Flexible pavement can be defined as the one consisting of a mixture of asphaltic
or bituminous material and aggregates placed on a bed of compacted granular
material of appropriate quality in layers over the sub grade.
Flexible pavement uses more flexible surface course and distributes loads over a
smaller area. It relies on a combination of layers for transmitting load to the
sub grade.
A typical flexible pavement consists of a bituminous surface course over base
course and sub-base course. The surface course may consist of one or more
bituminous or Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) layers. These pavements have negligible
flexure strength and hence undergo deformation under the action of loads.