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Scope of Rigid Pavement

The Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to use rigid pavement as the default construction method for national highways. This decision aims to promote more environmentally friendly practices by considering factors like longer service life, lower fuel consumption and maintenance costs compared to flexible pavement. While initially more expensive than flexible pavement, rigid pavement made of cement concrete proves more economical over the long term when factoring in lifetime maintenance and repair costs. The ministry is taking steps to ensure adequate cement supply for rigid pavement projects.

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MudduKrishna shetty
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496 views1 page

Scope of Rigid Pavement

The Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to use rigid pavement as the default construction method for national highways. This decision aims to promote more environmentally friendly practices by considering factors like longer service life, lower fuel consumption and maintenance costs compared to flexible pavement. While initially more expensive than flexible pavement, rigid pavement made of cement concrete proves more economical over the long term when factoring in lifetime maintenance and repair costs. The ministry is taking steps to ensure adequate cement supply for rigid pavement projects.

Uploaded by

MudduKrishna shetty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is the scope of rigid pavement for highways in India?

INDIA ‘s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to move


towards making rigid pavement the default mode of construction on
national highways. The decision, taken after considering factors related to
service life, fuel consumption, weather conditions, maintenance costs and
natural resources, primarily aims to promote environment friendly
construction practices in execution of road projects.
The pavement is crucial part of any road project and needs to withstand
traffic load without deteriorating or deforming to the extent that it
becomes unusable during the design life period.
There are two basic types of pavements – flexible and rigid.
A flexible pavement consists of various layers of granular materials and is
provided with a layer of bituminous materials on top. A rigid pavement,
on the other hand, consists of cement concrete pavement laid on a well
prepared granular sub-base.
Till now, flexible pavement has been preferred over rigid pavement due to
the low initial costs. However, with increasing availability of cement in the
country coupled with the rising prices of bitumen, the government’s
decision to opt for rigid pavement is being perceived as a prudent one.
The initial cost of rigid pavement is no doubt higher than that of flexible
pavement. In terms of lifecycle costing, however, rigid pavement has
proved to be more economical than flexible pavement. Experts point out
that while selecting the type of pavement, lifecycle cost and not the initial
cost should be taken into consideration. The lifecycle cost analysis takes
into account the initial investment cost as well as the maintenance and
rehabilitation cost over the design life of the pavement structure.
The initial cost of rigid pavement can be brought down to some extent
with fly ash mixed concrete. In such case, the lifecycle cost reduces
further.
Rigid pavement is generally preferred for locations experiencing heavy
rainfall, waterlogged areas and areas having sub-grade soil with low CBR
(California Bearing Ratio) values.
In a bid to facilitate uninterrupted supply of cement for national highway
projects and other centrally sponsored schemes, the Ministry of Road
Transport and Highways has already acquired ex-factory rates from
several cement manufacturers for certain grades of cement that conform
to its specifications as well as those laid down by the Bureau of Indian
Standards. The rates quoted by the cement manufacturers are valid for a
period of 12 months.

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