From http://www.techtransfer.berkeley.edu/newsletter/08-3/ten-essentials-of-a-good-road.php. Ten Essentials of a Good Road 10 basic tips to help you maintain your roads in good condition. 1. KEEP WATER AWAY FROM THE ROAD. The importance of drainage cannot be overemphasized in road construction and maintenance. Water affects the entire serviceability of a road. Too much water in the base material weakens the road. Water allowed to remain on top of a gravel or paved road weakens the surface and, combined with traffic, causes potholes and cracking. If improperly channeled, water causes soil erosion and a breakdown of pavement edges. Whether it is mud in the spring or frost heaves in the winter, the presence of water in roads is nothing but trouble. A good surface drainage system is the best way to lessen water damage on a road. Proper surface drainage prevents water from infiltrating the pavement surface and removes water from the driving lanes in a constant thin sheet to the side ditches, which carries the water away from the roadway. A surface drainage system has four main components: The road crown, or superelevation of the road surface, drains water off the road surface. Shoulders are an extension of the road surface and allow for the continued flow of water to the ditches. Ditches are used to carry water away from the roadway. They need to be kept clean and protected from erosion. Water left in the ditch can sometimes leak back into the base. Water collected and carried in the ditch has to be directed away from the roadway at frequent intervals, sometimes using culvert pipe. Culverts usually channel water from one side of the road to the other, helping to control the flow of water and slowing it down to reduce erosion. Road managers are guided by the principles that water runs downhill, that water needs outlets at the bottom of all grades, and that puddles mean problems. 2. BUILD ON A FIRM FOUNDATION. A highway wears out from the top, but it falls apart from the bottom. This is another way of saying that the road base determines the service-life of a road. The base supports everything above it, including traffic. Without adequate support, the road will deteriorate rapidly. A good road requires a suitable foundation composed of stable material. A road material is stable if it has negligible soil settlement with a change in moisture content and does not deform excessively under repeated loads whether the material is wet or dry. 3. USE THE BEST SOILS AVAILABLE. The supply of natural, good quality soils and aggregates is beginning to disappear. Blended or crushed gravel is a more expensive alternative. The quality of soils used by a road manager often depends on local availability and budget. In deciding what to use, consider the long-term consequences of using lower quality material. Using inferior base material may require excessive maintenance during the road's life and, perhaps, expensive rehabilitation. The adage "pay me now or pay me later" applies to road building. 4. COMPACT SOILS WELL. The more dense the material is, the stronger it is. When soil is improperly compacted, future traffic loads or changes in moisture content can cause settling and failure of the roadway. Compaction is achieved by pressing soil particles together, which expels some of the air from the mass, making the material more dense. Well-graded soils having a fairly even distribution of particle sizes will compact more easily than poorly graded soils that have mostly one particle size. Crushed or angular particles will compact to a more stable condition than rounded particles of similar size. A certain amount of moisture is necessary for good compaction. 5. DESIGN FOR WINTER MAINTENANCE. In areas that receive substantial snowfalls, roads that are designed for winter maintenance should be adequate for the rest of the year. Consider the following: if the traveled way is wide enough to allow a snowplow and a school bus to meet, it should be wide enough for the rest of the year. If ditches and roadside areas are wide enough to store snow, chances are they will accommodate spring thaws and heavy water flows. Grades should be a minimum of one percent for drainage purposes and should not be greater than 10 percent if at all possible. If the road is steeper, it is difficult for heavy equipment to maneuver, especially in the wintertime. Sight distance should be considered in designing a road. For safety's sake, a driver should be able to see 75 to 100 feet up the road for every 10 miles-per-hour of driving speed. 6. BUILD FOR TRAFFIC LOADS AND TRAFFIC VOLUMES. Thin ice on a pond may support a young skater, but it will crack and break apart under the weight of an automobile. Similarly, a road built to serve residential traffic will break down when it starts carrying a number of large trucks. Road managers know that roads, like bridges, should be designed with the expected traffic type and volume in mind. A rule of thumb is to design a road to accommodate the largest vehicles that will use the road under normal operation. If in doubt, design the road for the largest piece of equipment that maintains it in all kinds of weather. Generally speaking, a low volume road with some truck traffic may provide good service with a "chip seal" or "sand seal." As traffic volumes and weights increase, cold-mix asphalt and hot-mix asphalt pavement may be better alternatives. 7. PAVE ONLY ROADS THAT ARE READY. Some agencies make the mistake of paving over a road that is not properly prepared in their haste to get rid of another dusty gravel road. The result may be a complete waste of money. Paving will not cure the other problems that the gravel road may have. It still must be built of well-compacted layers of free draining soil, be able to carry expected traffic loads, and be able to drain well. The cost of rebuilding a mistake is much higher than not making the mistake and doing it right the first time. 8. BUILD FROM THE BOTTOM UP. A road that has a poor base and poor drainage cannot be adequately improved with a top dressing of gravel or new pavement. It may be necessary, in some cases, to dig out the old road, put in new materials, and build up the road in layers. Before doing anything to correct a road surface problem, road managers should take into consideration what is causing the problem underneath. Improper drainage, insufficient depth of base, or poor quality gravel may be the culprit. These should be corrected before spending money on the surface. 9. PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT. Roads and bridges need regular maintenance to keep them from deteriorating. The increased weight and frequency of traffic on roads combined with adverse weather conditions means an increased rate of road and street deterioration. Regular road and bridge maintenance preserves our road investment and prevents costly major rehabilitation later on. Maintenance activities include: Roadway surfaces: blading and shaping, patching, resurfacing; dust control; snow and ice removal. Drainage: cleaning and repairing culverts and ditches. Roadside: cutting bushes, trees, and grass; repair and prevention of roadside erosion. Bridges: clearing channels; repair of rails, decks, and structure; cleaning and painting. Traffic services: sign maintenance; cutting vegetation to maintain visibility. Special projects: restoration or improvements; emergency work such as removing slides, repairing washouts, and repairing retaining walls. 10. KEEP GOOD RECORDS. Road managers know their roads like the back of their hands. Most of them are walking history books when it comes to the roads they manage every day. This knowledge is of little use, however, when the road manager is ill, moves, or retires. Good recordkeeping makes roadwork much easier for everybody. It is easier to formulate budgets and to show the citizens a plan for roadwork. Recording which type of work was done on roads or bridges, when it was done, and what materials were used can help in decision-making later on. Agencies can start by doing an inventory of all roads and bridges, listing length, width, surface types, culverts, problem areas, and other items. Placing these items on a map helps. Next comes listing and prioritizing needed improvements and routine pavement preservation activities, putting a price tag on them, and taking care of a few problems each year. Reprinted with permission from the National Association of Counties (NACO)www.naco.org and the National Association of County Engineers (NACE)www.countyengineers.org.

A good road. For a community roads are like arteries and veins of a body. We would consider a healthy vascular system as a very important aspect of that body's wellbeing. Similarly good quality roads are a very important aspect of wellbeing of a community. We can find evidence that roads were given enormous importance throughout the history. We read that emperors like Ashoka, Sher Shah Suri planted trees by the roadside and erected facilities for the road users. We read a lot about the 'silk route' that connected east to the west. We read about Romans and their road building technology. These are facts from more than 2000 years ago. Safety Road Safety is dependent on a number of factors. They can be broadly divided into two groups. Factors inherent to the surface and Factors inherent to the people and vehicles on the surface. Maintenance-The fact that roads have been built and rebuilt for thousands of years and they are still an issue is mainly because they need constant maintenance. A road without maintenance is only as good as a road before it was constructed. Any road deteriorates with use and time. The cost of maintenance of a road should be taken in to consideration when building a road. Road=a surface on which people and vehicles can travel from one place to another in opposite directions with the surface having a specific level of quality over a specific period of time. Cost of building a Road= Cost of a road at a specific level of quality for a specified period of time.

Financing a road

A road requires finance at all stages. To plan, to construct and to maintain. Although planning and construction will be the most expensive and without finance will not result in a proper road, ignoring maintenance and appropriately financing for it would result in a very high total cost(cost over the life time of the project) due to the damage to the road and subsequent increase in all costs.

Apathy towards the condition of our roads

Like so many things that the average Indian has come to accept despite knowing that it is not proper(such as the poor electricity supply, poor standard of government services in general be it the hospitals, schools, local administration at village/panchayats or municipalities or metropolitan administrations, there seems to be an acceptance of the poor condition of roads. That does not mean there is no protest, demonstration or appeal to authorities. But there is no consistent and concerted effort until the objectives are achieved. Even when there is such concerted effort, the objectives themselves are set to such low level that, overall cost of the projects remain high. There is no understanding among people as to what constitutes a proper road. This is not surprising as the majority of Indian population have never seen a proper road. Those who have seen are few and seem to have not been able to dedicate the amount of effort and time that is required to achieve the objective of securing a proper road anywhere in the country. Unlike industries and services where private initiative has been able to achieve such objective, roads being essentially public property are very difficult to finance such private initiatives.

What is the situation of roads in India?

Any person landing in one of the international airports in India having visited any of the countries west of Afghanistan or east of Burma would notice as soon as they come outside the airport that the roads are very bad. To start with there will be a lot of pot holes that must have been there for years. They will also note that the surface is very uneven giving a bumpy ride. They will notice that the pedestrian ways by the side of the roads are not paved and a lot of digging here and there with dug up mud piled without any warning or enclosure for either pedestrians or for the traffic. All these will be noticeable for the person landing in India within a couple of kilometres of travel outside of the airport. After that let them go to any where in India, this would be a common site. They will notice that the Highways are not really anything like Highways, interstate roads, state roads, city roads and rural roads are all even worse. There are now some stretches of roads that have 4 lanes with barrier between the opposite directions of traffic. Even these are poor by international standards in terms of their safety, surface, junctions and crossings and so on.

Safe speeds in the highways are about 70 to 80km per hour(44 to 50 miles per hour). Even at this speed one will have to be extremely cautious as the chance of unexpected is a certainty e.g. a sudden bump or a sudden hole anywhere on the road, sudden road crossing by pedestrians and animals, sudden crossing by other traffic. Hence the average speed on a 100 km(62.5miles) journey would come down to a mere 50 km per hour(32miles per hour) there by taking 2 hours to complete the journey.


So on the whole the situation of roads in India is very bad.

Just imagine the amount of fuel consumption for these journeys. A road of international standard would easily reduce the fuel consumption by half. The life of the vehicle would certainly be doubled. The repair costs would be halved. More over, the number of accidents that result in loss of life could be reduced to at least to a quarter of the current number. Just the last advantage alone would pay for the cost of improving the roads. So there is no doubt that the current situation of roads is costing India heavily. So the current way of designing and building roads is proving very expensive. The way to cut the costs is not by cutting the corners in planning, building and maintaining the roads to achieve the sort of roads we have now, but by ensuring that we achieve international standard roads by appropriate investment, equipment, materials, planning, construction and maintenance.

What is a proper road?

I am wondering what is the meaning of a proper road? I suppose it is a road that serves the purpose. So it would depend on the location, the nature of traffic and amount of traffic on the road. In any case, if it should be considered as proper or good, it should provide a fast traffic movement, it should be safe and it should be pleasant. With all these criteria, there would be a trade off between quality and cost. I suppose like every thing else in life where there is such a trade off, lowest in quality does not mean lowest in cost. This is especially true if one considers the cost as a cost over the life time of the product, in this case the life time of road. Moreover, if the cost includes the total cost-not just the construction and maintenance of the road but also the costs that arise due to the condition of road such as the wear and tear of tyres, other vehicle repairs, but more importantly, cost of human lives as a result of accidents.
To be continued....