Road Note 31/ Catalogue Method

A Guide to the Structural Design of Bitumen Surfaced Roads in Tropical and Subtropical Countries.
ORN 31 is based principally on research conducted in countries throughout the
world by the Overseas Centre, Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), UK, on behalf of
the Overseas Development Administration (ODA).
Road Note 31 was first published in 1962 and revised in 1966, 1977 and 1993.
Now Overseas Road Note (ORN) 31, 1993, 4th Edition.
4th
edition of the Road Note 31 has drawn on the experience of TRL and
collaborating organizations in over 30 Tropical and Sub-tropical Countries.
4th edition extends the designs of previous editions to cater for traffic up to 30
million equivalent standard axles and takes account of the variability in material
properties and construction control, the uncertainty in traffic forecasts, the effects of
climate and high axle loads and the overall statistical variability in road
performance.
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Design Process
3 Main Steps to be followed in designing a new road pavement.
These are:
(i) estimating the amount of traffic and the cumulative number of
equivalent standard axles that will use the road over the selected
design life;
(ii) assessing the strength of the subgrade soil over which the road is to be
built;
(iii) selecting the most economical combination of pavement materials and
layer thicknesses that will provide satisfactory service over the design
life of the pavement using structural catalogues. (It is usually necessary
to assume that an appropriate level of maintenance is also carried out.)
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Pavement Layers

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Surfacing:
This is the uppermost layer of the pavement and will normally consist
of a bituminous surface dressing or a layer of premixed bituminous
material. Where premixed materials are laid in two layers, these are
known as the wearing course and the base course (or binder course).

Roadbase:
This is the main load-spreading layer of the pavement. It will
normally consist of crushed stone or gravel, or of gravelly soils,
decomposed rock, sands and sand-clays stabilised with cement, lime
or bitumen.
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Sub-base:
This is the secondary load-spreading layer underlying the roadbase.

It will normally consist of a material of lower quality than that used in the
road base such as unprocessed natural gravel, gravel-sand, or gravelsand-clay.

This layer also serves as a separating layer preventing contamination of

the roadbase by the subgrade material and, under wet conditions, it has
an important role to play in protecting the subgrade from damage by
construction traffic.
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Capping layer (selected or improved subgrade):

Where very weak soils are encountered, a capping layer is sometimes
necessary.
This may consist of better quality subgrade material imported from
elsewhere or existing subgrade material improved by mechanical or
chemical stabilisation.

Subgrade:
This is the upper layer of the natural soil which may be undisturbed
local material or may be soil excavated elsewhere and placed as fill.
In either case it is compacted during construction to give added
strength.
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Traffic
The deterioration of paved roads caused by traffic results
from both the magnitude of the individual wheel loads and
the number of times these loads are applied.

For pavement design purposes it is necessary to consider

not only the total number of vehicles that will use the road
but also the wheel loads (or, for convenience, the axle loads)
of these vehicles.

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The loads imposed by private cars do not contribute

 For the purposes of structural design, cars and similar sized

vehicles can be ignored and only the total number and the
axle loading of the heavy vehicles that will use the road during
its design life need to be considered.

In this context, heavy vehicles are defined as those having an

unladen weight of 3000 kg or more.

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Design Life
For most road projects an economic analysis period of between 10 and
20 years from the date of opening is appropriate.
Design life does not mean that at the end of the period the pavement will
be completely worn out and in need of reconstruction; it means that
towards the end of the period the pavement will need to be strengthened
so that it can continue to carry traffic satisfactorily for a further period.
Condition surveys of bituminous pavements should be carried out about
once a year as part of the inspection procedures for maintenance.

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Estimating Traffic Flows

In order to determine the total traffic over the design life of the road, the
first step is to estimate baseline traffic flows.
The estimate should be the (Annual) Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
currently using the route.
The ADT is defined as the total annual traffic summed for both
directions and divided by 365.
It is usually obtained by recording actual traffic flows over a shorter
period from which the ADT is then estimated.
For long projects, large differences in traffic along the road may make it
necessary to estimate the flow at several locations.
It should be noted that for structural design purposes the traffic loading
in one direction is required and for this reason care is always required
when interpreting
ADT figures.
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Axle Loading : Axle Equivalency

The damage that vehicles do to a road depends very strongly on the
axle loads of the vehicles.
For pavement design purposes the damaging power of axles is related
to a 'standard' axle of 8.16 tonnes using equivalence factors which have
been derived from empirical studies.
In order to determine the cumulative axle load damage that a
pavement will sustain during its design life, it is necessary to express
the total number of heavy vehicles that will use the road over this
period in terms of the cumulative number of equivalent standard axles
(esa).
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 Axle load surveys must be carried out to determine the axle

load distribution of a sample of the heavy vehicles using the
road.
Data collected from these surveys are used to calculate the
mean number of equivalent standard axles for a typical vehicle
in each class.
These values are then used in conjunction with traffic forecasts
to determine the predicted cumulative equivalent standard
axles that the road will carry over its design life.
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Determination of Cumulative
Equivalent Standard Axles

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Numerical Example
In a certain section of single lane road, it is intended to
construct the road pavement. The traffic survey shown
that the road caters present ADT of 132 cv/day. The
annual growth rate of traffic is 7%. The pavement is to be
designed for 10 years period and expected completion
period is 2 years from the last date of traffic count. The
87.5 percentile CBR value of the subgrade soil is found to
be 5%. Design the pavement section as per Road Note 31
Guideline.
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Solution:
Cumulative no. of std. axles at the end of design period,
N= =
Here,
P = 132 cvpd
r = 7% = 0.07
x = 2 years
n = 10 years
Now,
N= =
= 0.76 x 106 esa
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 According to Road Note 31 Guideline,

For,

N = 0.76 x 106 esa,

Traffic Class = T3

and
For,

CBR = 5%,

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Subgrade Strength Class = S3

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Now, from the Design

Chart 1
Granular Sub base = 225
mm Granular Road Base =
200 mm Surface Course
= Surface Dressing (SD)

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