Earthen Road Construction | 5 Pros and Cons | Construction Procedure of Earthen Road

Earthen Road Construction

The earthen road is the cheapest type of road. The pavement structure is totally made from the available soil on the road construction site. First of all, what’s an earth road? Earth road may a sort of road whose whole pavement section makes with the locally available earth material preferably. Borrow pits are located at the nearby sites preferably outside the land width where the specified earth is out there.

Sub-grade and therefore the surface of the world roads are given larger camber of 1in 33 to 1 in 20 because they have faster drainage to be safe from moisture.

This is the lowest from the surface use and is the first stage in the development of road, which is to further develop as increasing traffic requires. The earthen road construction Technology is the first stage of other road construction technology.

This road makes by the soil is available at the construction site. The available domestic products are used to make this type of road. The camber provided on this road is very steep and varies from 4 to 5 percent.

Materials required to construct an earthen road

The earth materials used for the construction of the earthen road as termed as satisfactory if they possess the following properties.

The required material is classified based on the base course and wearing course.

• content less than 5%(base course) 10-18%(wearing course)
• Silt content 9-32%(base cClayourse)5-15%(wearing course)
• Sand content 60-80%(base course) 65-80%(wearing course)
• Liquid limit less than 35 (base course) and less than 3.5 (wearing course)
• Plastic index less than 6% (base course) 4-10% (wearing course)

Equipment required

Dozer, Grader, Roller, Tipper, Hand tools/shovels, pick, rammer.

Construction procedure for construction of Earthen road

Material

The soil survey was carried out and suitable borrow pits are located within the economical haulage Distance.

Materials should be free from organic matter and tress shrubs grassroots and topsoil are removed before excavation of earth for construction.

Location

The centerline and road edge mark on the ground along the autocad alignment by marking wooden pegs. Alignment fix on the ground with the help of a peg or other things to locate the point.

Pros of Earthen Road

• This is the cheapest type of road. So this road is constructed very low budget due to cheaper.
• Earther material is easily available on the road construction site.
• Local human resources and local materials were used to construct the earthen roads.
• The road was constructed in very little time.
• No Required big machine to construct the road.
• The road is advanced in future

Cons of Earthen Road

• Earthen Road is directly affected by the water.
• This road can’t bear the heavy loads.
• It can’t define the life of Road.
• This road is not used during when monsoon due to water present.
• Environmental pollution occurs due to less maintenance.
• Required much time to time maintenance.
• The maintenance cost is high.

Preparation of subgrade for Earthen road 

For the preparation of subgrade, the following steps are necessary which list below.

Site clearing

Site clearance may do manually using a space pick or hand shovel or using mechanical equipment like a dozer, scraper, tippers, rollers, etc.

Excavation and construction of fills

Excavation and construction of fills to bring the road to the desired grade may also do manually or using excavation and compaction equipment.

Shaping of subgrade

The subgrade should compute to desired grade camber and longitudinal profile.

Highway Development and planning: Click

Pavement construction

The soil was dumped on the prepared subgrade and pulverized. The moisture content checks and if extra moisture needs and rolled in the layer such that the compaction thickness net doesn’t exceed 10 cm.

Opening to the flow of traffic

The compacted earth’s surface allows it to dry out for a few days and then open to traffic.

Quality control of Earthen road 

Checking of camber and grade

The grade and chamber of road pavement are the most important parts of the road. so this mostly checking is the field. This is necessary to provide in the road pavement to remove the surface water from the drain hole. Also, provide a safe drive of vehicles.

Proper handling of equipment

Each and every piece of equipment is necessary at the site so we need proper management of the equipment. All the type of materials is made from almunium and iron. So the environment is directly affected by the machine and gets corrosion and damage gradually in a decreasing way.