Affordable technology solutions for Indian city roads and rural roads

Dr.V.V. Deshmukh,* consultant to ACC Concrete

Indian roads:

India with growing industrialisation needs good quality of roads. All over the world two types of roads are built asphaltic and concrete. Asphaltic roads are popular all over the world because of the economic consideration and fast laying procedure. Even in our country also asphaltic roads are very much popular but asphaltic roads in our country do not last .besides there is no maintenance of the roads due to lack of funds ,which is a common feature in India.

Crores of rupees are required for resurfacing of the roads. In Mumbai city alone crores of rupees are wasted on fuel loss and time loss due to bad roads. It takes four to six hours to reach Santa Cruz air port from Thane, a distance of thirty kilometres

Evolution of the Indian road network.

Almost 80%of passenger traffic and about 65% of freight movement is handled by the vast Indian road networks. In general, roads in India are primarily bitumen based macadamised roads However a few of the national highways have concrete roads. In some location such as in Kanpur, the British built concrete roads are still in use. The concrete roads are less popular prior to 1990s because of low availability of cement then. However over the years with large supply of cement in the country and the virtues of concrete roads ,they are once again gaining popularity. Concrete roads are weather proof and required lower maintenance than compared to bituminous roads .Because bitumen is obtained from imported crude oil and due to other factors concrete based roads proved to be most cost effective in the long run in future.

In our country many international level technologies are experimented for filling of potholes .None of the technologies are hundred percent successful in Indian situation, besides those technologies are very costly. In the year 2011
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) has short listed few technologies Indian and from abroad and took field trials. But BMC has yet not decided which technology is to be implemented.for making of new roads and its maintenance

There is a situation where funds are limited and the existing bituminous roads do not last. There is also pressure of fellow citizens on the need for good roads due to increasing population, and increasing vehicular traffic

The Associated Cement Companies approached Bombay Municipal Corporation to use grouted macadam named as ACC Marg to be used as wearing course Dr.Naik then city engineer of BMC used ACCMarg as wearing course on old bituminous road on 10^th June 2000 in front of L&T gate Powai. The performance was excellent and based on the performance first time he has included ACCMarg as wearing course in Tender.

The list of areas where the ACCMarg is used as wearing course is given below.

Ultra thin white topping &

Grouted macadam technologies

Urban and suburban roads

Instant Pothole filling material

City roads

Rural roads

Airport runways, port roads

Intersection of roads / junctions

Bridge decks, internal society roads and streets

The Associated Cement Companies, a leading cement and concrete producing company extensively studied technologies namely grouted macadam and ultra thin white topping which is a solution to the above mentioned problems of roads and their technologies. Dr. Vilas Deshmukh, started working in the year 1998 and has used the multidisciplinary approach to study the above mentioned technologies The technologies grouted macadam and ultra thin white topping were developed strictly keeping in mind the total cost of the implementation and were ready to use which was a solution in an integrated approach catering to a varied requirements of road making and its maintenance .

The high light of the ACCMarg in BMC was the ACCMarg laid at sion circle. We knew it was impossible to stop the traffic we completed the work in seven days.

The success of ACCMarg in BMC led to use it in MMRDA,NMRDA,CIDCO Mr Jambhekar of CIDCO used ACCMarg to overlay damaged Ulwa bridge.near Uran The existing bridge deck was having damaged concrete. He was looking for suitable technology .The concrete overlay was removed and 75mm ACCMarg was laid. The work was done during the traffic was flowing.

Mr.Momin Executive in-charge of Bombay Pune express highway has used ACCMarg at bridge decks. Because of vibrations at the deck concrete over lay was cracking and because of black flexible topping it was not technically advisable to use two colours .black and white. Mr Momin was looking for flexible topping with concrete color. We use ACCMarg to match the colour.of concrete.

Mr Sanghavi of CIDCO for his Kharghar project wanted coloured concrete to easily identify the bus stop .ACCMarg of yellow colour was used .

Malad subway place in Bombay Suburb we all know only way to go to west from east.It was impossible to stop the traffic .We laid ACCMarg during night when traffic was less.

Mr. B.M.Desai city engineer surat municipal corporation used ACCMarg and still using it.

When we first went to Surat the hot mix contractors refused to give hot BM .In order to start the job we used first time the kiln for cold mix. The Hincol which is emulsion was used and coated the aggregate with Hincol using rotary kiln.

Meanwhile another visionary Mr.K.D.Lala city engineer of thane municipal corporation used UTWT in Thane city. Highlights of this technology are listed below.

· The thickness of overlay is 100-150mm instead of 300mm for conventional concrete. It is possible because of this mix design which has flexural strength of 6-7 Mpa. This strength is achieved in seven days instead of 4.5 Mpa at twenty eight days.

· The surface preparation for overlay uses milling of 50mm of existing bituminous road

· High early strength.

· Laying and setting process for roads takes less than 72 hours. This process helps to open the road to public within three days vs concrete roads which takes 28 days.

· The technology is environmentally friendly and requires less labour. It is cheaper than conventional concrete.

· SCC Mix is cohesive does not require vibrations and avoids honeycombing in the structures

· The laying process does not require any specialised equipment and therefore can be used at any remote place in India

He has received good response from the people and politician of Thane city. The UTWT was first laid at Ghantali road in Thane city overlay of 100mm thick and M40 grade concrete in the year 2007.The road after five years is with no cracks and no potholes.

In the industrial area wagle estate of thane where heavy vhehical pass UTWT of M60 grade was used.

The most significant development of this material with little modification is the instant pothole filling material. Thane municipal corporation has used this material to fill the potholes during the last monsoon season. This development is significant to entire country because during monsoon potholes are created through out the country.

Mr.P.Bongirwar used it for rural roads in Murbad of Thane district under the scheme of Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY) We have designed the mix which cost almost the similar cost of bituminous macadam. This development can change the rural economy. The concern persons should take the note of this development.

I am thankful to persons the names are mentioned in my article who has shown courage to use these technologies

I appeal to concern persons to go through the technologies and implement at your work domain. It is not only me but persons who has used these technologies will also have the same opinion.

.Brief review of the technology is given below