As a contribution to the implementation of a high-quality and cost-effective road maintenance management system, a catalog of pavement distress and defects was prepared for the low-volume bitumen-surfaced rural roads of madagascar. The catalog comprises the description, definition, and methods of measuring and rating the different types of distress and defects found in the rural road network as well as checklists of possible causes and guidelines for remedial works. It also comprises a discussion of associations of distress types and their interpretation as clues for proper diagnosis of the actual causes of distress. Not all types of individual distress inventoried inthe catalog and discussed in the literature are listed or described. The purpose is to illustrate associations of distress types currently found in low-volume road pavements of madagascar and other tropical countries and show how identification of certain combinations ofdistress types can be used for proper pavement maintenance and management. The following associations of distress types can provide clues to diagnosis of distress causes and remedies: raveling and cracking; wide ruts and alligator cracking; longitudinal cracks and settlements along the lower shoulders; crack-bounded settlements; and the association of longitudinal cracks, differential settlements, and undulations. Other associations of distress discussed are bird bath and alligator cracking, eroded-shoulder and longitudinal edge cracking, narrow rut and longitudinal heaving, block cracking of cement bound bases, crescent-shaped cracks and peeling, longitudinal cracks andsettlements, and local shearing, as well as corrugations and undulations. Cracked blisters are also discussed. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1291, Fifth international conference on low-volume roads, may 19-23, 1991, raleigh, north carolina, volume 1.
Abstract