The Hindu 28.12.2011
Plastic creates hopes of better roads
Civic body’s new initiative from January
Bumpy rides and potholes may soon be things of the past
if the Chennai Corporation’s new initiative to re-lay roads with
plastics proves successful.
The civic body will commence re-laying of plastic roads on all bus routes and interior areas in the city, from January.
Typically,
one-km stretch of a single lane will consume a tonne of plastic waste.
The agency plans to have plastic waste collected from residents for use
in the bitumen mix to be used to re-lay roads. Plastic will amount to
about 10 per cent of the mix.
According to
Corporation officials, the decision to lay plastic roads in all zones
has been taken following studies that showed such roads last longer even
in wet conditions. The Corporation has taken into account the case of
Jambulingam Street in Nungambakkam, where such a road was laid seven
years ago. The road has survived several monsoons.
Those
who frequent the locality also vouch for the good quality of the road.
“Jambulingam Street is the best I have ever seen in the city so far.
When many other roads in the city got damaged, this plastic road has
remained in good condition for many years,” said N.Chidambaram, an
autorickshaw driver in the locality.
This also proves more viable for the civic body, as 10 per cent of the cost incurred on the bitumen mix would be saved.
Plastic
waste collected from residents would be sufficient, and is expected to
encourage them to segregate waste at source. All 200 ward offices would
have facilities for collection of plastic waste from the residents and
large shredders would be installed in locations across the city.
Many
stretches along 501.1-km of bus route roads in the expanded city were
damaged in the recent rains. Several of 17,643 interior roads were
similarly affected.
List of roads
The
list of such roads is being readied. After the next spell of northeast
monsoon rains expected very soon, the number of damaged roads is likely
to be finalised. Soon after, in January, work on plastic roads would
begin.
A total of 10 shredders would be procured by the civic body and the first one would be installed in two days.
The initiative is likely to improve the overall quality of roads.
President of Tamil Nadu Plastics Manufacturers Association S. Ganesh said use of plastic waste is ideal for re-laying roads.
Shredded
plastic waste strengthens the bonding of bitumen with blue metal.
A.Veerarghavan, professor at the transportation division of the Civil
Engineering Department at IIT-Madras, said the collection, cleaning and
shredding of plastic waste may be challenging for the civic body. “Use
of plastics for re-laying of roads will be cumbersome, but it may reduce
environmental pollution caused by plastic waste.”