Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Roads and Bridges
Pavement
Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples
/ˈpeɪvmənt/nounCommon term
In civil engineering & construction, pavement means: The layered structure of a road, runway or parking area that carries the traffic, usually asphalt or concrete laid over granular base layers.
In Turkish: yol üstyapısı, kaplama, üstyapı
How it is used
Engineers design flexible (asphalt) and rigid (concrete) pavements and talk about pavement layers, thickness and condition. In everyday British English, however, a pavement is the footpath beside a road.
Example sentences
The pavement design assumes 20 million standard axle loads over 20 years.
Heavy trucks have caused rutting in the asphalt pavement.
Common collocations
flexible pavement
rigid pavement
pavement design
pavement layers
pavement condition
Related terms
asphaltA black road-surfacing material made of stone aggregate bound with bitumen. It is laid hot and compacted with rollers.
subgradeThe natural or prepared soil at the bottom of a road, on which all the pavement layers are built. Its strength largely decides how thick the pavement must be.
drainageThe system of pipes, channels, gullies and ditches that collects rainwater or wastewater and carries it away from a road, building or site.
aggregateSand, gravel or crushed stone that is mixed with cement and water to make concrete. It makes up most of the volume of concrete and of road layers.
gradientThe steepness of a slope, given as a ratio or a percentage, such as 1 in 20 or 5%. Roads, ramps, drains and roofs all have specified gradients.
