Did you know that the roads that we pass every day are built with a fairly long process? Like other general construction developments, road construction certainly requires careful planning. After the planning is made and approved by the authorities and funds are provided, then the road construction implementation technique can begin.
Road Construction Techniques
The following are the stages of road construction implementation starting from the beginning.
Cleaning Jobs
The land designated for road construction certainly has various conditions. Some are only overgrown with grass, but many are overgrown with shrubs and trees. It is for this that cleaning work must be done. The cleaning work includes cutting down trees, clearing shrubs and digging up the roots of plants so they don’t grow back.
The grass gimbal should not be thrown away. Gimbalan grass can be used to cover the shoulder of the road. If the grass can grow well, it will act as a protection against erosion, especially on sloping areas and road shoulders.
This cleaning work does not only apply to vegetation, but also to large boulders that interfere with road construction. The boulders are moved by being pushed, or broken so that they become small stones. Often the job of cleaning these stones takes a long time and takes a lot of effort.
After cleaning, sometimes a ground level removal step is required. This is especially so in flooded areas that have piles of silt and river valleys. This land surface disposal is necessary so that the ground surface has good bearing capacity for road construction.
Earthworks
After the cleaning stage has been completed, then earthwork is necessary. Earthwork consists of excavating drainage and filling in places that require fill or fill. This earthworks aims to form the road body. In order to obtain good quality stockpiling, care must be taken to ensure that all soil is compacted. It is recommended that the hoarding be carried out layer by layer with a thickness of 15 cm. Layer by layer must be compacted first before adding the next layer.
In this earthworks work, the distance of removing the land to be used for landfilling will affect the amount of labor required and also the length of time it will take to work. If the landfill is close to the distance, the landfill process will run faster. On the other hand, if the removal of landfill is far away, the time required for earthworks can be longer.
After that, then excavating the channels on the left and right of the road will be carried out. The excavated tract can be placed in the middle of the road and leveled so that the shoulders are formed. Then the ground on the road is leveled and compacted . It is better if the soil is watered with water so that the moisture content during compaction is really maintained.
When the compaction is complete, it is necessary to re-measure it to ensure that the road height is in accordance with the applicable standards. If it turns out that the road height has not been reached or is excessive, then adjustments need to be made in order to obtain a height that is in accordance with the standard.
Drainage Work
Drainage on the road plays an important role in maintaining road durability. Because water can damage roads by sweeping the road surface or what is called erosion and reducing the carrying capacity of the road body. That’s why it’s very important to build a good drainage system.
The drainage system on the highway must support so that water can flow out of the road surface, roadside drains that can accommodate water flow from the road surface, waterways on the outer side of the road that can accommodate water from entering the road, and in the form of culverts under the road that flows water across the road.
Apart from good waterways, erosion on the roads can also be prevented by erecting embankments to retain water. This water-retaining embankment functions to reduce water flow rates and retain muds. It is also necessary to construct a drain so that the road has certainty of construction outside the existing channels on the road.
Pavement of the Road Body
Pavement or known as graveling is done to make a strong layer of the road surface. A strong road surface must be able to withstand all weather, heat and rain and not change when receiving loads. In addition, the strong road surface will make it difficult for water to enter.
Pavement of the road body is done by layering natural rock. The thickness level is between 15cm to 20cm before the compaction stage. The material used in the graveling stage ideally contains three main materials, namely stone, sand and clay with a rock composition of 35% to 65%, sand 20% to 40%, and clay 10% to 25%.
Compaction Work
The compaction stage is one of the important steps to make the soil stronger. Compaction is carried out to reduce the volume of the soil layer and encourage soil particles to become denser. There are at least four basic methods of compaction, namely mechanical or manual impacting of the soil, roller machines, compaction using vibration, and natural compaction.
A fist or beater belongs to a cheap and easy to use stuffing tool. The downside is that the use of this tool makes compaction work last longer. This fist is made of a handle with concrete or cast iron at the end. The device is operated by lifting and dropping on the ground surface repeatedly until the soil layer is completely solid. This tool generally weighs between 6 Kg to 8 Kg.
Meanwhile, the rolling roller can reach a wider area of compaction than the hammer or beater. There is a roller roller that has a double drum and some with a single drum. This roller is capable of producing good quality compaction with a weight of up to 1 ton or even more.
Meanwhile, the vibrating roller has the advantage of being able to compress deeper than the rolling roller. In using this tool, it is necessary to pay attention to the stability of its speed in order to get good compaction results. The effect of vibration depends entirely on the type of material and the intensity of the vibration.
Apart from using these compaction tools, compaction can also be done naturally. Natural compaction is carried out by leaving the soil for a certain period of time. The land will naturally become solid due to rain and vehicles crossed. This kind of compaction is fairly cheap, but it takes a long time.
Conclusion
So, up to this point, the road construction stage has produced a strong sub-foundation layer according to the plan. But this stage is not the last stage. There is still the next stage, namely the road pavement stage. At this stage, the liquefied asphalt is spread out first by heating it. After the asphalt has been spread with the thickness according to the provisions, then the compaction stage is carried out again using compaction tools. After that, the roads are ready to be used as vehicle crossings. This is the technique of implementing road construction from start to finish.
