The Times of India Online Magazine, New Delhi, India, recently reported that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT Kgp) in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, have entered into an agreement for research on laboratory and field investigations on paneled cement concrete pavements for highways.
“NHAI in collaboration with IIT-Kharagpur shall promote to develop a technology to construct paneled cement concrete—pre-fabricated in a small panel size—which can replace the design of construction of existing cement concrete road,” NHAI said in a statement.
The duration of the research project is 3 years. The highways in the country are generally paved with bituminous (asphalt) material produced from refineries. However, NHAI said it has been experienced that these highways are prone to damage and need frequent maintenance due to adverse climatic conditions such as rain and hot weather in the country. “To overcome this problem, the Government of India has recently announced a policy for the construction of concrete pavements for all major highways due to their longevity and maintenance-free life,” it said.
As per the current practices, the construction of these highways requires a monolithic (in-situ) layer of cement concrete normally 300 mm thick laid continuously over the prepared surface. Therefore, an innovation is required to optimize the design of concrete pavement in its traditional form which can facilitate the faster construction at much cheaper cost, thus consuming less natural resources and promote the philosophy of “Green Highways” in India.
“The paneled concrete pavement laid on a lean concrete base can fulfill the government’s dream of providing a long-lasting maintenance-free pavement at a cost at par with those of asphalt pavements,” it said.
Such pavements already laid at a few places in India have proven to perform well when used as an overlay over a bituminous layer—also known as whitetopping (WT). An extensive study is needed to formulate the design practices for its use in wider perspective, it added.