Long-Term Performance Evaluation of Rural Road Pavements in India

About 80% of the total road network in the India is categorized as rural roads carrying traffic less than 450 commercial vehicles per day. Huge network of rural roads are being built under the country's most ambitious prime minister's rural connectivity program (PMGSY) since its launch in December 2000. These roads are mostly designed as granular pavements with thin bituminous surfacing following the guidelines given in IRC:SP:20 (2002), which does not refer to any documented performance data. Collecting performance data on such type of pavements under different subgrade, climatic and traffic conditions is crucial for developing rational pavement design criteria and also for systematic maintenance management of the pavements. Moving a step in this direction, 19 rural road test sections were selected in the eastern part of the country for a long-term performance study, and this paper presents the data collected over a period of four and half years. The reported performance data will be extremely helpful for developing rational design criteria and systematic management of rural roads. Also a performance criterion has been developed (considering vertical stress over subgrade) for thin surfaced rural roads using the limited data available under this study.