing temperatures, can
have a negative effect on both material properties
and overall performance of a pavement system.
The most significant source of excess water in
pavements is typically infiltration through the
surface through joints, cracks, and other defects in
the surface that provide an easy path for water. The
problem only worsens with time. As pavements age
and deteriorate, cracks become wider and more
abundant and joints and edges deteriorate into
channels through which water is free to flow. The
result is more water being allowed into the
pavement structure with increasing age, which
leads to accelerated development of moisture-
related distresses and pavement deterioration.
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
3. Cross drainage
Whenever highway crosses a river or stream, cross
drainage works have to be provided. Sometimes
water from side drains also is diverted away from
the road through cross drains. On highways
generally, usually culverts and bridges are used as
cross water way of about 6 meters, then the cross
drainage structure is known as a culverts. For
higher discharge and greater linear way the
structure is known as a bridge.
4. Disposal of acceptable quality of water:
In the present scenario of rapid urbanization, the
adverse impact of development activity needs to be
mitigated. Urban storm water management practice
has to be employed for benefit of storm water
control and pollutant removal capabilities. Water
quality practices shall be adopted of acceptable
standards while disposing off of storm water.
Generally, urban storm water management practice
shall adopt high pollutant removal for non-soluble
particles pollutants such as suspended sediments. In
the global scenario of recycling of available water,
continuous disposal of contaminated water will
seriously jeoparadise the availability of potable
water. In such circumstances, addition of recycled
water to available fresh water is becoming a
popular option and is in existence in a few parts of
the world. All possible efforts shall be made for
continuous and constant removal of pollutants in
the drainage system. All available open tanks,
parks, nearby quarry pits shall be modernized
effectively and utilized as detention and retention
ponds and new additional ponds in the flow stream
shall be created and added.
1.2. The detrimental effects of water in the
pavement system:
As per IRC 42, the following bad results can
occur on the flexible pavement:
a) Water in the asphalt surface can lead to
moisture damage, modulus reduction and loss
of tensile strength. Saturation can reduce the
dry modulus of the asphalt by as much as 30
percent or more
b) Added Moisture in unbound aggregate base
and sub base is anticipated to result in a loss of
stiffness on the order of 50 percent or more
c) Modulus reductions of up to 30 percent can be
expected for asphalt treated base and increase
erosion susceptibility of cement or lime treated
base
d) Saturated fine grained roadbed soils could
experience modulus reduction of over 50
percent.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
A drainage system includes the pavement and
the water handling system. They must be properly
designed, built, and maintained. The water
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
handling system includes: road surface, shoulders,
drains and culverts; curb, gutter and storm sewer.
When a road fails, whether it’s concrete, asphalt or
gravel, inadequate drainage often is a major factor.
Poor design can direct water back onto the road or
keep it from draining away. Too much water
remaining on the surface combine with traffic
action is responsible to cause potholes, cracks and
pavement failure. Many researches clearly
demonstrating that poor drainage can adversely
affect pavement performance.
Rokade et al [1] reported that inadequate drainage
leads to major cause of pavement distresses due to
large amount of costly repairs before reaching their
design life. He found that pavement service life can
be increased by 50% if water can be drained
without delay. Similarly, pavement systems
incorporating good drainage can be expected to
have a design life of two to three times that of
undrained pavement sections. Gurjar et al. [2]
presented a framework with which effect of
drainage can be quantified. He reported that
excessive water content in the pavement base, sub-
base, and sub-grade soils can cause early distress
and lead to a structural or functional failure of
pavement. Thus, when selecting appropriate
maintenance strategies the cost of pavement
maintenance needs to be compared with the cost of
improving the quality of drainage. Hence, there is a
need to quantify the effect of various types of
drainage quality on performance of the pavement.
Effective drainage in roads is a critical requirement
for ensuring stability and preventing the failure of
pavement. Rokade et al. [3] recommends that to
minimize premature pavement distresses and to
enhance the pavement performance, it is imperative
to provide adequate drainage to allow infiltrated
water to drain out from the base and sub-base, thus
avoiding saturation of base and subgrade soil.
When two types of base layers where both
pavement structures contained longitudinal edge-
drains were compared, the use of a treated
permeable drainage layer improved the rutting
performance over that provided by unbound dense-
graded aggregate base layers. Pavement drainage is
most beneficial when excessive moisture can be
rapidly removed from the structure, ideally within
2 hours and preferably within 24 hours; however,
the benefits derived from a subsurface drainage
system will vary depending on pavement type,
annual rainfall, subgrade conditions, geometric
design, and design of the overall pavement system.
P. K. Agarwal et al [4] concludes that water
remains on the roadway surface that can contribute
to vehicle hydroplaning, in winter, standing water
can freeze and cause skidding etc. It results in
frequent and premature deterioration in subgrade,
base/ sub base as well as surface layers. In such
cases, roads will need maintenance more often than
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
a good quality drained road structure. These kinds
of problems become more hazardous in case of low
volume roads due to unpaved roads, less attention,
poor ditches, poor cross slop etc. The computed
SNC were used to predict the performance of low
volume roads in terms of roughness using
deterioration models. Analysis and results indicated
that rate of deterioration of the roads increases with
the traffic growth rate, saturation time and drainage
quality. The average growth rate of deterioration of
pavement in case of very poor drainage quality
increases with the increase in the age of pavement.
Thus, analysis of this study indicated that
functional performance of the low volume road (in
terms of roughness) increases sharply with the
pavement age for pavements having very poor
drainage quality. The average growth rate of
deterioration of pavement in case of very poor
drainage quality increases with increase in the
saturation time. If the saturation time is more and
drainage quality is the worst, then the performance
of low volume roads is the worst. Rokade et al [5]
reported that subsurface drainage is required
when conditions exist that can cause prolonged
exposure of the pavement structure to excess
moisture, resulting in accelerated pavement
deterioration under existing levels of traffic
loading. So concluding his remarks he states
that:
1. Cumulative heavy axle loading measured over
the life of the pavement is a necessary factor in
design for subsurface drainage system. This is
indicative of potential for damage to pavement
structure from axle loading.
2. Soil characteristics are key factors influencing
design features for reduced moisture damage.
Strength, deformation, gradation, and
permeability properties of subgrade soil
influence pavement design and the need for
subsurface drainage.
3. Climatic conditions such as rainfall, snow, ice,
frost penetration, cyclic freezing and thawing,
and daily and seasonal variation in temperature
all influence sub-grade soil and pavement
layers, and are therefore important in selection
of alternate design.
4. Economic analysis which compares major cost
of highway improvement over chosen period
must consider initial construction costs,
rehabilitation costs, and road user costs.
5. Maintainability of the system and expected
performance should be considered.
6. Some additional factors that are specific to
subsurface drainage, includes:
 Types of construction(new or a
rehabilitation of an existing pavement)
 How similar subsurface drainage designs
in the area are performing?
 Characteristics of surface drainage
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
 Types of pavement and other design
features
 The quality of materials
 Conditions of the pavement for retrofitting
edge-drain
 Topography
A well designed drainable pavement system should
consist of the following design elements and
features:
1. Full width permeable base, a non-erodible
base as a sub base layer
2. A separator layer under the permeable
base to prevent contamination from
subgrade materials.
3. Longitudinal edge drains with closely
spaced outlets, or edge-drain directly laid
in to a side ditch.
Magdi M. E. Zumrawi [6] reported in his study
that to prevent or minimize premature pavement
failures and to enhance the road performance, it is
imperative to provide adequate drainage. As case
study, two major roads in Khartoum state were
selected for field survey of the existing condition of
the provided drainage system and its subsequent
impacts on pavement performance. As a result of
this investigation, it was found that most roads in
Khartoum state suffered from poor drainage which
causes severe distresses and damages of pavement.
Regular annual evaluation of drainage systems is
an important part of maintaining and managing
road. Before making any pavement surface
improvements, make drainage improvements. It is
most economical and effective to plan and upgrade
drainage as part of road surface improvements.
Kokeb Zena Besha et al. [7] concludes that poor
integration between road and urban storm water
drainage infrastructures, poor maintenance, illegal
sewer connection, absent of drains and lack of good
layout plan for the road are among the major causes
that resulted in street flooding. Therefore,
improvement in the integration of road and urban
storm water drainage facilities; maintenance of
drains before the rainy season, awareness creation
and construction of additional drainage
infrastructures with sufficient dimensions will help
in the mitigation of flood disaster in the town.
Contrary to the general assumption that heavy
rainfall is the major cause of urban flooding which
mostly results into destruction of human lives and
properties, the study shows that: inadequate
drainage system, illegal sewer connection, solid
waste dumping, and poor layout of road profile are
the major factors responsible for street flood.
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
3. METHODOLOGY
The objective of this study is to study the drainage
related performance of flexible highway pavements
for which the methodological framework has been
prepared which consists of five stages namely as
problem statement, identification of the problems,
causes of problems, remedial measures and
maintenance strategies and outputs which is briefly
explained as follows:
Based on saturated flow conditions, there are two
different approaches that are typically considered
for the hydraulic design of pavement systems: the
steady-state flow conditions and the time-to-drain
conditions. However, difficulties in estimating the
design rainfall rate and the portion of rainfall that
enters the pavements make the application of
steady state analyses tedious under most
circumstances. Therefore, many engineers
nowadays prefer the time to- drain approach. This
approach is based on flow entering the pavement
until the aggregate base course is saturated. Excess
runoff will not enter the pavement section after it is
saturated; this flow will simply run off on the
pavement surface. After the precipitation event, the
base will drain to a drainage system. Table 1
presents the different drainage levels for a
pavement structure, according to AASHTO, for
50% of drainage. This approach drains 50 percent
of the water that can be drained. It does not
consider the water retained by the effective
porosity quality of the material.
STUDY ON DRAINAGE RELATED
PERFORMANCE OF FLEXIBLE HIGHWAY
PAVEMENTS
Problem Statement
Identification of the Problems
Causes of Problems
Remedial Measures or Maintenance Strategies
Output
Fig. 3.1. Methodological framework of study related to
drainage related performance of flexible pavement.
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
To perform optimally, the subsurface drainage
system need to be designed, constructed and
maintained with high standards. It is good practice
to have surfaces on which drainage materials are
placed, well compacted, stable, dry, and free from
loose materials and completed to true line and
gradient. On completion of construction of
drainage systems, inspection should be conducted
to verify that these conditions have been met.
Necessary measures should be taken to prevent
intrusions of foreign material into any portion of
drainage system due to construction, operations and
natural rainfall events during and immediately
following construction.
Table 1 presents the different drainage levels for
a pavement structure, according to AASHTO,
for 50 percent of drainage.
Quality of Drainage Time to Drain
Excellent 2 hours
Good 1 Day
Fair 7 Days
Poor 1 Month
Very poor Does not drain
3.1. Problem statement:
Drainage of pavement including its adjoining
areas is an important aspect of pavement design.
When a road is constructed on a natural terrain, the
waterways are intercepted and hence necessary
measures have to be taken to divert such water
from road. Otherwise distresses are possible.
Pavement Deterioration/Damages may be seen in
the form of:
1. Cracking
2. Surface deformation
3. Disintegration (potholes, etc.)
4. Surface defects (bleeding, etc.)
The above damages can be categorized as follows
and described briefly.
 Fatigue cracking (Alligator cracking): Fatigue
cracking is commonly called alligator
cracking. This is a series of interconnected
cracks creating small, irregular shaped pieces
of pavement. It is caused by failure of the
surface layer or base due to repeated traffic
loading (fatigue). Eventually the cracks lead to
disintegration of the surface. The final result is
potholes. Alligator cracking is usually
associated with base or drainage problems.
 Edge cracking: Edge cracks typically start as
crescent shapes at the edge of the pavement.
They will expand from the edge until they
begin to resemble alligator cracking. This type
of cracking results from lack of support of the
shoulder due to weak material or excess
moisture. They may occur in a curbed section
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
when subsurface water causes a weakness in
the pavement.
 Rutting: Rutting is the displacement of
pavement material that creates channels in the
wheel path. Very severe rutting will actually
hold water in the rut. Rutting is usually a
failure in one or more layers in the pavement.
The width of the rut is a sign of which layer
has failed. A very narrow rut is usually a
surface failure, while a wide one is indicative
of a subgrade failure. Inadequate compaction
can lead to rutting.
 Depressions: Depressions are small, localized
bowl-shaped areas that may include cracking.
Depressions cause roughness, are a hazard to
motorists, and allow water to collect.
Depressions are typically caused by localized
consolidation or movement of the supporting
layers beneath the surface course due to
instability.
 Swell: A swell is a localized upward bulge on
the pavement surface. Swells are caused by an
expansion of the supporting layers beneath the
surface course or the subgrade. The expansion
is typically caused by frost heaving or by
moisture. Subgrades with highly plastic clays
can swell in a manner similar to frost heaves
(but usually in warmer months).
 Potholes: Potholes are bowl-shaped holes
similar to depressions. They are a progressive
failure. First, small fragments of the top layer
are dislodged. Over time, the distress will
progress downward into the lower layers of the
pavement. Potholes are often located in areas
of poor drainage. Potholes are formed when
the pavement disintegrates under traffic
loading, due to inadequate strength in one or
more layers of the pavement, usually
accompanied by the presence of water. Most
potholes would not occur if the root cause was
repaired before development of the pothole.
Repair by excavating and rebuilding. Area
repairs or reconstruction may be required for
extensive potholes.
 Erosion of earth shoulders: For economising
cost of construction, shoulders are generally
constructed with subgrade soil even on
highways in India. As surface water cannot
flow freely on earthen surface and camber is
enhanced from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in
normal cross-section.
 Corrugation: It is referred to as wash boarding
because the pavement surface has become
distorted like a washboard. The instability of
the asphalt concrete surface course may be
caused by too much asphalt cement, too much
fine aggregate, or rounded or smooth textured
coarse aggregate. Corrugations usually occur
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
at places where vehicles accelerate or
decelerate.
3.2. Problem identification:
Drainage facilities in the entire town Amravati are
very poor. As per the field observation, we can say
that the problem is improper planning and
designing of routes. Though most of the part is
designed as per geometric requirement, they do not
perform satisfactorily. The reason behind is
negligence of certain important factors. Most
important of which are concerned with the drainage
facilities. Consequences of lack of effective
subsurface drainage system results in premature
failure of pavement with formation of cracks,
settlement, rutting, and boggy action. Effects of
some phenomenon causing problems due to lack of
proper surface drainage facilities are:
Hydroplaning: A flat pavement surface is not
conducive to flow of water and hence it has to be
suitably profiled to help quick disposal of
precipitated water. A thick film of water on a road
surface is a safety hazard as it may result in loss of
contact between tyres and road surface due to
formation of a wedge under tyres causing skidding
of vehicles. This phenomenon known as
hydroplaning or aquaplaning is dangerous when
vehicles are moving at high speed.
Stripping of bitumen from aggregates: Standing
water remaining on bituminous pavement for a
long period of time is not desirable as it tends to
cause early deterioration of pavement. It can cause
stripping of bitumen from aggregates especially
when they are prone to stripping in case of some
stones like granite, quartzite, quartz etc. If the
bituminous mix is open-graded or poorly
compacted or surface has cracks/ potholes, the
water seeps to lower layers and accelerates the
process of stripping. This water tends to migrate to
lower layers of pavement and gets entrapped in
granular base and sub-base layers. If the base and
sub-base layers are not permeable enough to drain
away this water laterally, it results in pavement
resting on a waterbed leading to loss of aggregate
to aggregate contact thus reducing load dispersal
capacity and eventually leading to premature
deterioration of pavement.
Stagnant water on granular or earthen surface: It
is not desirable as it seeps to lower layers. Earthen
surfaces become slushy making them unusable.
Cross-slope of shoulder provided should be steeper
so that water can flow expeditiously on such
surfaces. Requirement of cross-slope in earthen
shoulder, therefore, always has to be more than the
paved surface. The damages that are observed on
the field are rutting, edge cracking, depression,
swell, potholes, scaling, corrugations, flooding of
streets, and erosion of shoulders.
3.3. Causes of problems:
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
In the two cases studied above, the factors which
contribute to poor drainage and road pavement
conditions in Amravati are:
1. Problems related to pavement construction
and maintenance:
All structural elements of road from wearing coat
to sub-grade, footpath etc. have been deteriorated
leading to major maintenance, as efficiency of
disposal system is inadequate. One major cause of
pothole formation on road surface is due to
inadequate storm water disposal mechanism.
The causes of the damaged occurred in the roads
throughout the town are:
Geometrics of the road: Various geometric features
of roads have been observed and it is found that
they were not performing efficiently as the poor
construction practices in the town is continuously
going on local streets. Also most of the important
streets in the area are left unattended relating to the
drainage characteristics of the road elements. The
observation shows that following are the causes
relating to geometrics of roads for various
problems mentioned above.
a) Improper longitudinal gradient of roads
b) Insufficient cambers to drain water from the
surface of roads.
c) Inadequate drainage provisions on
superelevated portions of the road. There are
such places where there are curves, but not
required amount of superelevation provided.
This leads to major deterioration on curves.
d) Improper shoulder slope and side slopes
causing shoulder erosion
e) Inadequate provision for the exit of storm
water on the road sides causing the edge
cracking. On the kerbed regions this allows the
standing water on the road which is a cause of
street flooding. Water on the pavement has
reduced skid resistance, interrupts traffic,
limits visibility due to splash and spray,
increases potential for hydroplaning, and cause
difficulty in driving of vehicle. Due to slow
precipitation of water and pooling on the
carriageway resulting in restricted width and
carrying capacity, in turn leading to congestion
and slow movement of traffic after showers.
f) Inadequate height of subgrade from the water
table leading to capillary rises up to the
subgrade, reducing the strength of the overall
pavement as defect of any layer is reflected to
the layers above in case of flexible pavements.
Quality of material and their selection as required
for efficient drainage of water: As there is no or
low emphasis on the drainage, low drainage quality
materials are generally used. They are not selected
to drain the surface water from the pavement itself
as well as water which rises from the ground water
table (including capillary water) or infiltrated from
the sides and intercepted in the pavements. This
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
results in reduction of material strength of the
pavement and ultimately under heavy traffic, it
caused the severe damages to the roads.
2. Problems related to drains:
i. Poor design and construction: In general, most
of the side drains provided to roads in
Amravati region are earth drains or ditches.
Some drains built from bricks, stones or
concrete materials are open drains without
covers. Others built drains are covered with
concrete slab or blocks. Failures of built drains
like collapse of bed, side walls and/or covers
caused by improper design and construction,
settlement or heave may lead to the
development of cracks and subsequent failure.
Most of the drains channels in Maharashtra
state are designed by the engineers of the
public work departments or by consultants
who have no experience of the drainage work.
This leads to a situation where preliminary
studies that will help the design and
construction decisions are not done. This leads
to poor understanding of the drainage which
subsequently leads to poor design and
construction of drainage system.
ii. Poor maintenance culture: Even if the drains
and their structures, culverts are well built they
need adequate maintenance for sustainability.
One of the main problems of drainage
development in Amravati region is
maintenance. The drains and culverts are rarely
maintained and whenever maintenance is
attempted it is done haphazardly. The
financing of the maintenance, rehabilitation
and conservation of the drainage network in
Amravati region had always been left to the
government at the state and local levels who
because of their lack of maintenance culture do
not release funds for drainage maintenance at
the appropriate time. The drainage network
was therefore left to deteriorate. The drainage
worldwide were considered critical
infrastructure in any nation’s life and were
paid premium attention.
iii. Negative attitude of residents: The attitude of
residents in communities under which these
drainage channels are constructed and located
is so negative. The investigation conducted
and as seen in the photographs which are taken
from the drains sites during the field survey
clearly shows that residents have converted the
drains and the culverts into refuse dump
places. This results in blockage of these drains
and its subsequent failures which in turn does
negatively affect conditions of the road
pavement. There is very urgent need for
government agencies and concerned bodies to
organize sensitization programs towards
enlightening residents on the need to keep
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
drains located in their communities clean and
not use them as refuse dump places
iv. Use of low quality materials: Use of low
quality construction materials such as bricks,
concrete, corrugated steel adversely affects the
quality of the drains and culverts. This
sometimes occurs in the form of the improper
concrete mixture for construction of drain
channels. The use of extreme cohesive and
expansive soil as foundation soil results in
prolonged consolidation, heave or settlement
of the bed of the drain and culvert. The use of
soil of low bearing capacity as foundation soil
leads to the failure of the drains and culverts.
v. No local standard of practice: There is a great
need for adequate monitoring and control in
the local construction process. This can be
done by the provision of a standard method of
practice which will be strictly followed,
monitored and maintained. The professional
bodies in the country will play a very
important role at this stage. They should be
able to provide a local standard of practice for
the country, maintain it and monitor
compliance to the use of the standard. This is
because a local standard will take cognizance
of the local peculiarities that will affect the
environment where drainage works are
located.
3.4. Remedial measures and maintenance
strategies:
The defects stated above can be remedied by
using following corrective measures as per
IRC 42 and IRC 50.
1. Longitudinal and Transverse gradient (camber)
of pavement of pavement: This minimum
longitudinal gradient is more important for a
kerbed pavement than for an unkerbed
pavement. Desirable longitudinal gradients
shall not be less than 0.50 percent for
pavements for satisfactory drainage. A
minimum longitudinal gradient of 0.30 percent
is necessary to facilitate flow of water in side
drains. Cross slopes of 2 percent have little
effect on driver comfort in steering or on
friction for vehicle stability. The use of cross
slope exceeding 2 percent on pavements with a
central crown line is not desirable. Water from
road should get directed towards the road edge
and should enter the storm water drain through
kerb opening. Covered drain may be Hume
pipe/cast in situ/precast channel.
2. The Kerb depth would be more than
conventional kerb depth & green area level
should be lower than adjacent road level.
3. For shoulders along unkerbed pavement the
cross fall should be at least 0.5 percent steeper
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than that of the pavement subject to the
minimum values given below:
WBM surface = 3 percent, Gravel surface = 4
percent, Earth surface = 5 percent
4. Disposal of Acceptable Quality of Storm
Water: The adverse impact of development
activity in urbanization with respect to storm
water quality needs to be mitigated. Sewerage
drains and their content shall strictly be
forbidden from entering storm water drains.
This can be achieved by providing cutoff
drains all along and lead to storage tank & this
sewage water can be treated through STP &
used for watering plants, medians & excess
can be lead to main SWD. There shall be a
programme of self-designed storm water
pollution prevention plan. Some sort of
regulation shall be in place for setting forth
practices, procedures and objectives for
controlling storm water quality in urbanized
locations. Existing open tanks or wet ponds
which are nothing but retention ponds, serves
both the purposes of controlling the volume of
runoff and treating the runoff for pollutant
removal. These wet ponds can have aesthetic
value; can be used for recreational purposes
and also as emergency water supply. In the
urban scenario where parking lots, bigger
complexes and other structures which
discharge large quantity of pollutants along
with storm water needs to install filter and oil-
grit separator arrangement so that drained out
water shall be free from pollutants. The sewer
water can be prevented from flowing into
storm water system by providing cutoff.
5. Managing Water quality for health of
ecosystems and human consumption:
Monitoring quality of water flowing into the
drainage channels or nallas is to be ensured for
health of ecosystem and human consumption.
(Stricter norms for solid waste disposal,
industrial effluent control and any illegal
discharge of waste into the drainage network
by providing cutoff drains).
6. Working open space network: Designing of
open space systems along drainage corridor
based on ecological value, planning for
preserving and enhancing them. These could
be used for eco mobility (Pedestrian and NMT
movement) or as a city level park system with
leisure trails and recreation zones.
 To protect the existing water ways
 To formulate guidelines for design,
construction, operation and maintenance
of the system
7. Storm Water Drainage of Special Locations:
The special locations in urban scenario for
drainage will normally be:
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
 Drainage of Flyovers and Bridges: The entire
rain water on the carriage way of flyover shall
be drained though efficient piping network of
rainwater of the area. Caution shall be
exercised not to allow straight drop of water
from flyover to road surface below, which
results in disruption of traffic and damage to
road pavement. The rain water on flyover,
which has to be above road is drained through
either down take pipes or pipes embedded in
the piers into series of network of rainwater
harvesting system of the area and overflow can
then be directed to the drains. All such
disposal systems shall blend well and
aesthetically pleasing.
 Drainage at Foot of Flyovers: The longitudinal
gradient of ramp of flyovers is usually upto 3
percent or even more and the cross slope will
be about 2 percent. The majority of rain water
flows rapidly in longitudinal direction rather
than cross slope resulting in very large
quantity of water reaching the valley curve
area where it meets ground level road. This
junction shall be provided with finger plate
drain across the pavement. The valley junction
shall be engineered in such a way that even
below road pavement shall have downward
longitudinal gradient towards valley junction,
so that entire rain water from flyover can be
efficiently discharged into the drain at the
edge. Then it can be directed to nearby storm
water management facility and overflow can
be directed to the main drain which will stop
the water from flowing directly to the road.
 Vehicular Subways: Drainage of vehicular
subways shall be efficiently planned at its
conception stage itself. Most preferable system
of drainage shall be by gravity. Entire surface
drain of subway shall be taken to a lowest
level and a suitable grating provided across
full width of road. The grating shall have a
disposal chamber which will collect the storm
water and dispose it to the nearby storm water
management facility like detention, retention
ponds or open ground and overflow can be
directly connected to the main drain. The lead
off drain shall be preferably pipe drains with
manholes at a maximum spacing of 30 m. In
case of larger subways, two inlets can be
provided at both ends of box approach ramp
junctions. The gratings shall be at least 10 m
away from the deck to minimize ascending
water during rains in the box portion. In case
the drainage cannot be effectively discharged
by gravity, necessary suitable pumping
arrangement shall be made size of pumps shall
be calculated based on drainage quantity with
necessary sumps, debris filters etc.
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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
 Drains underneath the Carriageway: At many
locations in urban limits, storm water drains
run across the carriageway. The storm Water
can directly be drained through gratings
designed appropriately.
 Drainage at Intersections: Drainage at the
intersections shall be well planned. The level
of junction shall be slightly higher than the
roads meeting, so that water can reach the
traffic island at the corners, which already
exist along respective roads. Any stagnation
water at intersections would reduce the
capacity of junction resulting in traffic jams
and underutilization of junction. In the event of
junction at lower level, the drainage shall be
engineered in such a way that rain water shall
be directed to this green traffic island and
overflow can be connected to the main
drainage system. : In urban situations, many
intersections, particularly load traffic volume
intersect sections are provided in the form of
rotary. In such locations, due to super
elevation requirement water from a large area
flows towards the center of the rotary. It is
essential to this water and drains it to the main
drainage system. Minimum size of outflow
from rotary shall be 600 mm width for ease of
maintenance.
8. Maintenance of Drains
a. Pavement crown or cross slope is
maintained in design profile conducive to
quick drainage.
b. Road shoulders are clear and dressed for
efficient clear off.
c. If there is a need for new side drain chutes
in high embankment.
d. If the kerb channel is clean and slopes
towards the inlet is to be provided.
e. If the kerb inlets/bell mouths are clear.
f. The drain is desilted before rainy seasons,
all manholes and grit chambers are
cleaned.
g. Inspection after heavy rains is required to
know the deficiencies in the system and
reporting unsatisfactory performance and
also rectifications.
h. Inspection in October/November can be
carried out and list defects for summer
maintenance.
i. Gratings/metallic covers should be
checked before monsoon for repair or
replacement if any.
j. Discourage & enforce street, house
sweeping being dumped into open drains
or gutter openings.
9. Enforcement of Cleaning the Drains:
As since large quantum of public funds are
spent on storm water drainage implementation,
time has come for enforcement of certain
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
disposable systems where in the offending
party shall be penalized and booked under
various punitive clauses of respective local
urban bodies. All vulnerable stretches of drains
which are thickly populated and where debris
is likely to be thrown into the drain shall be
fenced suitably. In light of serious choking of
storm water drains by reckless disposal of
debris, punitive action like criminal
proceedings with respective state municipal
acts shall be imposed, in addition, larger
corporations shall deploy patrolling vehicles
for containing the same.
Construction and Maintenance recommendations:
According to P K Agrawal, the following materials
can be adopted for maintaining good drainage
conditions:
i. Provide moisture-insensitive materials:
Another means of preventing moisture-
accelerated damage is to use moisture
insensitive or non-erodible base materials that
are less affected by the detrimental effects of
moisture. However, although some materials
can reduce or delay the detrimental effects of
moisture, moisture-insensitive materials by
themselves may not fully address moisture-
related problems in pavements that are heavily
loaded. Materials that are used often to reduce
moisture related damage are as follow:
Cement and Asphalt -treated base: In addition
to the conventional strength testing for
durability, such materials should also be
checked for resistance to moisture erosion. In
addition, an aggregate sub-base is
recommended to prevent pumping and loss of
fines from beneath the treated base in areas
with adverse site conditions (e.g., high design
traffic, wet climates, and high amounts of
pumpable fines in the sub-grade). Hot-mix
asphalt base materials can also be effective in
minimizing moisture problems in hot mix
asphalt (HMA) pavements. The stripping of
asphalt binder, caused by many factors but
particularly aggregate characteristics and
inadequate film thicknesses, has been the
major problem with asphalt-treated base
(ATB). Therefore, just as with CTB, adequate
film thickness of asphalt cement around the
aggregates and quality aggregates are required
in ATBs to ensure long-term durability.
Open graded base materials: Granular
materials with a high amount of crushed
materials, low fines contents, and low
plasticity may also be used to resist the effects
of moisture. These open-graded materials
provide better resistance to the effects of
moisture than dense-graded materials with
high fines contents. First, open-graded
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016

materials allow easier movement of moisture v. The above stated defects/deformations

through the material, so the layer remains
saturated for less time. Second, the reduction
of fines means there is less material that can be
ejected through joints and cracks. However,
stability of these untreated permeable base
layers is a major concern because settlement
can lead to serious problems and needs to be
addressed adequately.
ii. Installation of longitudinal edge drain and use
of treated permeable drainage layer: It is
recommend that regular inspection of the
under-drain outlet pipes needs to be a key part
of maintaining a pavement that includes
subsurface drainage features. Installation of
longitudinal edge-drains in pavements
containing no subsurface drainage layers
significantly increases the subgrade resilient
modulus. Installation of edge-drains improves
the fatigue performance of pavements
constructed on unbound dense graded
aggregate layers. When two types of base
layers where both pavement structures
contained longitudinal edge-drains were
compared, the use of a treated permeable
drainage layer improved the rutting
performance over that provided by unbound
dense-graded aggregate base layers.
such as potholes, ruts, cracking etc. will be
avoided and lead to increase in the life
time and performance of the flexible
pavement.
vi. The ground water which is depleting at
very rapid rates can be recharge by
adopting one or combinations of the
methods as discussed.
vii. Environmental sanitation can be
maintained and the major factors causing
diseases like dengue, malaria etc. (due to
spread of mosquitoes) and unhygienic
conditions can be prevented with proper
removal of storm or standing water from
the road surface.
viii. Construction and maintenance using
above strategies will lead to a great
economy in the flexible pavement
development throughout the country.
ix. India is a developing country. As the road
network will be maintained into the high
performance condition, they will provide
the rapid transportation facilities,
reduction in congestion and deterioration.
They will serve the nation in its economic
development.

3.5. Outputs:
i. It has been observed that the main reason
for any problem related to deterioration
will be highly increased due to presence of
standing water on any of the type of
pavement. Standing water may result in
phenomenon like hydroplaning, stripping
of bitumen binder, mud pumping (in case
of rigid pavement). Standing water also
arrests much width of road reducing the
width for driving of vehicles and hence
less area is subjected to more traffic which
in turn results in more detrimental
situations.
ii. In Amravati region, all the emphasis
remains on strength of pavement in which
density of soil is an important parameter
and drainage is completely neglected in
most parts. The best example of this is
State Highway 252 (MIDC road). The
damages seen are severe.
iii. Drainage prevents the buildup of free
water in the pavement section, thereby
reducing the damaging effects of load and
environment.
iv. The surface water from the carriage way
and shoulder will be effectively drained
off without allowing it to percolate to
subgrade and weaken the soil.

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 International Journal On Recent & Innovative Trend In Technology ISSN: 2454-1400
4. CONCLUSIONS
[1]
1. A major objective in pavement design should
be to keep the base, sub-base, subgrade, and
other susceptible paving materials from
becoming saturated or even being exposed to [2]
constant high moisture levels over time. Four
approaches commonly employed to control or
reduce moisture problems are listed below:
• Prevent moisture from entering the pavement
[3]
system.
• Use materials that are insensitive to the
effects of moisture.
• Incorporate design features to minimize [4]
moisture damage.
• Quickly remove moisture that enters the
pavement system.
It is important to recognize that no approach [5]
can completely negate the effects of moisture
on the pavement system under heavy traffic
loads over many years.
2. Pavement drainage is most beneficial when [6]
excessive moisture can be rapidly removed
from the structure, ideally within 2 hours and
preferably within 24 hours; however, the [7]
benefits derived from a subsurface drainage
system will vary depending on pavement type,
annual rainfall, subgrade conditions, geometric
design, and design of the overall pavement [8]
system.
3. The above study will help in maintaining the
[9]
flexible pavements to be in their service
condition for long time and deterioration of
pavement structure will be reduced to a great [10]
extent.
4. The study will give more environment friendly
[11]
results such as sanitation as well as recharge of
depleting ground water table can be achieved
effectively.
From the above study the need to study the
drainage related performance of flexible highway
pavement is justified.
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Volume: 2 Issue: 9 December 2016
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Rokade, S., Agarwal, P.K. and Shrivastava, R.
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Jitendra Gurjar, Pradeep Kumar Agarwal, Manoj Kumar
Sharma (2013): “A Framework for Quantification of
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Performance of Pavement”, International Journal of
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263
Siddhartha Rokade, P.K. Agarwal, Rajnish Shrivastava
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