Kuwait J. Sci. Eng. 39 (2B) pp.

79-95, 2012

Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait:

A case study of major arterial sections

MOHAMMAD A. AL-YAGOUT*, AHMAD H. ALJASSAR*,

FAHAD S. AL-RUKAIBI** AND JOE P. MAHONEY***
*
Civil Engineering Department, Kuwait University, Kuwait.
**Civil Engineering Department, Kuwait University, Kuwait,
E-mail: dr.ahmadaljassar@gmail.com, Corresponding author.
***
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA,
USA

ABSTRACT
This paper shows the results of a study comparing the structural designs of hot-mix
asphalt pavements in Kuwait. The pavement design suggested by the locally-developed
Kuwait Pavement Design Manual and that by the AASHTO 93 Flexible Pavement
Design Guide are compared against typical pavement thicknesses actually used in
Kuwait. Four sections of main arterial roads in Kuwait were studied. Their functional
classes as well as other functional classes of roads in Kuwait are brie¯y described. Trac
volumes on the considered roadway sections were obtained from a trac volume and
speed study. Trac loads were determined using FHWA's typical ESALs-per-vehicle
values, since no information on trac loads is readily available in Kuwait. Using these
values showed that the actual existing thickness of pavements of some major roads in
Kuwait are less than the required thickness suggested by the AASHTO 93 Guide with as
much as 42%. Moreover, truck weights are not monitored and weight limits are not
enforced in the country yet. This adds to the problem of trac loads carried by major
routes which are expected to be the major cause of the frequently occurring pavement
distresses and failures. The paper concludes with remarks that must be considered to
improve the practice of pavement design and control of trac loads in Kuwait.
Keywords: Pavement design; pavement maintenance; HMA; Kuwait.

INTRODUCTION
A country's development is frequently related to the status of its infrastructure,
which facilitates the movement of personnel and goods throughout its
transportation network (Queiroz et al., 1993; Norojono et al., 2010 and Fuller et
al., 2003). Thus, building an e€ective infrastructure system is one of the vital
cornerstones in the development of Kuwait as an economic center in the
Arabian Gulf region. However, achieving such an objective is often easier said
80 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

than done, due to many challenges, one of which is maintaining the

infrastructure in a satisfactory service level, while it is subjected to a
continuously increasing pressure of use. Trac in Kuwait has always been
increasing reaching the level of causing congestions (Koushki et al., 2000).
Kuwait's population has exceeded three million (CCD, 2011), with more than
1.5 million registered vehicles (GTD, 2011), which are served by about 6,000 km
of paved roadways (IOD, 2011). The annual budget assigned for maintaining
these roadways exceeds $50 million (GRES, 2003; MES, 2009). However, the
procedures used for designing and maintaining the network's pavements
resulted in a variety of prematurely appearing distresses noticed throughout the
network. Consequently, resulting in substantially short maintenance cycles
(around 3-5 years) coupled with some premature pavement failures.
This study is focused on determining whether the existing pavements in
Kuwait are structurally de®cient or not, by performing structural pavement
design evaluations at various locations in its roadway network. In order to
achieve this task, equivalent single axle load (ESAL) values were calculated
using trac count and classi®cation data performed at several roadway
locations throughout Kuwait.
Four sections of major arterials in Kuwait were considered in this study. For
each section, three pavement thickness values were determined and compared;
namely, the thickness required by the AASHTO 93 Flexible Pavement Design
Guide (AASHTO, 93), the thickness required by the Kuwait Pavement Design
Manual (MPW, 1987), and the typical thickness adopted by Kuwait's Ministry
of Public Works (MPW) for the functional class of the roadway (actual
thickness).
The AASHTO 93 Flexible Pavement Design Guide Procedure, which is
empirical in nature, determines the required pavement depth based on certain
input parameters which include the strength of the subgrade, the loading
conditions, the initial and terminal serviceability indices, and a reliability level
for the design. The local input values of these parameters were used along with
the AASHTO 93 design procedure to determine the required pavement
thickness.
It should be noted that the AASHTO 93 Design Procedure was developed for
trac, climate, and material conditions in the USA. As such, its direct
application to Kuwait conditions is only tentative.
BACKGROUND
Pavement design in Kuwait dates back to the early 80's, during which, research
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 81

was focused on determining asphalt pavement thicknesses suitable for dry and
extremely hot regions. The product was a pavement design manual developed
along with a suitable asphalt mix design (MPW, 1987). As given in Table 1, this
pavement design manual was then replaced by typical pavement sections for the
following functional roadway categories (Aljassar et al., 1998):
. Special Road Network (SRN)
. Primary Road Network (PRN)
. Secondary Roads (SR)
. Local Roads (LR)

Table 1. Typical ¯exible pavement section properties in Kuwait (Aljassar et al., 2005)
Layers thickness, mm
(pavement layers from surface to subgrade
are from left to right) Serviceability
Plant Mix Initial Terminal
Functional Seal (PMS) Type II Type III Type I Subgrade Serviceability Serviceability
Class (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) Index (Pi) Index (Pt)
SRN 20 80 - 100 300 5 3.75
PRN 20 60 - 100 300 5 3.5
SR - 60 - 100 300 5 3.25
LR - - 40 80 150 5 2.75
Notes:
* PMS, Type I, II, and III are locally developed mixes of which properties may be found in MPW, 2004.
* Typical sti€ness moduli of the di€erent hot mix asphalt (HMA) layers are as follows:
- Type I: 1700 MPa
- Type II: 1200 MPa
- Type III: 350 MPa
- Subgrade: 157 MPa (CBR=15)
The Serviceability Indices shown are according to AASHTO speci®cations
SRN includes motorways and expressways that are major through routes for
trac, with grade-separated junctions and full acceleration and deceleration
lanes. The speed limit on SRN roads is 120 km/hr. SRN roadways are mainly
ring roads or radial roads (with respect to the boundaries of Kuwait City) that
represent about 17% of the total road network's length. PRN includes through
trac routes that are usually of a lower design standard than SRN routes.
Roadways have more frequent at-grade junctions, with 80-km/hr speed limit.
PRN roadways constitute about 30% of the total road network. SRs include
roadways that are used to distribute local trac through a district within a local
community. Such roads usually have u-turn facilities, with 60-km/hr speed
82 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

limits. SRs usually run between blocks in a district to collect trac from local
roads and distribute it on SRN or PRN roadways. SRs comprise about 20% of
the total road network. LRs include roadways which provide access to
individual commercial or local residential units. They typically run within
district blocks and distribute trac to SRs. Speed limit on LRs is 45 km/hr. LRs
encompass about 33% of the total road network.
SRN and PRN constitute about 47% of the length of roadway network in
Kuwait. Moreover, they are mostly 6 to 10-lane roadways compared to SRs (4
to 6-lane roadways) and LRs (2 to 4-lane roadways). In addition, SRN and
PRN are the roadways carrying the highest trac loads and showing most
pavement surface distresses. Consequently, they consume most of the annual
$50 million maintenance budget.
One of the main problems facing pavement professionals in Kuwait is
determining the loads that the pavement sections should carry (e.g., ESALs and/
or load spectra). This is due to the lack of any trac data on Kuwait's roadway
network, other than knowing the number of registered cars, trucks, and buses.
This problem was partially tackled by measuring the trac ¯ow at 17 di€erent
locations throughout Kuwait's road network (Aljassar et al., 2005 and Aljassar
et al., 2007). The locations covered the 4 functional roadway classes; i.e., SRN,
PRN, SR, and LR (Table 2). Vehicle volumes and speeds on each lane of the
continuous trac monitoring sites (CTMSs) were monitored for about 18
months. Consequently, annual average daily trac (AADT), along with
monthly, weekly, and hourly trac volume expansion factors required for
future data forecasting were formulated. Volumes of trucks and buses were also
monitored for 7 out of the 17 CTMSs and were classi®ed according to the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) vehicle classi®cations (Table 3).
Table 2. CTMS properties (Aljassar et al., 2005)
Trac
Location Name of Functional distribution
No. roadway Location class AADT (N/S, E/W)
1 1st R.R. Under Riyadh St. SRN Ring 48,143 63/37
Bridge
2 2 R.R. Between Damascus St. PRN 40,301
nd 59/41
and Maghreb
Motorway
3 Quraish Local Street in Nuzha LR 2,311 52/48
Street Area
4 Cairo Between rdIstiqlal St. SR 39,775 29/71
Street and 3 R.R.
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 83

Cont. Table 2. CTMS properties (Aljassar et al., 2005)

Trac
Location Name of Functional distribution
No. roadway Location class AADT (N/S, E/W)
5 Tunis Betweenrd2nd R.R. and SR 42,844 43/57
Street 3 R.R.
6 Rawda Rawda Area, Opposite SR 28,657 56/44
Street to Police Station
7 Riyadh Betweenrd4th R.R. and SRN 122,062 55/45
Expressway 3 R.R. Radial
8 Ghazali Between 3rd R.R. and SRN 38,749 56/44
Expressway Jahra Motorway Radial
(Shuwaikh)
9 Jamal Abdul Opposite to Kuwait PRN 48,233 50/50
Nasser Street University, Shuwaikh
10 Maghreb Between 3rd and 4th SRN 123,385 54/46
Motorway R.R. Radial
11 4 R.R. Between Ghazali St. and
th PRN 117,557 58/42
(Al-Rai) Mohammed Bin
Qassem St.
12 4 R.R. Between Riyadh St. and
th PRN 131,635 58/42
(Qurtaba) Damascus St.
13 5 R.R Between King Fahad
th SRN Ring 130,002 58/42
and Damascus St.
14 Ghazali Between Farwaniya St. SRN 56,995 51/49
Expressway and 6th R.R. Radial
(Farwaniya)
15 6th R.R. Between Airport Road SRN Ring 135,667 57/43
(Dajeej) and Ghazali St.
16 6 R.R. Under Ministries
th SRN Ring 110,127 49/51
(South Complex Bridge
Surra)
17 Fahaheel At km 18 South of 6th SRN 123,719 47/53
Expressway R.R. Radial
R.R.: Ring Road
The other problem facing local pavement professionals is that truck load
enforcements and/or measurements are not employed in Kuwait. Consequently,
pavement professionals do not know the typical loads imposed by any vehicle class at
84 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

any given pavement section. As such, typical ESALs per vehicle estimates required for
any structural pavement design are based on regions or entities that have such
estimates (e.g. the FHWA estimates as given in Table 3). Furthermore, the lack of
truck load enforcements has encouraged overloading trucks. Almost all bridges and
roads su€er from deterioration caused by heavily-loaded trucks. Trucks could damage
roads and bridges at rapidly increasing rates even with slightly extra weights (Jeongho,
2007), and therefore result in more expenditure on pavement maintenance, both
corrective and preventive (Gibby et al., 1990 and Priya et al., 2010). As a result, the
actual ESALs per vehicle in Kuwait are expected to be much higher than the ESALs
per vehicle in countries with truck load enforcements. For example, a 10% increase in
axle loads, according to the ESAL generalized 4th power law, will raise the ESAL per
vehicle value by 50%. A 20% increase in axle loads will double the ESAL estimate;
whereas a 30% increase will almost triple the ESAL estimate.
Table 3. FHWA Vehicle Classi®cation (FHWA, 2001)
Class Type Typical ESALs per vehicle
1 Motorcycle Negligible
2 Passenger cars Negligible
3 Other two-axle Negligible
Four-tire single unit vehicle
4 Buses 0.57
5 Two-axle, six-tire, single unit trucks 0.26
6 Three-axle single unit trucks 0.42
7 Four or more axle single unit trucks 0.42
8 Four or less axle single trailer trucks 0.30
9 Five axle single trailer trucks 1.20
10 Six or more axle single trailer trucks 0.93
11 Five or less axle multi-trailer trucks 0.82
12 Six-axle multi-trailer trucks 1.06
13 Seven or more axle multi-trailer trucks 1.39
Another problem facing local pavement professionals is that pavement layer
sti€ness moduli (E), which the pavement structural design is based on, is assumed
for each of the asphaltic layers shown in Table 2. They are not actually measured.
The pavement layers in Kuwait are subjected to extremely high temperatures that
could reach 83 C at the pavement surface. Since E is inversely proportional to
o
temperature, it decreases signi®cantly during the long summer season resulting in
a reduced pavement structural capacity (Aljassar et al., 2003).
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 85

A further problem facing local pavement professionals is that a subbase layer

(designated as a subgrade in local speci®cations) is used in all Kuwait pavement
sections. This layer is 300 mm thick for SRN, PRN, and SR roadways, and 150 mm
thick for LR roadways. The assumed purpose for such a layer is to provide an
indication for the design integrity of unknown properties of the subgrade layers
underneath it. Such a critical design assumption, however, is technically and
economically questionable.
Kuwait Pavement Design Manual
Kuwait Pavement Design Manual (MPW, 1987) incorporated the Shell multilayer
elastic analysis program BISAR (Shell, 1978), together with lab and ®eld testing
to produce charts for pavement thickness requirements. The inputs to thickness
requirement charts are: (1) 80-kN ESALs, (2) load bearing capacity of subgrade
soil (measured in terms of California Bearing Ratio, CBR), and (3) hot mix
asphalt (HMA) sti€ness moduli of the mixes used for the di€erent pavement
layers, E. Thickness charts for various CBR levels are used to arrive at the
required thickness of each layer of the ¯exible pavement (Al-Kandari et al., 2006).
MPW has always used typical pavement thicknesses that are greater than
those suggested by the Kuwait pavement design manual. The manual seemed to
always suggest thinner pavements. Therefore, greater pavement thicknesses have
been used by MPW for the di€erent local roadway categories. These thicknesses
have then been adopted as typical designs in Kuwait.
OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY
The objective of this research is to check the structural adequacy of pavements
in Kuwait. This paper is considered as the ®rst step in this direction, evaluating
the structural design of four sections of main arterial roads in Kuwait. This
evaluation is performed through the following steps:
1 - Verifying that the collected distribution of vehicle classes in each CTMS is
re¯ective of the observed trac conditions at each roadway.
2 - Determining the annual trac volumes for vehicle classes 4 through 13
(Table 3).
3 - Determining the annual ESALs, using the FHWA's average ESAL per
truck values (Table 3).
4 - Computing the directional annual ESALs using the highest portion of
directional split percentage (Table 2).
5 - Computing the design lane ESALs using the upper end factors of Table 4.
86 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

6 - Calculating the total ESALs for a 25-year serviceability using 6% annual

trac growth rate.
7 - Calculating the required structural pavement thicknesses using total
ESALs in conjunction with:
a - Kuwait's pavement design manual.
b - The AASHTO 93 Flexible Pavement Design Guide with a typical range
of reliability levels (Table 5).
8 - Comparing the required thicknesses with typical pavement thicknesses
actually used in the road sections under study.
Table 4. Distribution of trac in the design lane (AASHTO, 1993)
Number of lanes in each Percent of load in the design
direction lane
1 100
2 80-100
3 60-80
4 50-75
Table 5. Suggested levels of reliability for various functional classi®cations
(AASHTO, 1993)
Recommended level of reliability
Functional classi®cation Urban Rural
Interstate and other Freeways 85 - 99.9 80 - 99.9
Principal arterials 80 - 99 75 - 95
Collectors 80 - 95 75 - 95
Local 50 - 80 50 - 80
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
The study started by verifying the accuracy of the collected trac volume data
at the following four study locations:
. Fahaheel Expressway (from the SRN category)
. 6th R.R. (from the SRN category)
. Ghazali Expressway (from the SRN category)
. 2nd R.R. (from the PRN category)
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 87

The collected data at the 4 CTMSs were found to be comparable to actual

trac conditions experienced at each location. The SRN and PRN trac data
of the roadway locations considered in this study appeared to be reasonably
accurate. The following describes the ®ndings of the two considered functional
classes of roadways (SRN and PRN).
SRN roadways
As shown in Table 2, ththe 3 SRN CTMSs were at Ghazali Expressway, Fahaheel
Expressway, and the 6 R.R. Fahaheel Expressway is one of the highest tracked
roadways in Kuwait. However, the CTMS was situated in a location with low
volumes of trucks and buses (Table 6). As such, the percentage of trucks and buses
is expected to be signi®cantly lower than the ones experienced at other spans of the
roadway. Nonetheless, the data collected at the CTMS may serve as a model for
high-trac roadwaysth in Kuwait (AADT 100,000) with vast majority of passenger
cars (99%). The 6 R.R. is another highly-tracked roadway (AADT 110,000).
Moreover, the volumes of trucks and buses resulted in a signi®cantly greater
percentage (2.3%) of trucks and buses than the Fahaheel Expressway (Table 6). The
third CTMS was positioned on Ghazali Expressway, which is located between
Shuwaikh Port (the major commercial port in Kuwait) and several industrial areas
(e.g. Shuwaikh and Al-Rai industrial areas). Consequently, its AADT volume is
relatively low (57,000). Additionally, the CTMS reported a relatively high
percentage of trucks and buses (3.9%) that is signi®cantly higher than other SRN or
PRN locations (Tables 6 and 8).
The required HMA layers, according to: (1) AASHTO 93, (2) Kuwait's pavement
design manual, and (3) Kuwait's typical pavement sections are reported in Table 7.
AASHTO 93 requirements were calculated using upper and lower values of
reliabilities (i.e. 99% and 90%) that represent the typical range of reliability levels
encountered for Interstate highways in the United States (WSDOT, 2003).
Table 6. SRN's design ESALs and truck and bus volumes and percentages
Fahaheel Ghazali
Expressway 6th R.R. Expressway
Annual volume of trucks & buses (x1000) 287 911 802
Total number of ESALs (x1000) 116 394 347
Total ESAL for each direction (x1000) 62 201 182
Design lane ESALs (x1000) 50 161 145
25-year design ESALs (x1000) 2,750 8,800 7,750
% trucks & buses 0.6 2.3 3.9
88 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

Table 7. SRN's required pavement layer thickness comparisons (AASHTO 93 vs.

Kuwait's typical sections and manual)
AASHTO AASHTO
HMA AASHTO AASHTO 93 93
thickness 93 93 (R=99%) (R=90%) Kuwait Typical
(mm) (R=99%) (R=90%) (3xESALs) (3xESALs) manual section
Fahaheel 220 180 250 220 110 200
Expressway
6th R.R. 270 220 310 250 110 200
Ghazali 250 220 310 250 110 200
Expressway
Note: Given the HMA layers used in the design along with a strong subgrade (CBR = 15),
AASHTO 93 does not require a non-stabilized base, and the subgrade depth is in®nite.
Kuwait's methods consider the 300 mm base to compensate for a subgrade with in®nite depth.
Table 8. 2nd R.R. (PRN) design ESALs and truck and bus
volumes and percentages
Annual volume of trucks & buses (x1000) 53
Total number of ESALs (x1000) 19
Total ESAL for each direction (x1000) 11
Design lane ESALs (x1000) 9
25-year design ESALs (x1000) 500
% trucks & buses 0.4
In addition, the design ESALs were tripled and were used along with AASHTO
93 and Kuwait's pavement design manual to determine the required HMA layer
thicknesses. This will partially account for one of the serious problems facing
local pavement professionals regarding the expected ESALs per vehicle class
increase, which will increase the estimated design ESALs, as discussed earlier.
Kuwait's pavement design manual resulted in signi®cantly thin layers in
comparison to Kuwait's typical sections and to AASHTO 93. In fact, the design
manual appears to be insensitive to changing ESALs below 10 million.
Consequently, all HMA layer thicknesses calculated by the manual were
identical (see Tables 7 and 9).
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 89

Table 9. 2nd R.R. (PRN) required pavement layer thickness comparisons

(AASHTO 93 vs. Kuwait's typical sections and manual)
AASHTO AASHTO
HMA AASHTO AASHTO 93 93
thickness 93 93 (R=90%) (R=85%) Kuwait Typical
(mm) (R=99%) (R=90%) (3*ESAL) (3*ESAL) manual section
2 R.R 130
nd 130 170 150 110 180
It has been the practice in Kuwait to place a 20 mm wearing layer of an open-
graded friction course, locally named plant mix seal (PMS), on all SRN
roadway pavements. This PMS wearing course is placed to facilitate surface
water drainage and reduce noise. This layer is considered to have minimal
structural strength. But the thickness of this layer (20 mm) is included in the
Kuwait Design Manual solution for the required pavement thickness (110 mm)
of the studied SRN sections. As a consequence, the required sum of structural
HMA layers, according to Kuwait's pavement design manual, is actually 90 mm
not 110 mm.
Comparing AASHTO 93 HMA requirements with Kuwait's typical pavement
sections reveals that using the 90% reliability with AASHTO 93 will result in the
same typical thickness used by Kuwait's MPW for Fahaheel Expressway (Table
7), keeping in mind that, the 20 mm PMS wearing course is not considered as a
structural layer. Furthermore, employing the 99% reliability indicated that
Kuwait's typical sections are structurally underdesigned by 40 mm. If the
probable increase in ESAL per vehicle (e.g. tripled ESALs) associated with
overweight trucks is taken into account, then Kuwait's typical sections are
underdesigned by 40 to 70 mm depending on the selected reliability (Table 7).
Even though this is a roadway with extremely low volume of trucks and buses, it
is still structurally de®cient.
The HMA layer thickness required by AASHTO 93 for the 6th R.R. using the
calculated ESALs indicated that Kuwait's typical sections are structurally
underdesigned by 40 to 90 mm, for reliability values of 90% and 99%,
respectively. Using the tripled ESAL values resulted in 70 to 130 mm structural
de®ciency in Kuwait's typical sections for the 6 R.R.
th
A similar approach was also used for Ghazali Expressway, which resulted in
40 to 70 mm of expected structural de®ciency using the calculated ESALs for
the upper and lower end reliability values. The tripled ESAL values resulted in
70 to 130 mm structural de®ciency.
The above analysis shows that SRN roadways appear to be signi®cantly
underdesigned. The typical pavement cross sections used for this type of roadways
90 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

are not adequate to carry the trac loads on these roads. The authors strongly
believe that the structural design of these roads should be reviewed and modi®ed.
PRN roadways
The 2nd R.R.ndwas used in this study to evaluate the structural design of PRN
roads. The 2 R.R. is known to have moderate trac volume that is mostly
composed of passenger cars and a small percentage of buses and small trucks.
The typical structural thickness used in Kuwait is 50 mm greater than the values
required by AASHTO 93 for the calculated ESALs using both the upper and
lower end reliability values (Table 9). The tripled ESAL values resulted in a 10-
mm and 30-mm extra section thickness for the respective lower and upper end
reliability values. Using the tripled ESAL values shows that the typical
pavement section used for this road was 10 mm and 30 mm thicker than the
section required by AASHTO 93 for the lower and upper reliability values,
respectively. Thus, this PRN roadway appears to be structurally adequate.
However, it cannot be judged whether the design for all PRN sections can be
based on this single station. For Example, the other PRN stations in Table 2
have either greater AADT and/or higher percentage ofth trucks and buses, which
will result in thicker required HMA layers. The 4 R.R., for instance, has
AADT values ranging from 120,000 to 130,000 spanning between the district of
Salmiya (a well-known busy commercial area) and Jahra City, passing by
several industrial areas (e.g. Shuwaikh and Al-Rai). Thus, it is expected that theth
volumes of trucks and buses will be similar to the ones calculated for the 6th
R.R. or Ghazali Expressway. Consequently, it appears that sections like the 4
R.R. may well be structurally de®cient. In fact, one trip on this roadway shows
that the pavement has structural problems in many of its sections. This can be
seen in terms of severe rutting as well as other pavement distresses. This is in
addition to the frequent maintenance activities on this vital PRN ring road in
Kuwait. However, the structural design for PRN roadways in Kuwait should be
judged according to the existing volume levels of trucks and buses.
CONCLUSIONS
Pavements in Kuwait are built mainly using HMA. The structural design of
such pavements has not changed since the early 80's, when the Kuwait
Pavement Design Manual was developed. Typical sections have been designated
for the di€erent roads based on their functional class, using typical values for
trac loads (ESALs) and presumed values for material properties.
Trac has been growing signi®cantly over the years, putting an increasing
pressure on the pavement structures of the nation's road network. Trac
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 91

volumes have been increasing in both numbers and weights (truck loads). Trac
volumes at some selected locations of the network are usually monitored by the
Trac Department for the purpose of regulating trac ¯ow. Truck weights,
however, are not monitored, and weight limits are not yet implemented in the
country. The increases in trac volumes and loads have not been responded to
by increasing the structural adequacy of the pavements. The typical pavement
sections are still being used in the network. Therefore, pavement failures are
frequently occurring especially on major arterials. This is usually responded to
by milling and overlaying a surface layer. Some pavements were totally
reconstructed.
This study used the available information of trac volume and vehicle
classi®cation from a local study that employed continuous trac monitoring
sites. The truck loads associated with the counted vehicles are not known.
However, FHWA typical ESALs per vehicle were used, although this is
expected to underestimate the trac loads.
The three structural designs compared for the roads considered in this study
are: (1) layer thicknesses required by the AASHTO 93 Design Guide, (2) layer
thicknesses required by the Kuwait Pavement Design Manual, and (3) typical
layer thicknesses actually used for roads in Kuwait.
All three SRN roadway sections were found to be structurally underdesigned
in at least one scenario. The PRN roadway considered in this study appeared to
be structurally adequate. However, this particular PRN roadway is not expected
to re¯ect the loading and thtrac conditions existing on other PRN roadways
(e.g. the highly tracked 4 R.R.), which have the same structural design but
much greater trac volumes and truck loads. The structures of such other roads
is therefore expected to be under-designed. This needs to be proved, but can be
noticed in-situ by the much higher occurrence of distresses on these roads, as
well as their more frequent maintenance activities. The Kuwait Pavement
Design Manual always gave pavement thicknesses that are much less than those
required by the AASHTO 93, for all roadways and in all scenarios considered.
The structural de®ciency on the considered SRN arterials was found to reach
as high as 130 mm, when considering the overloading scenario. This represents
about 42% of the missing required pavement thickness.
This study shows the necessity of the following important considerations,
which are now brought to the attention of the decision-makers in Kuwait's
Ministry of Public Works (which is responsible for designing, constructing, and
maintaining pavements in Kuwait):
1 - Kuwait Pavement Design Manual should be revised and modi®ed to provide
satisfactory structural pavement designs of local roadways in Kuwait.
92 Mohammad A. Al-Yagout, Ahmad H. Aljassar, Fahad S. Al-Rukaibi and Joe P. Mahoney

2 - Structural designs should be performed according to scienti®c design

procedures.
3 - Typical pavement sections should not be used for all roadways in a
functional class without consideration of their associated trac loads.
4 - Material properties (such as E of HMAs) should be evaluated for each
pavement project to produce a suitable structural design. Using presumed
values may lead to erroneous designs. In addition, the asphalt binder used
in local mixes should be selected such that it accounts for high
temperatures experienced by pavements during the long hot summer
season in Kuwait. The e€ect of the load-bearing capacity (e.g. CBR) of the
subgrade soil should also be addressed.
5 - Truck loading should be monitored, and truck weight limits must be
enforced, to reduce unnecessary damages to pavement structures which are
a€ecting the road users, requiring frequent maintenance activities, and
therefore consuming maintenance budgets.
6 - A similar more comprehensive study is required to provide a clearer picture
for the current pavement structural condition of the di€erent roadways in
Kuwait. It should consider more sections, di€erent roadway classi®cations,
and actual truck loads. This paper is only considered as a ®rst step in this
direction, but certainly draws the attention to the important issue of
reviewing the structural condition of pavements in Kuwait.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Engineer Mohammed
Eleiche and the contribution of the following Civil Engineering students from
the Pavement Materials class of Spring 2009: Fahad Al-Khalidi, Mohammed
Al-Enizi, and Jarrah Al-Enizi. The authors highly appreciate the information
provided by Colonel Engineer Saadoun Al-Khalidi of the General Trac
Department and Engineer Aseel Al-Awadhi of the Maintenance Engineering
Sector, Ministry of Public Works. The authors would also like to thank Ms.
Mini Kora and Mrs. Estella Rosario for their professional help in the
typesetting of this paper.
NOMENCLATURE
AASHTO: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Ocials
CBR: California Bearing Ratio
CTMS: Continuous Trac Monitoring Site
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 93

E: Sti€ness Modulus
ESAL: Equivalent Single Axle Load
FHWA: Federal Highway Administration
HMA: Hot Mix Asphalt
LR: Local Roads
MPW: Ministry of Public Works
PMS: Plant Mix Seal
PRN: Primary Road Network
R.R.: Ring Road
SR: Secondary Roads
SRN: Special Road Network
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Submitted : 6/4/2011
Revised : 2/10/2011
Accepted : 3/1/2012
 Evaluation of structural adequacy of pavements in Kuwait: A case study of major arterial sections 95

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