CZASOPISMO INŻYNIERII LĄDOWEJ, ŚRODOWISKA I ARCHITEKTURY

JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENT AND ARCHITECTURE

JCEEA, t. XXXV, z. 65 (1/18), styczeń-marzec 2018, s. 89-98, DOI:10.7862/rb.2018.10

Wojciech RADWAŃSKI1
Tomasz PYTLOWANY2
Izabela SKRZPCZAK3

THE ANALYSIS OF ROAD BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

WITH A DATA NORMALIZATION METHOD
The paper presents a data normalization method for processing the data that makes
it possible to choose the road building technology. There are two technologies for
road construction, a flexible one and a rigid one, and both of them have their
advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage of rigid pavement lays on the
fact that it doesn’t require higher financial expenditures within 30 years of
exploitation (provided that necessary pavement maintenance treatments are carried
out). In the case of flexible pavement it is necessary to mill the wear off layer of
the road already after 9 years. It leads to the question: which of these technologies
should be chosen, which one is better? The problem of the choice of technology
for road building still remains to be unresolved.
The work hereby carries on the analysis concerning a comparison of the
technologies for road building; the flexible pavement and the rigid pavement.
Based on the analysis carried out using the data normalization method it was found
that the achieved values of synthetic coefficient for flexible and rigid pavements
are close to each other which may indicate that both technologies are comparable
within the sectors taken for analyses in relation to accepted technological-technical
and usability features.

Keywords: road, pavement, choice, data normalization method

1. Road - categories and classes

In Poland the road category is connected with its function in a road network.
The Bill of Public Roads [2] distinguishes the following road categories: state
roads, provincial roads, district roads and community roads. A road included in
one of these categories, in the understanding of Bill [2] of Public Roads, must
meet the technical and usability requirements determined for the following
classes:
1
Corresponding author: Wojciech Radwański, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Krośnie,
Instytut Politechniczny, Zakład Budownictwa, ul. Rynek 1, 38-400 Krosno, r74@o2.pl
2
Tomasz Pytlowany, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Krośnie, Instytut Politechniczny,
Zakład Budownictwa, ul. Rynek 1, 38-400 Krosno, tompyt@pwsz.krosno.pl
3
Izabela Skrzypczak, Politechnika Rzeszowska, Wydział Budownictwa, Inżynierii Środowiska
i Architektury, ul. Poznańska 2, 35-959 Rzeszów, izas@prz.edu.pl.pl
90 W. Radwański, T. Pytlowany, I. Skrzypczak

 State road – A (motorway), S (express road) or GP (main road for accelerated

traffic),
 Provincial road – GP (main road for accelerated traffic) or G (main),
 District road – GP (main road for accelerated traffic), G 9 main) or Z (collect),
 Community road – GP (main for accelerated traffic), G (main), Z (toll), l (local)
or D (access roads).
The road class determines technical and usability requirements. The decree
of the Minister of Infrastructure of March 2, 1999 concerning technical conditions
to be met by public roads and their location ( Dz, U. No 43, pos. 430, with later
amendments)[3] introduces the division of roads into the following classes:
motorways, express roads, main roads for accelerated traffic, main roads, toll
roads, local roads and access roads.
Assignments concerning road building, re-building, repair, maintenance,
protection and administration and financed by:
 Minister responsible for road transport via General Director for National
Roads and Motorways in relation to state roads,
 Provincial self-government administrator in relation to province roads,
 District administrator in relation to district roads,
 Community administrator in relation to community roads.
Within the borders of bigger towns, assignments connected with financing
road building, re-building, repair, maintenance, protection and the administration
of public roads are paid out of the budgets of these towns. The financing of
building, re-building, repair, administration and the protection of private roads is
done from the money of their administrators [3,4].
The General Director for National Roads and Motorways plans to build about
860 km of roads with rigid pavement until the year 2020. In 7 years the share of
rigid pavement in fast road networks will increase from 18% to almost 27% [4].

2. Road building technologies

In the road infrastructure market two road building technologies exist:
a flexible one and a rigid one and each of them has its advantages and
disadvantages [4–34]. Flexible pavements are the most commonly used.
For flexible pavements it is very important to properly characterize the behaviour
of subgrade soils and unbound aggregate layers as the foundations of the layered
pavement structure [4]. Flexible pavements will transmit wheel load stresses to
the lower layers through grain-to-grain transfer through the points of contact in
the granular structure. The wheel load acting on the pavement will be distributed
to a wider area and the stress decreases with the depth. Taking advantage of this
stress distribution characteristic of flexible pavements normally has many layers.
Hence, the design of flexible pavement uses the concept of a layered system [3].
Flexible pavements generally suffer from rutting which results from heavy traffic
The Analysis of Road Building Technology with a Data Normalization Method 91

and severe environmental condition [5]. Flexible pavements are those having
negligible flexural strength and are flexible in structural actions under loads [14].
The major flexible pavement failures are fatigue cracking, rutting, and thermal
cracking. The fatigue cracking of flexible pavement is due to the horizontal tensile
strain at the bottom of the asphaltic concrete. The failure criterion relates the
allowable number of load repetitions to tensile strain and this relation can be
determined in a laboratory fatigue test on asphaltic concrete specimens. Rutting
occurs only on flexible pavements as indicated by a permanent deformation or rut
depth along the wheel load path. Rutting in flexible pavements is a major
distress mode and relatively difficult to simulate in computational analyses,
mainly for the following reasons:
 The constitutive relations of the materials are nonlinear and complex. Most
pavement materials are very difficult to characterize under repeated and
moving loads.
 The asphalt concrete material is viscoelastic and viscoplastic, i.e., strong
loading time and temperature dependent. The other unbound materials base,
sub base, and subgrade are only slightly time dependent.
 The temperature and moisture of the materials vary with every load repetition.
Rigid pavements have sufficient flexural strength to transmit the wheel load
stresses to a wider area below. Compared to flexible pavement rigid pavements
are placed either directly on the prepared subgrade or on a single layer of granular
or stabilized material. Since there is only one layer of material between the
concrete and the subgrade this layer can be called base or sub-base course [3].
In rigid pavement the load is distributed by the slab action and the pavement
behaves like an elastic plate resting on a viscous medium. Rigid pavements are
constructed with Portland cement concrete (PCC) and should be analysed using
the plate theory instead of layer theory, assuming an elastic plate resting on
a viscous foundation. The plate theory is a simplified version of the layer theory
that assumes the concrete slab as a medium thick plate which is plane before
loading and is to remain plane after loading. The bending of the slab due to
wheel load and temperature variation results in tensile and flexural stress.
The stress condition of rigid pavement was analysed using finite element analysis [12].
The cement concrete pavement slab can serve well as a wearing surface and as
an effective base course. Therefore, usually the rigid pavement structure consists
of a cement concrete slab below which a granular base or sub base course may
be provided [14]. Concrete pavements, often called rigid pavements, are made
up of Portland cement concrete and may or may not have a base course between
the pavement and subgrade. As a general rule, the concrete, exclusive of the
base, is referred to as the pavement. The concrete pavement, because of its
rigidity and high modulus of elasticity, tends to distribute the applied load over
a relatively wide area of soil; thus, the major portion of the structural capacity is
supplied by the slab itself [18].
92 W. Radwański, T. Pytlowany, I. Skrzypczak

The advantage of a rigid pavement lies in the fact that within 30 years of
exploitation it will not require large financial expenditures (providing that
necessary surface maintenance is carried out). In flexible pavement, milling of
the wear off layer is already necessary after 9 years [5–15]. This leads to the
question: which technology to choose, which one is better?

Fig. 1. Road building technologies: a flexible pavement and a rigid pavement according with [35]

3. The analysis concerning with road building technologies

The comparative analysis of two road building technologies: a flexible one
and a rigid one are presented. It is assumed that all variables: technological-
technical – usable ones, statistically are of the same importance and can positively
or negatively influence the choice of road pavement technology. For the
calculations, the normalization method and synthetic coefficient of development
was used [36–38]. In accordance with Table 1 and Table 2, the divisions and
features important for the choice of road building technology were determined
for features in divisions were calculated as well as meters for individual
divisions and synthetic meters for both technologies. Five groups – thematic
divisions were determined (Table 1).

Table 1. Thematic divisions for road building technologies

No. Feature
1 Building costs per 1 m²
2 Maintenance cost per 1 m²
3 Usability features
4 Environmental protection
5 Investment process

For the purpose of analysing the values of weights for individual divisions, as
well as the weights for individual features in divisions were defined subjectively.
The sum of weights is always 1.0.
The Analysis of Road Building Technology with a Data Normalization Method 93

Table 2. Defined features for individual divisions [1,4–34]

Flexible Rigid
No. Feature Unit Weight
pavement pavement
Building costs per 1 m²
1 KR1 PLN/m2 169.17 177.39 0.167
2 KR2 PLN/m2 204.54 189.79 0.167
3 KR3 PLN/m2 249.14 266.84 0.167
4 KR4 PLN/m2 288.92 278.69 0.167
5 KR5 PLN/m2 319.27 302.39 0.167
6 KR6 PLN/m2 346.62 316.96 0.167
Maintenance costs per 1 m²
1 KR1 PLN/m2 533.28 370.00 0.167
2 KR2 PLN/m2 653.10 396.91 0.167
3 KR3 PLN/m2 707.70 481.41 0.167
4 KR4 PLN/m2 764.12 516.31 0.167
5 KR5 PLN/m2 810.88 570.55 0.167
6 KR6 PLN/m2 854.54 605.46 0.167
Usable features
1 Longitudinal evenness 1 0.6 0.2
2 Furrowing 0.1 1 0.2
3 Anti-slip properties
3.1 Motorways Conclusive factor of
0.39 0.51 0.10
friction
3.2 State roads Conclusive factor of
0.44 0.47 0.10
friction
4 Noise [21] Average ( 4.1 to 4.6) 10.20 10.23 0.06
Motorways
4.1 50 km/h Index CPX 92.8 90.1
4.2 80 km/h Index CPX 100.1 97.4
4.3 110 km/h Index CPX 104.6 102.4
State roads
4.4 50 km/h Index CPX 90.4 92.1
4.5 80 km/h Index CPX 97.8 100
4.6 110 km/h Index CPX 102.5 104.6
5 Colour of pavement
5.1 Visibility 0.7 1 0.025
6 Surface heating Degrees C 46.97 36.08
Calculation value as 1//Degrees*100 2,13 2,77 0.025
6 Resistance to permanent deformation
0.7 1 0.19
7 Breaking distance at 100 km/h Average [m] (7.1 to 7.2) 1.20 1.38 0.10
7.1 Wet surface m 109 96
7.2 Dry surface m 58 49
Environmental protection
1 Emission of CO2 Average (1.1 to 1.4) 11.3 2.56 0.34
1.1. Emission of CO2 From asphalt and
concrete production (kg of CO2/ton) kg CO2/t 27.4 694
[17]
1.2 Emission of CO2 from production of
1 t of mineral-asphalt mixture and 1 t kg CO2/t 10.3 107.3
of concrete (kg of CO2/t) [18]
94 W. Radwański, T. Pytlowany, I. Skrzypczak

Table 2 (cont). Defined features for individual divisions [1,4–34]

Flexible Rigid
No. Feature Unit Weight
pavement pavement
1.3 Emission of CO2 from building 1 km
of asphalt and concrete motorway (kg kg CO2/km 347 1497
of CO2 / km)[20]
1.4 Emission of CO2 from maintenance
of 1 km of asphalt and concrete kg CO2/km 500 1610
motorway (kg of CO2 /km) [20]
2 Index of influence of building1 km of
Aaverage (2.1 to 2.4) 5.81 3.61 0.33
motorway on the environment
2.1 Greenhouse effect potential ( GWP) [19] [ kg of CO2 equivalent] 1712501.5 2765765
2.2 Stratospheric ozone layer
[kg of CFC-11 equivalent] 0.395 0.13
deterioration potential (ODP) [19]
2.3 Photo oxidant synthesis potential
[kg of C2H4 equivalent] 422 384.5
(POCP) [19]
2.4 Acidification – potential (AP) [19] [kg of SO2 equivalent ] 8353.5 6426
2.4 Eutrophication – potential (EP) [19] [kg PO3-4] 1248 1092
3 Index of influence on the repair and
exploitation of 1km of motorway on 5.81 3.61 0.33
the environment
3.1 Greenhouse effect potential ( GWP) [19] [kg of CO2 equivalent] 996135 62245.5
3.2 Stratospheric ozone layer
[kg of CFC-11 equivalent] 0.225 0.01
deterioration potential (ODP) [19]
3.3 Photo oxidant synthesis potential
[kg of C2H4 equivalent] 294 46
(POCP)
3.4 Acidification – potential (AP) [19] [kg of SO2 equivalent] 5638.5 267.5
3.5 Eutrophication – potential (EP) [19] [kg PO3-4] 743.5 36.5
Investment process
1 Stage of design
1.1 Knowledge of the design engineers 1 0.8 0.15
1.2 Experience of the design engineers 1 0.1 0.15
2 Stage of building
2.1 Number of offers – big contracts number of offers 28 26 0.35
2.2 Number of offers – local market
5 2 0.35
small contracts number of offers

Calculations were performed based on the following algorithm [36–38]:

 Based on the matrix of standardized in-coming data for all analyzed features,
in each division a model object was appointed having coordinates
(standardized changeable values) in accordance with (1):
O0  zoj  (1)
, j=1,2,...,m.
 Coordinates of the model object for each feature in each division was
determined based on the following formulation (2):
max zij dla z Sj
z oj   i (2)
 min z ij dla z Dj
i , j=1,2,...,m.
The Analysis of Road Building Technology with a Data Normalization Method 95

 For each division its distance to model object was calculated based on
Euclidean metric as follows (3):
1
m 2
d i 0   z ij  z 0 j  
2
(3)
 j 1  , i=1,2,...,m.
 Standardized features for individual divisions were calculated according to
formulations (4) to (7):
di 0
si  1  (4)
d 0 , i=1,2,...,m.
where:
d 0  d 02 R d 0  (5)

1 n
d0   di 0
n i 1
(6)

R d 0   d max  d min (7)

The standardization of features (Table 3) was the introductory phase which

enables obtaining total multi-criteria assessment of each considered division.

Table 3. Standardized features

Flexible Rigid
No. Feature Weight
pavement pavement
1 Building costs per 1 m² 0.43 0.71 0.24
2 Maintenance costs per 1 m² 0.60 1.00 0.24
3 Usable features 0.16 0.27 0.24
4 Environmental protection 0.60 1.00 0.18
5 Investment process 1.00 0.60 0.10

 Synthetic coefficient for both technologies were obtained by the aggregation

of measures within each division for the analyzed technology. The value of the
synthetic coefficient is a value of the weight average of individual synthetic
measures calculated for all analyzed divisions ( formulation 8, Table 4):
5
M k   (S j wk ) (i = 1,…,34 and i = 1,…, ) (8)
k 1

Synthetic coefficient takes a value from the interval [0;1]. The nearer
a given object is to the model, the higher these values are.
96 W. Radwański, T. Pytlowany, I. Skrzypczak

Table 4. Synthetic coefficients for individual types of pavement

No. Pavement Synthetic coefficient

1 Flexible pavement 0.96
2 Rigid pavement 0.98

Based on the analyses made with the use of the data normalization method,
it can be said that the obtained values of synthetic coefficients for flexible and
rigid pavements are quite close which indicates that the technologies within the
divisions taken for analyses in relation to the features technological- technical-
usable ones are comparable.

4. Conclusions
When choosing a road building technology the choice cannot be limited
only to building costs but it is necessary to consider the costs of maintenance
and exploitation some 30–40 years later as well. When choosing the road
building technology the main purpose is to build the roads of such quality that
their long time exploitation and usage would be fulfilled. Based on the analyses
made with the use of the normalization method it is possible to state that both
technologies the asphalt one and the concrete one can be competitive since it
leads to their progress and development. Considering the growth of traffic on the
roads concrete can be perceived as a technical and economic alternative to
asphalt structures which is confirmed by presented analyses.

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Przesłano do redakcji: 17.02.2018 r.

Przyjęto do druku: 31.03.2018 r.