The process of preserving and keeping the conditions of the highway serviceable and as best as practicable normally as far as possible is known as highway maintenance or road maintenance. The cost of road maintenance depends upon the road location, design of the road, the quality of construction and the quality of maintenance.
A) Roadside Maintenance
The maintenance activity on the structures and surface above as well as below the road having a direct or indirect influence on the road falls under roadside maintenance. It includes protection walls, retaining walls, cut slopes, fill slopes, unstable natural slopes, river protection activities and bio-engineering works.
B) Road Maintenance
All the maintenance activities are related to roadway and all the structures within and immediately adjacent to the roadway such as ditches, culverts, causeways, bridges, etc.
Road maintenance is divided into the following subcategories:
A) ROUTINE MAINTENANCE: The maintenance activities that are done regularly or daily is called routine maintenance. The activities carried out under the routine maintenance are:-
- Grass and bushes cutting
- Grading and reshaping of unpaved shoulders
- Road sign maintenance
- Clearing and cleaning of ditches culverts etc.
B) RECURRENT MAINTENANCE: The maintenance activities that are done more and more or less regular intervals of six months to two years frequency is called recurrent maintenance. Maintenance’s under recurrent maintenances are
- Sealing off cracks in highway and roads
- Patching of potholes
- Repairing depressions, holes and ruts
- Repairing road edges
C) PERIODIC MAINTENANCE: The maintenance activities that are carried out at an interval of 5 to 7 years are periodic maintenance. The main activities under periodic maintenance are resealing and resurfacing.
D) EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE: It is divided into two subcategories:
i) Urgent emergency maintenance: It refers to the reopening of roads under any cost. The following activities fall under urgent emergency maintenance.
- Removal of debris.
- Obstacles removing
- Diversion works
ii) Reinstatement of roads: This activity is done generally when the rainy season is over by reconstruction or repair of pavement, structures, and the drainage as per the requirement of highway geometry.
Join our Facebook group: Engineering Knowledge
Sharing is caring. ??
