Hi, Good morning all.

As Harshit mentioned today we will be discussing about the foundation design

principles of pavement in line with DMRB CD 225 guidelines. This guideline is published by National
Highways England and is applicable in UK region which comprises of four countries – England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Here you can see the broad topics that we plan to cover on this foundation design training session. We
will start with the basic definition of foundation & what it consists of. Then we will move on to a detailed
description of the foundation materials. After that we will discuss about the design methodology as given
in CD 225. It will cover foundation classes and types of design. After that we will look at some
foundation design examples from actual projects. I hope this will be an interactive session. Please feel
free to ask questions.
We will start with the very basic question of what is a highway pavement. In layman’s terms pavement is
a structure over which vehicles travel. The part of the pavement that is visible to us is just the topmost
surface. But if you cut a section across a pavement, you will see that it is made up of a few different
layers. The primary function of these layers is to transfer the load of the vehicles from the surface layer to
the subgrade or the bottom most layer without collapsing. The type and composition of these layers vary
depending on a lot of factors. In this session we will focus on the design & properties of the lower layers -
subbase, capping & subgrade. DMRB CD 225 defines foundation as all layers upto and including
subbase. So foundation consists of three layers – subbase, capping & subgrade. Out of these three capping
is an optional layer. Not every pavement structure has a capping layer. It is provided based on certain
criteria. We will discuss about that later in this session.
Subgrade – Subgrade is the lowest layer of a pavement. Usually, it consists of the native soil that is
already present at the location where the pavement will be constructed. The ground is compacted for a
thickness of 0.5m to 1m and that is used as a subgrade. However, there are certain properties that the
native soil should have before it can be used as subgrade. The first property is the strength of the material.
In CD 225, the strength of the subgrade is defined in terms of stiffness modulus which is basically ratio of
stress to strain. Higher the modulus stronger is the resistance of the subgrade against deformation due to
wheel loads or vehicle loads. Eq. 2.4 of CD 225 is used to determine the subgrade modulus. In this eq, E
is the subgrade modulus and CBR is the California bearing ratio of the subgrade. So to determine the
modulus, we would need the CBR value of the subgrade. For that we need to conduct a test of the same
name, the California bearing ratio test on the soil sample.
For this CBR test existing soil sample is collected from the desired location, where we want our pavement
to be constructed, and taken to a laboratory. One thing to note here is that if we are constructing a road for
10km, then the properties of the existing soil may not be same for the entire stretch. So samples are
collected at fixed intervals for this test.
Once we have the samples at laboratory, they are soaked in water for 4days before the test is conducted.
Can anyone tell me why the sample is soaked in water? The subgrade is at its weakest when it is fully
saturated with water during monsoons. It will have the least strength during monsoons. We design the
foundation considering this worst possible scenario. That is why we determine CBR value on fully
saturated samples.
Anyway, so the result of the CBR test tells us how strong the existing soil is compared to a standard
material of crushed stone aggregates. Since it is a comparison, the results are expressed in %age. If we
say some sample has a CBR of 100% it means that it is as strong as our standard material. Once we have
the CBR value we can easily calculate the modulus of the subgrade using this equation. However, this eq.
is only valid…
Another thing that we need to consider while assessing the suitability of existing soil as subgrade is the
material composition, whether it is predominantly sandy or clayey or silty. This is important because there
are certain types of soil that are not suitable to be used as subgrade. For example, soils with high plasticity
are problematic. Then there are certain types of clay which has this shrinking & swelling property. It
expands rapidly on absorbing moisture & then contracts rapidly on the loss of moisture. Because of such
rapid contraction/expansion cracks are created in the pavement layers which eventually leads to
settlement.
However, as pavement engineers we don’t need to do this assessment. In UK it is the responsibility of the
Geotechnical team to analyse the CBR test results and material properties. We get the subgrade
assessment report from them. In the report a table like this will be present. Here you can see that for the
1st one km the CBR is, then for next 2.5km…As pavement engineers we have to calculate the subgrade
modulus using eq. 2.4.
CD 225 says that if the modulus of the existing ground is less than 30 MPa then it cannot be directly used
as subgrade. We will have to improve its strength first. That can be done in 3 ways. No. 1, the existing
soil can be excavated out and replaced with a better-quality material for 0.5m to 1m depth. No. 2 soil
stabilization can be done using cementitious material or using geogrids/geotextiles.
So this was all about the subgrade layer.
Capping –
The next layer that we will discuss about is the capping. Capping is like an improvement layer that is
placed on top of the subgrade when the subgrade surface modulus is less than 50 MPa.
The material properties of capping layers are specified in Series 600 of MCHW guidelines published by
national highways UK. Capping can be either be of granular material which is called unbound capping or
it can be a mixture of granular & cementitious material which is called bound capping.
Subbase –
The layer that is present above the subgrade or capping is the subbase layer. One of the major functions of
the subbase layer is to function as a drainage layer. Sub-surface water is drained out through this layer. It
helps in preventing damage to other pavement layers from moisture. Similar to capping, subbase can also
be bound or unbound. Material properties are given in Series 800 of MCHW guidelines.
The next topic is the design methodology of foundations as per CD 225. It describes 4 different
foundation classes based on the composite stiffness modulus of the foundation. Earlier also we talked
about a stiffness modulus but that was the subgrade stiffness modulus. It indicated just the strength of the
subgrade. Here we are talking about foundation stiffness modulus which depends on the combined
strength of all foundation layers.
FC 1 can only be used when traffic is <20msa.
FC 2 can be provided only when traffic is less than 80msa
Unbound subbases cannot be used for FC 3 & 4
Restricted design means we have to design the foundation using a combination of materials & thk given
in charts of CD 225. Let me open CD 225 and then we will study the charts.
Performance design means we are free to choose the type of materials but we have to make sure it
achieves the design strength on field.
Widening design means when an existing pavement is getting widened, like another lane is getting added
to it and so the foundation is also getting widened. So in widening designs continuity of sub surface
drainage becomes an important factor.
Now we will look at an example of restricted fondatin design that we did for a project.