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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Road trial for light and cheap answer -Sumi Sukanya

Road trial for light and cheap answer -Sumi Sukanya

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published Published on Nov 9, 2015   modified Modified on Nov 9, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: The government is set to test a new strategy to build highways, using geofoam - or giant lightweight polystyrene blocks - in a bid to slash construction time and costs and increase the life span of roads by reducing the risk of rain-triggered damage.

Officials said the Union ministry of road transport and highways had cleared a proposal to use Thermocol, a popular geofoam brand, as the filler for the base in place of soil, as practised in many western countries.

"We want to experiment with this western model for highways that we're told could bring down the construction cost by 30 per cent and drastically cut construction time," road transport secretary Vijay Chhibber said.

A senior official in the ministry's highway construction division said several countries in Europe, the US and Japan had been using geofoam for road construction for the past seven years.

The defence ministry's Border Roads Organisation, which constructs roads along strategic and border areas of the country, is known to have used geofoam along some stretches.

Sources said the road ministry, headed by Nitin Gadkari, held a meeting with consultancy firms and asked them to submit a cost analysis on the use of geofoam against conventional filler material such as soil. Several road infrastructure experts from the US had attended the meeting.

Geofoam is about a hundred times lighter than soil, which means it is easier to install. Another advantage is that it does not expand or contract with changing temperatures in extremes of summer or winter. "Unlike soil, geofoam doesn't get washed away during floods or landslides," Chhibber said. "It will also help us avoid the use of healthy soil as a filler for roads."

Industry experts have given a thumbs-up to the geofoam plan, saying new and innovative ideas to build and repair roads were overdue.

"The new material (being proposed) is more durable, easy to transport and requires less manpower for construction as sheets just have to be lifted and placed," said Vishwas Udgirkar, a senior infrastructure consultant with Deloitte in India.

India has about 1 lakh kilometres of national highways that make up barely two per cent of the country's 48-lakh-kilometre road network, but account for 40 per cent of the nation's traffic.

A plan to promote the use of alternative materials and design in highway construction has been a priority for the government. Earlier this year, the road transport ministry had constituted an expert committee to recommend new construction materials and strategies.

"We are consulting a cross-section of agencies and experts to adopt material suitable to local needs," the official in the highway division said.

The ministry has also issued an order that project reports on every future plan should consider all possible alternative design combinations but they should be apt for Indian conditions and economical.

There have been instances when contractors proposed alternative materials at the design stage but the plans ran into difficulties because of differences of opinion at various levels.

The Telegraph, 9 November, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1151109/jsp/nation/story_52212.jsp#.VkAHNV73-l4


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