ABSTRACT
Road Most roads are constructed on soils or soft rocks. Cuttings are made through soils construction occurring in the road line. Embankments are constructed from soils taken from
cuttings or nearby excavations. The road pavement is placed on the local soil or on fil l materials brought in to the site. In mountainous regions, hard rock may occur in cuttings and rock fragments may be used as embankment fi l l . The pavement structure is constructed mainly from coarse-grained soils (sand and gravel). Hard rocks are usually quarried, crushed and graded to make aggregate for construction of heavy-duty road pavements. The stability of cuts and fills is dependent on the properties of the soils and rocks concerned. The structural design of the pavement is dependent on the bearing capacity of the subgrade and the strength of the paving materials. It is obvious that thorough knowledge of the properties of the rocks and the soils in and near the road line is the basis for appropriate road design.
