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Road Development

Pune Municipal Corporation mulls concreting of 58 arterial tar roads

Thursday, 08 August 2013 12:09 administrator
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The Times of India             08.08.2013

Pune Municipal Corporation mulls concreting of 58 arterial tar roads

PUNE: Fergusson College and JungliMaharaj roads are among the 58 arterial roads in the city that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to concretize.

After completing concretization of the Airport, Sinhagad, Solapur roads and a stretch of the Pune-Mumbai highway, the civic body wants to convert 58 roads into cement concrete roads. "The PMC's road department is drafting the proposal. It will be forwarded to the municipal commissioner and other concerned departments for scrutiny and a final approval," said a senior PMC official with the road department.

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak confirmed the development. "The use of concrete for roads has multiple benefits. It can sustain for longer period and needs less maintenance. Besides, mechanical sweeping of roads can be done better on concrete roads,' said Pathak.

The roads have been selected on the basis of traffic density, type of vehicles that ply etc. "We are ready with the list. Now the task is to identify the roads that need urgent attention. The work is in progress on finer details like the total length of roads, requirement of funds etc," said the official.

As per preliminary estimates, the expenditure for concretization per sq meter of road is Rs 2,200. The official said that tarring of roads costs Rs 1,200 per sq meter. "But if we consider the cost involved for regular maintenance, then concrete roads prove much cheaper. Besides, the life of a tar road is about 3 years while a concrete road lasts about 20 years."

The official said, "The maintenance of tar roads is expensive because they need to be resurfaced once in three years. Making budgetary provisions for repeated resurfacing and re-construction is difficult as every year new projects are proposed. Cement concrete roads will reduce maintenance cost and funds could be used for other projects."

The PMC is mulling the use of 'overlay technique' where concretization could be done without the need for complete relaying.

The city's road network is about 2,200 km long, out of which 200 km has been concretized so far. The civic administration requires about Rs 400 crore every year for repairs and maintenance of roads. However, only 30% of this fund is made available.

Some key roads that will be concretized

FC Road

JM Road

Shivaji Road

Karve Road

Katraj Road

Wadgaonsheri Road

Dhankawdi Road

Bopodi Road

Shastri Road

Cement concrete road Vs tar road

Cost Factor

The per km cost of constructing tar road as well as cement concrete road is not fixed. It varies from state to state or within the state depending upon the type of soil, rainfall and temperature variations and also traffic and environmental conditions.

Cost of construction of cement concrete roads with conventional method is normally 30-50% more than the cost of tar road

Maintenance

The maintenance cost of cement concrete road is less

Tar roads have lower initial cost but require periodic maintenance

Cement concrete roads also require routine maintenance but its cost is less in comparison

Tar roads require regular routine maintenance and periodic maintenance normally at five-year interval. These are designed for 10-year design life as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards

Cement concrete roads require only routine maintenance and these are generally designed for 20 years, as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards.

Quality of 12 roads under scrutiny

The Engineers India Limited (EIL) has submitted its report on the quality/status of roads which come under defect liability period (i.e. the period of around three years after construction. During this period the roads are expected to remain in good state). The civic administration had asked the EIL to submit its report on these roads. The EIL has studied 118 roads so far which are in DLP and found potholes on 12 roads.

 

A quick fix for potholes

Thursday, 08 August 2013 11:46 administrator
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The New Indian Express              08.08.2013

A quick fix for potholes

Aiming to repeat the success achieved in Kochi, a demonstration was given here on Wednesday by the Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG), offering a ‘quick fix’ solution to the potholed roads. The members of the Kochi-based NGO filled the potholes on the Vellayambalam- Vazhuthacaud stretch using cold bitumen.

In a process that took not more than 15 minutes, the product mix, which came in ready-to-use packets, was filled in the cleaned holes and rammed. The traffic was restored immediately after the process.

“Filling up holes using cold mix or cold bitumen will last longer and can be done even during rain. At Kochi, it was raining during the time of our demonstration and it hardly affected our work. The technology is widely used in western countries. It is not alien to Indian cities like Chennai, Puducherry etc also. The major advantage is that it is not at all time-consuming and will be set instantly. Plus, it saves the operational cost for hot-mix plants, heavy machinery and road rollers. It lasts as long as the tar,” said S Gopakumar,  president of BKRG.

“We have tried the product earlier. But it was not much effective then. We will study about the technology and if it can contribute to making the roads pothole-free, we will surely use it. If so, we will appoint a single agency to complete the works before monsoon in the coming year,” said PWD Secretary T O Sooraj.

The organisation had given a demonstration a few days ago on the roads in Kochi. “In Kochi, the City Corporation has taken a decision to launch a mobile unit, that can reach various parts of the city and rectify the potholes as soon as they are formed. Various communication facilities like control rooms and FM channels can give assistance to this service,” Gopakumar added.

Shelmac PR, the product used for the process, costs Rs 875 for a 50-kg packet. For an average-sized pothole, less than two packets will be enough. A small team of workers can fill as many as sixty potholes within a days’ time.

 

Pothole menace: PMC to concretise 58 prime roads

Thursday, 08 August 2013 10:49 administrator
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The Indian Express              08.08.2013

Pothole menace: PMC to concretise 58 prime roads

Pune

As an exception, the two-km stretch of Pune-Mumbai highway at Khadki is pothole-free. Sandeep Daundkar

To get rid of the problem of potholes arising due to monsoon, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) — which drew severe criticism and has even been dragged to court — has chalked out a plan of concretisation of 58 main roads totalling 110 km in the next five years at an estimated cost of Rs 600 crore.

Shaken by the public uproar, the civic road department has prepared a report citing reasons behind the roads developing potholes and its plan to get things in place to ensure a smooth ride on city roads throughout the year. After the potholes surfaced and PMC drew criticism from citizens, Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak had said that concretisation was the only solution. Sources said the commissioner had asked officials to prepare the plan without wasting time.

According to the plan, the PMC would also undertake mastic asphalting at all major junctions. It further said that construction of any new road of the development plan is being done through concretisation after laying service lines.

The administration said potholes were surfacing because of the work undertaken for laying pipeline, drainage and other utility services. Around 70 per cent of potholes are at the place where the service lines were repaired and other places it was due to the absence of stormwater drainage. Many service roads are damaged due to the ongoing work of flyover, bridges and grade separator in various parts of city.

In its report, the road department said the PMC has only 200 km of the 2,200-km concrete roads, while rest are made of tar. The department requires at least Rs 350 crore per year to keep all roads in good condition. However, the budgetary provision is very less and the department could get provision of Rs 70 crore in three years, which is a big gap between the need and actual allocation.

It was also pointed out that 60 per cent of city roads do not have stormwater drainage system and the water collected on these roads causes the damage. There is also lack of coordination between various departments for laying service lines.

The load on city roads has also increased tremendously in the past few years and the unavailability of complete road area for development causes uneven surface on roads with work being completed in patches.

 
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