Highway Maintenance

preservation and keeping of each type of roadway, roadside, structures and facilities as
nearly as possible in its original condition as constructed or as subsequently improved the operation of
highway facilities and services to provide satisfactory and safe transportation AASHTO
Objectives
1. Keeping up with the traffic demand.
2. Rehabilitation after construction.
3. Do betterment projects.
Maintenance Category
1. Road Surface Maintenance
- Small amount of work at separate location.
- Requires speed performance to cause at least possible disruption and danger to traffic.
Maintenance operations requires:
a. For Gravel Roads
- Blading and periodic reshaping or resurfacing.
b. For Surface Treatment of low type bituminous pavement
- Patching, seal coating, remixing and relaxing.
c. For Slick Asphalt Surface
- Roughening, burning or non-skid seal is required.
d. For Concrete Road
- Removal and replacement or filling of damaged areas.
- Joint sealing, or mud-jacking, or under sealing.
2. Maintenance of Shoulder and Approach
a. Sod shoulder should be removed and periodically bladed down to the roadway elevation to
avoid entrapment of water in the traveled way.
b. Grass prevents shoulder erosion.
c. Gravel and earth shoulder should be maintained by blading under favorable weather
conditions.
d. Rutting or setting of the shoulder should be corrected at once by reconstruction or resurfacing.
3. Maintenance of Roadside
Type and kind of roadside maintenance depends upon the following conditions:
a. If the roadside is full of grass, mowing closer to the shoulder is the answer. If necessary,
grass at the roadside be fertilized or treated with lime. In some areas, reseeding may be
required.
b. If the roadside has dry grass considered as fire hazard, burning or plowing is the solution.
c. If the bushed cover the back-slope, trimming is necessary to maintain clearance and sight
distance.
Ingenious Machine used for Roadside Maintenance
a. Mechanical sod cutter
b. Combined seed and fertilizer spreader
c. Power mowers

d. Portable grass cutter

e. Bush chopper
4. Drainage Maintenance
a. Cleaning of ditches, culvert, drop inlets and catch basins to accommodate free flow of
water.
b. Removal of sediments, branches and other debris gathered at trash racks, culvert and
structure entrances.
c. Repair of eroded channels and dikes.
d. Riprap and bank protection to prevent recurrence.
5. Bridge Maintenance
a. For steel bridge structure, routine maintenance calls for cleaning by sand blasting, flame, or
other means or repainting.
b. Repair of drainage handrails.
c. Cleaning and re-sealing of deck joints that are extruded or filled with dirt.
d. Re-surfacing of rough or slicky deck surface.
e. Correct serious scour around the pier and abutments.
f. Most bridges maintenance is considered specialized work. Traveling crews exclusively for
bridges work alone is a function of the maintenance operations.
g. Concrete bridge decks normally deteriorate due to deicing slats. The problem starts when
the salt penetrates and corrodes the reinforcing steel that spall-off the overlaying concrete.
h. Correction is to remove the concrete, clean the steel and apply new material such as
polymer concrete.
i. Sometimes seal-out or overlay of asphalt materials are used as protective covering.
j. Check the bridge deck deterioration by:
i.
Applying waterproof membrane
ii.
Applying latex modified concrete.
iii.
Impregnating the deck with polymers.
iv.
Passing electric current through reinforcing steel may be used.
6. Traffic service
a. Stripping is a continuing functions
b. Repair of road signs.
c. Maintenance of street and highway light and signals.
d. Coping up with emergencies. Personnel on patrol to keep the road open, and rescue
stranded vehicles.

9-2 Maintenance Management

-considered the most intricate and ever changing highway technology. Maintenance is now regarded as
one of the most important part of the Highway agency considering the appropriations and expenditures
involved for maintenance program.
With the continuous studies here showed the need for improvement on the following fields:
1. Education in management technique for all the included in the field.

2. More detailed and careful planning and scheduling of work and establishing standards for
maintenance standard.
3. Major improvement of maintenance tools and equipments.
4. Providing better and efficient communications.
5. Establishing lines of authority and responsibility.
6. Staffing with permanent trained and dedicated personnel.
7. Efficient, accurate and fair budgeting and reporting procedures.
Requirements for Maintenance Management:
1. Methods Time Management (MTM) expected output operations that are predetermined to
stabilize the standard level of maintenance.
2. Develop an accurate monitoring and fair reporting system and comparison of the actual
work with the expected production.
3. Develop a management system.
4. Develop effective procedures, methods and machinery or organization.
Effective management is achieved by educating the personnel with the new methods and
acknowledgement for their efforts through personal recognition and financial reward.
Criteria where effective maintenance personnel activities are measured:
1. Personnel who are devoted to the maintenance work.
2. Personnel responsibility for keeping the roadway open to traffic moving under all
conditions.
3. Personnel rescue operation
4. Exposures to accidents, hazards during maintenance or rehabilitation work.
A maintenance personnel deserves recognition and reward but they are sometimes victims of neglect.

REHABILITATION
Pavement Rehabilitation is an activity primarily to provide good riding and skid resistance or to
improve the structural effectiveness of the pavement.
Resurfacing, restoration and rehabilitation work, restoring to the original safe usable condition without
additional to the original capacity. FHWA

Primary objectives of pavement rehabilitation:

1. To improve the smoothness of the road surface
2. To extend the pavement life.

3. To improve the skid resistance of the road.

4. To construct the sections with poor foundations.
5. To improve the drainage facilities.
The efficiency of the highway system:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Sufficiency ratings
Accident data.
Skid tests.
Maintenance report.
Public comments and suggestions.

RESURFACING addition of pavement layer over the existing roadway or bridge deck surface to provide
additional capacity. Restoration and rehabilitation work includes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Replacement of defective joins.

Repair of spalled joints.
Substantial pavement work.
Reworking or strengthening of sub-base.
Recycling existing materials to improve their structural integrity.
Adding under drains.
Improving shoulders.
Removing and replacing deteriorated materials.

Pavement Recycling is Categorized into:

1. The type of materials to be used.
2. The procedure to be employed.
3. The structural benefit to be gained.
Recycling Categories:
1. Surface Recycling - consist of reworking about the top surface of asphalt pavement. It is applied
for the treatment of raveling, wheel truck rutting, flushing and corrugations.
Advantages:
A. It reduces reflection cracking.
B. Promotes bond between the old pavement and the thin overlay.
C. Provides transition between the new overlay and the existing gutter, bridge, pavement, etc.,
that is resistant the raveling (eliminates feathering.)
D. Reduces localized roughness.
E. Treats variety of types of pavement distress.
F. Improve skid resistance.
G. Minimum disruption to traffic.
Disadvantages:
A. Limited structural improvement.

B. The heater-scarifyer and heater planning has limited effectiveness on rough pavement
without multiple passes of equipment.
C. Limited repair of severely flushed or unstable pavements.
D. Some air equality problems.
E. Vegetation closer to roadway may be damaged.
F. Mixture with maximum size aggregate greater than 1 inch cannot be treated with some
equipment.
2. In-Place Surface and Base Recycling - involves pulverizing all existing pavement, followed by
reshaping and compacting.
Advantages:
A. Significant structural improvements.
B. Treats all types and degree of pavement distress,
C. Reflection cracking can be eliminated.
D. Frost susceptibility may be improved.
E. Improved riding quality.
Disadvantages:
A.
B.
C.
D.

Quality control not as good as from the central plant.

Traffic disruption.
Pulverizing equipment repair requirement.
Higher in cost.

3. Central Plant Recycling the removal of materials from the roadway, crushing them, mixing in
the plant then laid and compacted with conventional equipment.
Advantages:
A. Significant structural improvement.
B. Good quality control.
C. Treats all types and degree of pavement distress.
D. Reflection cracking can be eliminated.
E. Improved skid resistance.
F. Geometrics can be more easily altered.
G. Better control if additional binder or aggregate Is used,
H. Improved riding quality.
Disadvantages:
A. Increased traffic disruption.
B. May have air quality problems at plant site.
Maintenance and Rehabilitation programs are based on different types of collected data that includes:

1. Surface roughness irregularities in the pavement surface that affects the riding quality.
2. Surface distress indication of unfavorable pavement performance; signs of impending failure.
3. Surface deflection measurement of the changes in pavement surface level between the loaded
and unloaded segment.
4. Surface friction or skid resistance from a gathered data with a pavement section having low
coefficient of friction. (Using locked wheel trailer or Yaw mode trailer)

9-4 Evaluation and Maintenance of Concrete Pavement

Maintenance is decided after an evaluation of a project.
Evaluation:
1. What projects need rehabilitation and what are the priority projects?
2. What type of maintenance?
3. What will be the strategy of maintenance?

Maintenance of Concrete Pavement

1. Cracks of transverse and longitudinal construction and expansion joints clean wide
cracks then apply with sealing materials
2. Small and scattered broken surface Patching with concrete
3. After removal of road section, weak subgrade (cannot carry heavy loads) Replace
the section with suitable materials and compact properly
4. Need extra thickness Patch below by 10 cm width and depth
5. For patching with an early use Make with a high early strength concrete or by an
accelerator. Ideal time to patch is in the evening
6. Pavement surface with spall Level with asphalt mixture or surface treatment. Another
method is to patch by cement-water or epoxy
7. Spalled Joint Cement grout containing epoxy mixed with catalyst

Mud jacking
Maintenance method for restoration of sub-grade support under 1. Pumping
pavement, 2. Level uneven slabs.

Slurry mixture: Fine grain

Aggregate

Portland cement

Asphalt

water

Under Sealing
Alternative for mud jacking. Use heated asphalt for filling

9-5 Highway and its Environment

Design standards of a highway and its environments:
1. Pleasing views and surroundings
2. Long sweeping horizontal curves are acceptable rather than short curve connected
by long tangents.
3. Choppy or broken back grade line is flattened and smoothened
4. Depth of cuts and fill heights are lowered
5. Helpful retained walls
6. Wide roadbeds, shallow wide gutter, flat back slopes and flat side slope by design

7. Blend the new made road by filling the top cut and the toes

Roadside
is the entire right of way except the travelled way.
Roadside and Highway beautification comes together

Roadside development
Purpose:
1. Allows blending of the road into the natural landscape
2. Provides space to plant to screen unsightly surrounding
3. Isolates the highway visually

9-6 Highway Beautification

Activities:
1. Landscaping and roadside development
2. Improvement of strips and land adjacent to the highway
3. Acquisition and development of publicly owned area beside the right of way

Factors that contribute to Beautification

1. Good location
2. Good design
3. Construction
4. Maintenance
9-7 Environmental Laws
Laws that are passed in order to protect the environment

Intent:
1. Recognition of mans activities
a) Influence of population
b) High density urbanization
c) Industrial expansion
d) Resource exploration
e) Expansion of technological advances
f) Restoration and maintenance of environment to the welfare and development of
man
2. Responsibilities of the present and succeeding generation to the environment
3. Safety, Productivity of all Filipino to aesthetic and cultural pleasing surrounding
4. Provides the widest beneficial use of the environment without consequences
5. Preserve important historic, cultural and natural heritage
6. Balance the distribution of population and use of resources
7. Responsibilities of man to contribute to preservation and enhancement of environment

9-8 Environmental Effects of Highways

MAIN COMPLAINTS OF THE COMMUNITY
1.
2.
3.
4.

Air and noise problem

Traffic induced Vibration
Accidents
Annoyance caused by water pollution, dust and dirt.

AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

AIR POLLUTION

May come from fixed or mobile sources

Result of progress
Comes from discharges into the air of non-reactive pollutants. Carbon monoxide,
sulfates and dust are some examples.

2 dimensions of highway pollution

1. Area wide effects of preliminary reactive pollutants
2. Highway Concentration of non-reactive pollutants at points of corridors along or
near highways
Approaches to reduce area pollution
1.
2.
3.
4.

By Land Use Control

To lower the emission
Modification of the fixed existing facilities
Lowering pollution coming from motor vehicles that falls under the following categories
a. reducing the output of pollutants by making them fuel efficient and controlling pollutant
output.
b. Limiting vehicle travel by shifting travelers to other mode using electric current.
c. cutting fuel consumption and pollutant output by improving traffic flow.
d. a set of standard to be met by new vehicles.

NOISE CONTROL
Noise
o
o
o

Unwanted sound
Measured in decibels with a common unit dBA.
Anything above 85 dBA could create permanent damage to hearing
Decibels
Quiet residential area at night

32 to 43 dBA

Urban residential District at daytime

41 to 53 dBA

Industrial Areas

48 to 66 dBA

Downtown Commercial Areas with heavy

traffic

62 to 73 dBA

9-9 Construction in Relation to Roadside Development

During roadside development

Topsoil should be preserved

Trees outside the distance limit should be preserved
Objects of interests like rocks , outcrops in cut slopes or trees should be preserved

9-10 Vegetation and the Highways

GROUND COVER

An alternative to grass to prevent erosion by wind and water.

Low growing herbaceous or woody plants more than one meter at maturity

OTHER VEGETATION DESIRABLE FOR ROADSIDE PROTECTION

1.
2.
3.
4.

bushy dense foliage plants and those producing litter with great water holding capacity
The rapid growing species with inconspicuous flowers
Fire resistant plants with the ability to sprout after burning
Plants that are subject to disease and insect damage, poisonous or irritating to the skin or
that may become agricultural pests.

TIPS FOR PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS

1. For rural roads, the objective is to preserve or recreate a natural foreground in harmony with a
distant view.
2. Replanting should be considered only when irregular introduction of trees and shrubs.
3. When planting trees a minimum distance of 9 meters from the lane edge should be considered
to provide a recovery area for vehicles that run off the roadway
4. Row planting along a rural road is not encouraged.
5. Group planting should be avoided, as it creates distractions for drivers
6. Continuous planting could be used to cover up unsightly views or to insulate residential areas
from the road.
7. Avoid monotony over long stretches of the route.
9-11 Parking and Rest Area
Wayside area placing should be:
1. Those that make the area more attractive.

2. Those that are accessible and safely located.

3. Those with sufficient area and with existing shades
Things to avoid
1. Fire hazard areas
2. Locations that are close to the city and towns