Greater Kashmir News reported that Kashmir engineering students have come up with a solution for road cracks. A survey titled ‘Use of discrete fibers in concrete road pavements’ carried by 5 students of SSM College of Engineering, Parihaspora, Kashmir, revealed that there are several solutions available to overcome problems regarding roads developing cracks in Kashmir. Among them is an addition of different dosages of polyester and polypropylene fibers to construct fiber-reinforced concrete pavements. It obtained a trend, detected the optimum dosage, and required increasing the strength of concrete to its maximum fibers. “It is a huge leap in the right direction of sustainable development and a way to break free from the shackles of obsolete methods used in the construction of roads,” the survey report said.
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India:
The survey by engineering students Syed Uzair Mustaqeem, Bareen Shafi, Fibah Jan, Zuha Ashraf, and Qazi Zarnub under the supervision of Insha Shahzad and Shafaqat Bhat, Department of Civil Engineering-SSM College of Engineering, Parihaspora noticed that J&K ERA, under the World Bank-funded J&TFRP, had introduced the construction of ‘rigid concrete pavement’ in Kashmir.
The report stated that the roads in Kashmir—recently-laid asphalt roads—are found to need repairs and continue to remain vulnerable, although in this era of technological revolution, local requirements require all obsolete technology to be replaced with newer and better ones. The report also stated that drivers in Kashmir were familiar with the condition of the roads and the resulting journeys through potholes and bumps taking their toll. “Not only do these roads affect our health badly, they affect our transportation vehicles—cars and buses—detrimental to the health of the cars, adding to the expenses of the commoners.”
“The concrete roads are not prone to potholes and have an amazing lifespan of about 20 years. The only other major issue that concrete roads have is the formation of cracks that drastically reduce the shelf life of these roads. The stretch of concrete roads constructed in Kashmir so far have been susceptible to cracking and crack formation, and authorities could have taken certain measures beforehand,” the report said.
“The test results depicted an increase in strength of concrete but the best thing that we analyzed was the trend of limited crack formation. The crack formation was reduced drastically. Even when the cracks were formed, fibers acted as a stitching material that helped keep the concrete bound and to limit the crack widening,” said the Syed Uzair Mustaqeem (1 of 5 engineering students).
For the full article titled “Road Cracks: Kashmir’s Engineering Students Come Up with Solution”, please go to: www.greaterkashmir.com/todays-paper/kashmir-todays-paper/road-cracks-kashmirs-engineering-students-come-up-with-solution