CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1. Discussion and Conclusion
Transportation is an important role to build of modern and developing country.
A flexible pavement furnishes a smooth surface which is easy to clean and practically
dust free. The design of flexible pavement varies with soil conditions and the amount
of traffic expected to be carried during its design life. Flexible pavement is designed
based on California bearing ratio (CBR) of subgrade soil and the amount of traffic
which pass over that pavement during the design life of the pavement. The load from
trucks is directly applied on the wearing course, and it gets dispersed with depth in the
base, subbase, and subgrade courses, and then ultimately to the ground. The subgrade
layer is responsible for transferring the load from the above layers to the ground.
This study is carried out to investigate the highway geometric, design
considerations of AASHTO methods for flexible pavement and to estimate the cost. For
this study, Mahlaing-Thaungtha road is selected as a case study. Before calculating the
structural design of flexible pavement, traffic volume, design life and strength
properties of subgrade, subbase and base course are considered. The required traffic
volume is obtained from Mahlaing-Thaungtha Toll-Gate, Htun Nyo Lu Co., Ltd.
According to the collected traffic data for one year, total volume of traffic in December
is used to estimate average daily traffic. Due to being level terrain, there are two
horizontal curves and four vertical curves in this section. The range of design speed for
this study is 40 to 50 mph. The rate of super-elevation, the radius of circular curve, the
degree of a curve, the length of horizontal curve and the length of vertical curve are
calculated in this study.
For the flexible pavement design, AASHTO method is used and asphalt concrete
is chosen as the surface course. In this study, number of lane is taken as two lanes, two
ways according to the design standard of highway. The distance of the study portion is
one-mile-long from mile post 30/0 to 31/0 and the pavement width is 18 feet. The total
traffic volume of December is 8741 vehicles and flexible pavement’s design is
calculated by AASHTO method with the subgrade CBR value of 11.5%. Design CBR
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values of subbase and base are 30% and 80% taken. Design results of total pavement
thickness are 10 in. The consideration of design life is 10 years.
In this study, flexible pavement thickness is evaluated and geometric design
elements such as curve, super-elevation and grade are considered. For geometric
design, the horizontal curves are designed with the speed of 40 mph and 50 mph. The
length of circular curve is 425 feet for 50 mph at chainage 1588+17 and 305 feet for 40
mph at chainage 1605+63. The vertical curves are designed with the speed of 40 mph
and 45 mph. The length of vertical curve is 305 feet for 40 mph at chainage 1633+92
and 360 feet for 45 mph at chainage 1595+36, 1610+92 and 1622+42. In this study,
AASHTO method is used to design the pavement thickness because it gives more
reliable and durable for unexpected growing amount of traffic loading. The results of
pavement thickness are 5 inches for asphalt concrete layer and 5 inches for base layer.
The total thickness of the pavement is 10 inches. The total estimating cost for one mile
is 226835000 kyats.

5.2. Recommendations
This study is presented about the design of roadway in rural area. The following
facts are recommended for further study;
1. Flexible pavement should be designed by using various methods such as
California Bearing Ratio Method, Asphalt Institute Method, etc.
2. Selection and proportioning of the different material components for mix design
of asphalt concrete should be made.
3. Design of drainage structure should be considered for durability of road.