The podcast presents two speakers, namely Prasanti Widyasih Sarli, S.T., M.T., Ph.D., from the Structural Engineering Research Group and Prof. Bambang Sugeng S. DEA, an expert in the transportation field. On this occasion, the speakers discussed road paving and maintenance from the perspective of civil engineers.

The discussion began with a viral video on TikTok by a user named Bima, who talked about road damage in Lampung. Prof. Bambang explained that roads, especially paving, can be seen from two perspectives. First, from the perspective of the community who see roads as part of transportation.

Second, from the academic perspective, road pavement is considered as a structure that has a certain age, which determines the estimated time of road damage. When a road reaches the end of its planned lifespan, significant damage is expected, and theoretically, it would require reconstruction.

There are various factors that cause road damage, including traffic factors (excessive loads), environmental factors (high temperatures and heavy rainfall), and inadequate subgrade bearing capacity. In addition, the use of pavement materials that do not meet specifications and construction implementation that does not follow standards can contribute to the issue.

The central government has made efforts to monitor the condition of national roads by establishing the National Road Implementation Center which is spread across almost all provinces in Indonesia.

Illustration of damaged roads (Doc.Freepik)According to Prof. Bambang, disruption to road pavement can be divided into two, namely structural damage and functional damage. "If damage occurs, we must distinguish between functional and structural damage," said Prof. Bambang.

Structural damage refers to pavement failure that causes the pavement to be unable to bear traffic loads. Meanwhile, functional damage occurs when the comfort and safety of road users are disrupted and vehicle operating costs increase. The functional damage can occur on its own or in conjunction with structural damage.

Prasanti Widyasih Sarli added that in designing road pavements, there are must-be-considered things, similar to the process of designing other buildings. "First, we have to know the function of the road, the type of vehicle that passes, then from there we design the structural design, such as soil compaction, and then the asphalt layer on top," she explained.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kteWzcA_qE

Reporter: Artanti Mirta Kusuma (Environmental Infrastructure Engineering, 2021)Translator: Ayesha Lativa Mafaza (Postharvest Technology, 2021)Editor: Hanifa Juliana (Urban and Regional Planning, 2020)