This is the final pdf of all the information and data combined and presented..
this is just an introductory idea to all the subtopics i have researched about.

please click on the link to view the pdf version
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5qCez2yovAGTW1hSEQ3R1d3X1E

Design process model

This is my design processmodel..  The white side indicates benefits of proposed ideas and the grey indicates the ideas to be implemented for indian road industry.

road authorities in india

Please open the link to view the file

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5qCez2yovAGMS1nTF92aGRXX0U

SIMPLIFIED PROBLEM ASSESSMENT MATRIX

HERE IS THE LINK
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qCez2yovAGd3JxY3lnQTRDMkU/view?usp=sharing

this is my problem assessment matrix.....
after discussing various issues and the data.. this is what i feel about the problem. This chart basically previews what i feel about the problem after looking at all the data.

 this is the same one here but a little more simplified

Mind mapping of the actual problems regarding roads in our country.

Each and every problem in the mind map has already been looked into and discussed earlier in the blog.

Street design part 2

Necessities of a good street design/ goals to achieve through the design

 MOBILITY AND ACCCESSIBILITY – Maximum number of people should be able to move fast, safely and conveniently through the city.

 SAFETY AND COMFORT – Make streets safe clean and walkable, create climate sensitive design.

 ECOLOGY – Reduce impact on the natural environment; and Reduce pressure on built infrastructure.

Essential components of all streets

To ensure preferable public transport use:

1.To Retrofit Streets for equal or higher priority for Public Transit and Pedestrians.
2.Provide transit-oriented mixed landusepatterns and redensifycity within 10 minutes walk of MRTS stops.
3.Provide dedicated lanes for HOVs (high occupancy vehicles) and carpool during peak hours.

4.Create “eyes on the street”–by removing setbacks and boundary walls and building to the edge of the street ROW.  This would allow people from inside to look out on to the pavement, thus discouraging misbehavior, shady corners, peeing, etc.)
5.In case enclosure of sites is required, transparent fencing should be used above 300 mm height from ground level.
6.Require commercial facades to have minimum 30% transparency.
7.Provide adequate Street Lighting for pedestrians and bicycles.
8.Create commercial/ hawking zones at regular intervals (10 minute walk from every home in the city) to encourage walkability, increase street activity and provide safety. (e.g. Mumbai, Shanghai)

8.Trees are an essential component for all streets –to provide shade to pedestrians and reduce solar gain.

9.High albedo(diffuse reflectivity) materials for paving reduces urban heat island effect.

10.Built to Pavement edge buildings with overhangs and arcades provide excellent protection to pedestrians.

11.Provide at-grade crosswalks (and overpasses on highways) at maximum intervals of ~70-250 M, aligning with location of transit stops, type of street / landuse activities and neighboring building entries and destinations.

12.Provide Dustbins, postboxes, signage and other public amenities at street corners for high usability.

13.Provide Accessible Public Toilets at every 500 -800 M distance – preferably located close to bus stops for easy access by pedestrians and public transport users. 

14.Follow universal accessibility design standards to make public streets & crosswalks fully navigable by the physically handicapped.

15.Decrease impervious surfaces through permeable paving, tree planting zones, etc. to increase ground water infiltration & prevent seasonal flooding.

16.Integrate Natural Storm Water filtration and absorption into street design through bio-filtration beds, swales and detention ponds.

17.Decrease Heat Island Effect (HIE) by increasing greenery, planting trees, using reflective paving, etc

Major Street Design Principles:

1.Safety of all modes and Universal Accessibility of all Streets.

2.Priority to public transport users.

3.Climatic comfort essential for all road users. Planting of deciduous trees along all footpaths and non-motorized lanes is essential

4.Ecological design to minimize environmental impacts like urban heat island effect,storm water runoff, etc. 

5.Amenity provisions and facilities for all road users is mandatory on all roads, to ensure safety, usability and vibrancy of the street. Therefore designated spaces to be provided for amenities like hawkers, public toilets, street lights, utilities, para-transport drop-offs, etc.

6.Segregation between modes (by speed)to be provided if difference in desirable speed of different modes becomes more than 10 km/hr. For example, In areas with high volume of non motorized through traffic (cyclists), speed of cyclists may be at or above 15km/hr, while speed of pedestrians is below 5 km/hr. So then segregation between the spaces allocated to both is required. Similarly, when desirable speed of motorized traffic is above 25 km/hr and maximum speed of non-motorized traffic is only 15 km/hr, it is required to spatially segregate the two in order to increase safety and efficiency of both types of modes.

7.Segregation between modes (for priority) is required when priority is to be provided to public transport and non-motorized transport (both for speed, congestion-free movement, safety and junction clearance) as per principles outlines in the National Urban Transport Policy.

8.Efficiency of movement of all modes is to be provided through design.

 Categories for urban road design and their widths

Street Design- part 1

VISION

The National Urban Transport Policy, Government of India states the following VISION under which UTTIPEC functions:

•To recognize that people occupy centre-stage in our cities and all plans would be for their common benefit and well being. •To make our cities the most livablein the world and enable them to become the “engines of economic growth”that power India’s development in the 21st century. •To allow our cities to evolve into an urban form that is best suited for the unique geography of their locations and is best placed to support the main social and economic activities that take place in the city.

Need for street design

Need and prospective Benefits of Equitable Design 

Increased Pedestrian Design consideration in Streets would provide:

o Increase in comfort for current walking population.

o Comfortable last mile connectivity from MRTS / BRTS Stations –therefore increased ridership of buses and Metro.

o Reduced dependency on the car, if shorter trips can be made comfortably by foot.

o More exercise, so better health for people walking.

o Prioritization of public transport and non-motorized private modes in street design

o Reduced car use leading to reduced congestion and pollution.

o More equity in the provision of comfortable public spaces and amenities to all sections of society.

Existing frameworks and legislation

National Urban Transport Policy 2006 recommends to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other needs within our cities. This is sought to be achieved by:

•Incorporating urban transportation as an important parameter at the urban planning stage rather than being a consequential requirement 

•Encouraging integrated land use and transport planning in all cities so that travel distances are minimized and access to livelihoods, education, and other social needs, especially for the marginal segments of the urban population is improved.

 •Improving access of business to markets and the various factors of production •Bringing about a more equitable allocation of road space with people, rather than vehicles, as its main focus. •Encourage greater use of public transport and non-motorized modes by offering Central financial assistance for this purpose

 •Enabling the establishment of quality focused multi-modal public transport systems that are well integrated, providing seamless travel across modes 

•Establishing effective regulatory and enforcement mechanisms that allow a level playing field for all operators of transport services and enhanced safety for the transport system users

 •Establishing institutional mechanisms for enhanced coordination in the planning and management of transport systems 

•Introducing Intelligent Transport Systems for traffic management 

•Addressing concerns of road safety and trauma response 

•Reducing pollution levels through changes in travelling practices, better enforcement, stricter norms, technological improvements, etc. 

•Building capacity (institutional and manpower) to plan for sustainable urban transport and establishing knowledge management system that would service the needs of all urban transport professionals, such as planners, researchers, teachers, students, etc. 

•Promoting the use of cleaner technologies 

•Raising finances, through innovative mechanisms that tap land asa resource, for investments in urban transport infrastructure

 •Associating the private sector in activities where their strengths can be beneficially tapped 

•Taking up pilot projects that demonstrate the potential of possible best practices in sustainable urban transport

Many City level Laws converge to safeguard the safety of pedestrians:*

•Central Motor Vehicles rules (CMVR) 1989 Safety Rules provide passive protection for pedestrians, stating that motorists cannot enter pedestrian wayand are liable to penalty.

•Indian Penal Code (sec 283), sec 34 of Delhi Police Act --Obstruction in public space punishable.

•Urban street vendor policy, 2007, to protect livelihood rights –recommend Guidelines for proper vending zones, as they are service providers on sidewalks…

•The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009, approved by the Central government, recognizes street vendors (or micro-entrepreneurs) as “an integral and legitimate part of the urban retail trade and distribution system.”The national policy gives street vendors a legal status and aims at providing legitimate vending/hawking zonesin city/town master or development plans. 

•Police Act provides for penalty for jaywalking.

•Design and engineering guidelines by Indian Road Congress (IRC) are currently being revised and updated.

•Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 (Sec 44) recommends guidelines for the disabled persons. 

Maintenance of roads

Purpose of maintenance  

The Indian Roads Congress defines road maintenance as “routine work performed to upkeep pavement, shoulders and other facilities provided for road users, as nearly as possible in their constructed conditions under normal conditions of traffic and forces of nature”. Maintenance is “essential to get optimum service from the pavement structure during its life period.” 

The basic objective of road maintenance is implicit in the word itself. It is done to ensure that the road that has been constructed, or improved, is to the extent possible kept in its original condition. All roads require maintenance as they are subjected to traffic and the forces of weather. Even with the highest possible quality of construction, maintenance is essential to get optimum service from the road structure during its design life. By applying preventive maintenance, the deterioration of the road and its components can be slowed down, thus postponing the need for costly investments in rehabilitation and securing the planned design life.  

If not maintained, roads rapidly become impassable to motorised traffic until a point when they are no longer trafficable. The pace of deterioration largely depends on the quality of initial construction, pavement and surface materials, drainage measures, levels of traffic and weather conditions. Gravel roads deteriorate more quickly than bitumen surfaced roads and their value can often be assumed to be negligible after five years without maintenance. Bitumen surfaces may have a marginally longer life without maintenance but are more expensive to rebuild. It should also be noted that for rural roads where traffic is more limited, the critical maintenance interventions are often related to maintaining the drainage system. 

Maintenance ensures that the road remains serviceable throughout its design life. Maintenance is important because it:  

1. reduces the rate of deterioration, thereby safeguarding previous investments in construction and rehabilitation, 
2. lowers the cost of operating vehicles on the road by providing a smooth running surface, 
3. improves safety of road users, 
4. improves the reliability of the road allowing it to remain open for traffic on a continuous basis and thus contributes to more reliable transport services, and 
5. sustains social and economic benefits of improved road access.  

The first purpose is primarily in the interest of the responsible government authorities. Road agencies need to protect their investments made in improving the road network, thereby maintaining high service levels for the road users.  The last four are of interest to vehicle operators and the inhabitants of the area serviced by the road.   

Road safety 

Road maintenance also has an impact on the safety of road users.  Regular maintenance heightens the reliability for road users through the simple fact that damages are dealt with at a stage before they become a hazard.  Timely maintenance also includes the upkeep of signage and road markings which contribute to road safety.  Keeping road shoulders clean and free from potholes allows pedestrians and cyclists to travel safely at a distance from vehicles.  Clearing bushes improves sightlines and allows road users to spot each other in time.  Finally, when roads are more closely monitored through regular inspections and by staff providing on-going maintenance, damages such as debris and rock-fall, collapsed culverts, landslides, washouts, etc., posing serious traffic hazards, can be detected in time and the required remedial measures can be provided in a timely fashion

No matter what technical designs are chosen, all roads, from major highways to local roads, require regular and timely maintenance in order to secure a reasonable lifetime on the construction investment.  Attempts to find technical designs that are maintenance-free are disillusions and in the long run only prove that lack of maintenance leads to accelerating rates of deterioration. 

Breaking a vicious circle 

Without an organised approach to preserving the road network, it is often seen that road works agencies are forced into a situation of consistently dealing with the effects of the lack of maintenance, having to repair and reconstruct road sections that have failed since timely and adequate maintenance interventions were not carried out. 

For obvious reasons, the first priority is to keep all roads open throughout the year (accepting that some road sections are not passable during extreme weather conditions).  Without a preventive maintenance system in place, the efforts to keep roads open very much consists of carrying out repairs after serious damage has taken place.  Such interventions are much more costly than preventive maintenance.  Due to the extent of damages each year, the remedial works often consume the entire road works budgets, leaving little resources for preventive measures. 

With the damages taking place during the next rainy season, road agencies are left with no alternative than to use subsequent budgets to once again repair serious damages to its roads.  Although these repairs are necessary, it is obvious that this way of managing the road network is costly and ineffective. The only way of breaking this vicious circle is to introduce the concept of preventive maintenance, thus reducing the extent to which the roads require major repair works. The cost savings in repair works can then be brought forward to the next maintenance season and instead utilised for further preventive activities that may preserve the road assets.

It is important to make a clear distinction between maintenance and repair works. Effective maintenance is clearly time linked and is carried out before major damages take place. This involves activities relating to supervision and monitoring of the road assets even while they are still in good condition. It also requires that road authorities are sufficiently responsive and capable of taking action when required - as opposed to responding with repairs when major damages have taken place or road access has finally been cut off.  

Timely and regular maintenance requires securing sufficient funding before repairs and maintenance become an urgent matter. The most effective maintenance is achieved when an organization is capable and prepared to carry out appropriate interventions at an early stage of deterioration and thus limit the extent of damages. This implies that the responsible authority is furnished with the necessary human and financial resources to effectively manage all facets of the maintenance works.  

Attitude and perception  

Maintenance, in particular for rural roads, has always been the poor relation of the road sector. It is often viewed as important only by its absence, when roads deteriorate to the point that they are no longer serving their intended purpose. Road maintenance and in particular routine works often consists of small inputs dispersed across the road network and therefore goes unseen to the general public.  The importance and effects of such efforts are generally not appreciated unless significant damages start developing in the road surface.  
For this reason, the general public and their elected representatives do not fully appreciate the importance of providing regular and up-front maintenance unless they are properly briefed and made aware of the challenges.  Limited tenure of the elected representatives in office may also sway their interest in the direction of using available budgets for more visible improvements in the form of rehabilitation works where roads are admittedly in a bad shape and thereby showing to their electorate that they are bringing significant new services. Preserving the part of the network already in good shape has no glamour and maintaining the status quo can be perceived as not doing enough.

Officials or Engineers in the technical units (Road agencies) also have a tendency to favour new construction rather than placing importance on maintenance. This may not be their fault. If maintenance policies are not clearly defined and supported by sound asset management principles, available funds tend to be used to repair or rehabilitate roads that have deteriorated and at times reached the stage that they are in effect unmaintainable. When roads fall into serious disrepair, road agencies tend to receive more attention and pressure to take action.

The absence of a sound road management system is not necessarily due to limited budgets, but can also be a result of inadequate institutional capacity.  Often, the capacity to effectively plan and manage maintenance work is limited. In the first place this is manifested through the lack of information on the state of the network. Condition inventories are notable by their absence. In default of this information, it is difficult for those responsible to present reasonable arguments to spend some of the available budgets on preventive maintenance on the core road network instead of allocating most of the funds to reconstruction and major repair works.
Having a reliable monitoring system that provides up to date information on the condition of the network allows road agencies and political bodies to plan maintenance works in a manner which protects the existing assets from further deterioration and thereby increasing the quality of the road network over time.  It is only on this basis that it is possible to argue for (i) sufficient budgets and (ii) obtaining the necessary political support for making the right maintenance priorities.  
Road agency units may also be under pressure to spend available maintenance budgets within defined time frames.  Periodic maintenance and reconstruction works are more comprehensive compared to routine maintenance, involving considerably larger contracts.  Preventive routine maintenance is management intensive as it needs to cover the entire road network on an annual basis.  In terms of ensuring that available maintenance budgets are spent before the end of the financial year, it is easier for technical agencies with staff shortages to let contracts for periodic maintenance and reconstruction works as it involves fewer contracts to supervise.  Such interventions are also more visible than carrying out preventive maintenance on roads still in good condition.
The general public are of course pleased that roads are provided for them. They will generally not complain about the lack of maintenance but rather about the lack of traffic ability. Road users will usually not voice their concerns before the road deteriorates to a stage where it causes excessive wear and tear on vehicles and eventually becomes non trafficable.  They may understand that the road has deteriorated because of lack of maintenance, however the negative impact of accelerated road deterioration due to lack of preventive maintenance is not fully appreciated. Thus, even though they have the possibility of bringing complaints to local authorities, they would not usually point to the lack of regular preventive maintenance.

What can be done about this?

• Dedicated funds: A dependable and adequate flow of funds on continuous basis to enable the road agencies to effectively plan and implement their maintenance programmes. 

• Maintenance backlog: Finding ways and means of phased removal of the backlog of periodic maintenance and bringing the roads to maintainable situation.

 • Linkage to initial construction: Ensuring proper design and quality construction in the first instance as this would reduce the maintenance burden subsequently.

 • Maintenance management system: Improving maintenance planning and accountability through creation of road registers, setting up database and simplified maintenance management systems so as to optimize use of allocated funds and prioritize maintenance interventions, with first charge on the core road network. 

• Institutional reforms: Strengthening institutional arrangements through productivity improvement of gang labour, tightening supervision and monitoring and auditing arrangements, training of personnel to improve local skills.

 • Contract maintenance: Introducing innovative ways of execution of maintenance works such as encouraging creation of microenterprises and labour cooperatives. 

• Panchayati Raj Institutions: Building up the capacity and capability of Panchayati Raj Institutions to undertake the maintenance of rural roads. Providing technical support to these institutions.

 • Modernization: Modernisation of maintenance operations, introducing low cost equipment for pothole repairs, grading and use of modern materials. 

• Experience sharing: Regular awareness programmes of what works and what does not work. Documentation of successful strategies and dissemination through publications, workshops at state, national and international levels.  

Community contributions 

Drawing contributions from local communities for local infrastructure provision is a well-known concept successfully applied in schemes such as water supply, irrigation and public buildings.  It has also been used with some degree of success for the construction of local village roads.  Great caution should however be taken in assuming that what works for water schemes and building works can also be applied for road maintenance.
Significant efforts have been made in rural development programmes to set up systems in which the responsibility for maintenance of village roads, and its financing, is transferred to the communities.  The rationale behind these attempted schemes has been that when there are insufficient funds to maintain local roads the only alternative is to rely on self-help schemes in which the communities are mobilised.
The experience is, however, that roads are much more resource intensive to maintain than other infrastructure such as water supply and buildings, and therefore becomes difficult to sustain through such community contributions.  The lack of success in sustaining these schemes clearly shows the need for significant inputs, both technical and financial, to secure adequate maintenance of any type of road.

Eco-Friendly, Low Cost Asphalt Alternative

1.

Specialized polymers are used to penetrate the existing road material and rapidly transform it into a hardened independent surface. After it has been applied and hardened (polymerized) it creates a hard surface which testing by Texas DOT has shown to be up to Six times stronger than conventional pavements and is a great asphalt alternative .

Clear Polymer Road Building to retain a natural, rustic driveway with the durability of asphalt

TOP SEAL WHITE is a asphalt alternative co-polymer patented by the University of Texas. When properly mixed in with most existing road materials Top Seal White binds the particulates to form a matrix that can be six times stronger than asphalt pavement. Top Seal White dries clear, resulting in a durable clear surface that maintains the natural color the  native stone.

Top Seal Black mimics the look of asphalt pavements.

Save money on road building and maintenance by using  TOP SEAL WHITE  to bind nearly any existing  road base material into a tight,water proof matrix. Eliminating the need for  expensive and disruptive excavation and replacement of road base materials, saving labor,machinery and hauling expenses.

Maintenance is easy and requires no experience and very little equipment, eliminating the expense of hiring a contractor for maintenance or repairs.

Black Polymer Road Building for a BLACKTOP LOOK at a fraction of the cost.

Material Coated with Top-Seal Black is a great asphalt alternative

 When properly mixed in with  road base, asphalt millings or recycle asphalt road  materials TOP SEAL BLACK binds the the particles  in the  existing road base materials into  matrix which can be six times stronger than asphalt, with a rich  black surface like asphalt.

Save money road building and maintenance using  TOP SEAL BLACK to bind  existing materials into a tight, water proof matrix,providing an  asphalt look, without the toxic materials and, expense of excavation additional base, hot-mix asphalt,and hauling costs.

Maintenance is easy and requires no experience and very  little equipment eliminating the continuing expense of seal coating traditional asphalt and contractor repairs.  THESE SAVINGS TYPICALLY PAY BACK THE COST THE INITIAL POLYMER ROAD OVER TIME.

Liquid polymer applied to existing road material to create a low cost, asphalt alternative

Extremely Tough and Long Lasting

Polymer liquid binder can be applied to almost any material to build a pavement surface at a fraction of the traditional pavement cost.  Liquid polymer products used on quality  materials creates a homogenous layer capable of withstanding erosion and any type of road traffic. 

Environmentally Friendly

It is extremely environmental friendly, non toxic in nature and does on cause any problems to human skin or body.

2. Road Oyl

Asphalt and concrete account for the vast majority of paving today. These materials are very different: asphalt is a mix of aggregate and leftover heavy hydrocarbons after more valuable, lighter fractions of crude oil have been extracted; concrete is a hardened, rock-like material usually made by mixing Portland cement with sand, coarser aggregate, and water. In the green design community, there is some interest in avoiding these conventional pavement products in favor of more natural, less energy-intensive materials using locally available aggregates and bio-based binders. Road Oyl Resin Pavement from Soil Stabilization Products of Merced, California is such an alternative.

Road Oyl, introduced in 1991, is an emulsion formulated from pine rosin and pitch in water. (An emulsion, for those whose high school chemistry is rusty, is a mixture in which globules of one liquid are suspended—but not dissolved—in a second liquid.) The pitch and rosin, which comprise roughly 50% of Road Oyl by weight, are coproduced with other timber products from southern pine in the southeastern United States.

Pine pitch is a black, viscous “tar” derived from the distillation of wood; before the development of coal-tar pitch, pine pitch was used to impregnate building papers and felt, and to saturate hemp fiber for oakum.

Pine rosin is the residue from distillation of turpentine oil from raw turpentine. The Road Oyl liquid is brownish in color with a mild odor. When rubbed between the fingers, it becomes extremely sticky as the water evaporates (and is hard to wash off!). It is shipped as a liquid by the 6,000-gallon (22,700 l) truckload or 55-gallon (210 l) drum.

For paving, Road Oyl is mixed with crushed stone—usually decomposed granite—that includes a range of particle sizes, from 1⁄2” (13 mm) or 3⁄4” (19 mm) down to fines or filler that pass through a #200 sieve (75 µm). In the company’s recommended 3⁄4” aggregate mix, one-quarter to one-half of the aggregate should pass through a #8 (2.4 mm) sieve. Ideally, the aggregate should not include organic matter or clay particles, though clayey mixes are sometimes used satisfactorily. The aggregate is typically wetted (2% to 4% water), then the Road Oyl emulsion is added at 6% to 9% by weight, depending on the application and the aggregate. The aggregate and emulsion mixture is then laid down using fairly conventional paving equipment and practices. In remote areas, such as along park trails, small-scale equipment and hand labor are often used.

After compacting or rolling and several days of cure time, Resin Pavement forms a hard, durable surface that contains neither petroleum derivatives nor cement. Unlike asphalt, which hardens by cooling, or concrete, which hardens through a chemical hydration process, Resin Pavement hardens through evaporation of the water carrier. And harden it does. The compressive strength of Resin Pavement typically exceeds that of conventional asphalt by more than threefold. It is also highly water-resistant and can withstand heavy wash and even flooding. In some applications, where greater compressive strength is required or the underlying roadbed is weak, the company’s EMC Squared  soil stabilization product is applied to the soil prior to laying down the Resin Pavement—soil stabilization products will be addressed in a future article. Because Resin Pavement is not softened by contact with hydrocarbon solvents (as asphalt is), this system is also commonly used around fuel storage facilities. The Road Oyl emulsion darkens the aggregate slightly but maintains the same basic look, which makes this system desirable in natural settings. Note that this is not a porous paving product; with the high content of fines (required for proper hardening), the cured pavement is highly impermeable.

EBN by the company showed Road Oyl to be quite clean compared with asphalt. As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Estuary Program, testing was conducted by Analytical Chemical Testing Laboratory of Mobile, Alabama in the Spring of 1999 to verify the suitability of Road Oyl and EMC Squared for use around sensitive coastal estuaries. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (oil and grease) levels in runoff from newly applied Road Oyl pavement were measured at 2 parts per million (ppm) immediately after installation. To provide comparison, the laboratory reported on a study of stormwater pollution from new asphalt pavement in which hydrocarbon levels exceeded a company’s NPDES permit limit of 15 mg/l in six out of seven outfalls. This is not surprising, since the typical oil and grease content in asphalt drops from several hundred thousand ppm (greater than 20%) when new to about 30,000 ppm (3%) after aging for a period of years, according to Analytical Testing Laboratory.

Resin Pavement samples (as opposed to runoff) were also tested for 63 volatile organics (VOCs), 16 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 9 metals. None of these regulated substances were found (i.e., the levels of all were below the detection limits of the measurement apparatus). Newly applied asphalt, on the other hand, frequently contains measurable levels of many regulated VOCs and PAHs, according to the laboratory.

Road Oyl Resin Pavement was used by the Golden Gate National Parks Association at the Crissy Field Shoreline Park to produce an environmentally friendly trail surface that blends in well with the surroundings.

Photo: Soil Stabilization Products Co.

EBN mixed up a small sample batch of Road Oyl Resin Pavement using crushed brick and sand. We found the batch easy to mix and work with; it had a mild, nondescript smell. The three resultant samples were a deep brick color. Two samples had inadequate fines and did not hold together well, while added sand in the third resulted in a very strong block. This supports the manufacturer’s recommendation to produce and test sample batches to achieve the right mix. 

Bioasphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources.

These sources include sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches, natural tree and gum resins, natural latex rubber and vegetable oils, lignin, cellulose, palm oil waste, coconut waste, peanut oil waste, canola oil waste, dried sewerage effluent and so on. Bitumen can also be made from waste vacuum tower bottoms produced in the process of cleaning used motor oils, which are normally burned or dumped into land fills.

Non-petroleum based bitumen binders can be colored, which can reduce the temperatures of road surfaces and reduce the Urban heat islands.

Asphalt made with vegetable oil based binders was patented by Colas SA in France in 2004.

A number of homeowners seeking an environmentally friendly alternative to asphalt for paving have experimented with waste vegetable oil as a binder for driveways and parking areas in single-family applications. The earliest known test occurred in 2002 in Ohio, where the homeowner combined waste vegetable oil with dry aggregate to create a low-cost and less polluting paving material for his 200-foot driveway. After five years, he reports the driveway is performing as well or better than petroleum-based materials.

Shell Oil Company paved two public roads in Norway in 2007 with vegetable-oil-based asphalt. Results of this study are still premature.

HALIK Asphalts LTD from Israel has been experimenting with recycled and secondary road building since 2003. The company is using various wastes such as vegetable fats & oils, wax and thermoplastic elastomers to build and repair roads. The results reported are so far satisfying.

On October 6, 2010, a bicycle path in Des Moines, Iowa, was paved with bio-oil based asphalt through a partnership between Iowa State University, the City of Des Moines, andAvello Bioenergy Inc. Research is being conducted on the asphalt mixture, derived from plants and trees to replace petroleum-based mixes. Bioasphalt is a registered trademark of Avello Bioenergy Inc.

Dr. Elham H. Fini, at North Carolina A&T University, has been spearheading research that has successfully produced bio asphalt from swine manure.

Glassphalt

When the City of New York repaved a section of Fifth Avenue twenty years ago along the front of the Plaza Hotel with something called glassphalt, the pavement sparkled from tiny flecks of recycled glass in the aggregate mix. But it was neither the recycled nature of the glass, nor the resilience with which the material can stand up to the traffic and temperature swings of the Big Apple, that caught the attention of the hotel owner, Donald Trump. The famous real estate magnate just liked how the street glistened.

And he wanted more of this glassphalt, according to a 1991 Knight-Ridder wire story. True to form, Trump demanded that the other streets ringing the hotel get the same shimmering, glass-infused pavement.

Glassphalt has been used in other parts of the U.S. and across the world in the twenty years since. In fact, it first arose in the 1970s as a potential way to recycle the considerable volume of amber, blue, yellow, green and clear glass bottles in the waste stream. Annually, approximately seven million tons of glass are disposed of in landfills.

The problem with recycling glass is that mixed colors in the recycling stream mean that a specific color cannot be achieved – clear bottles cannot use amber material, for example. Which is what led, 40 years ago, to exploration of other uses of glass where color would not be an issue. Researchers found that by mixing it into pavement, where color was irrelevant, it could work functionally and possibly in a cost-effective way.

The economics of turning that tonnage of waste glass into pavement is enticing. Using it could reduce municipal costs associated with disposal. And on a pound-for-pound basis, crushed glass processing is sometimes less expensive than gravel and sand. And while extensive data on the durability of asphalt roads seems lacking, we know anecdotally that some of those roads from the 1970s on forward have held up pretty well. It just might be better pavement in certain applications.

So why is glassphalt not used routinely in road building? There are several problems:

Variable rock economics. At the most, the glass content would comprise between 10 and 20 percent of the pavement. So standard asphalt-making equipment and procedures would always be used, but this would reduce the costs from aggregate (crushed rock) that makes up the bulk of asphalt. Aggregate pricing varies from location to location, a function of raw sourcing and the distance required for transport. So in some areas, glass provides a cost-effective dilution, but in other areas not.

Municipal variables (recycling and asphalt manufacture). According to the Glassphalt Paving Handbook (Asphalt Institute Manual Series No. 4, 1989, University of Missouri-Rolla), “The best possibility for sustained production of glassphalt is in communities with municipal asphalt plants, because the community can make a direct correlation between the extra costs incurred in glassphalt installation and the savings from diverted solid waste tip fees.” The handbook goes on to say this is not the case in most of the U.S.

Not a simple substitution. The Glassphalt Paving Handbook also makes a point of how you cannot simply feed broken or crushed glass into the aggregate. After collecting the glass (by whichever method the municipality uses), it needs to be processed to a specific size (aggregate), after which batch modifiers must be altered along with the asphalt manufacturing operation.

Limited applications. While the presence of glass in the pavement presents no danger to humans or damage to vehicle tires, the skid resistance of glassphalt pavement is slightly less than that of standard asphalt. This then limits its use to lower-speed roadways – and prevents it from being used to build 65 mph highways.

In summary, the Clean Washington Center, a Seattle non-profit group that serves as a clearinghouse on recyclable materials of all kinds, says that “a great number of glassphalt demonstration projects have been performed in cities around the country. Most of these projects have not progressed past the pilot state because of economics.”

Separately, a 1999 study conducted (by the NYC Bureau of Management Audit) of glass recycling programs in eight major cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Philadelphia, Baltimore and San Francisco – found that only New York was sending its glass to glassphalt plants, and by that time it was not actually used by the city but sold to contractors working elsewhere. The program has apparently been discontinued since then because, according to Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, “it made the roads too slippery in the rain and too shiny.”

Donald Trump might take issue with Esposito on the latter problem. Since when is there something that sparkles too much?

Durability of glassphalt

But even if used only for slow-zone streets, or as pothole fill, might the economics of glassphalt change if considered over the life of the roads?

Donald Schaefer, once the mayor of Baltimore, later the governor of Maryland and after that the state comptroller, believes it was a high-quality, long-lasting material. In 2000, he told Baltimore City Paper writer Charles Cohen, “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do most of the streets in the city of Baltimore with glassphalt. It worked out well.” Only one Baltimore area contractor was using the material as of ten years ago, and only as a pavement undercoating.

An article (January 2005) in Resource Recycling bemoans the fact that recycled glass is subject to commodity market pricing fluctuations and thus most uses for the material make for unreliable customers. But that’s not always the case. The article cites Adams County, Wisconsin, where the price of cullet (crushed glass) is lower than hauled-in stone aggregate. The county claims their parking lots made with glassphalt “feature no potholes and require much less maintenance compared to projects constructed with gravel, saving even more money in the long term. Glass is also much easier to move around than gravel, according to contractors.”

So while glassphalt can be cost effective and perhaps superior to standard asphalt in some applications, it is hard to imagine it becoming a widespread substitution for crushed stone in making durable roads. The relative economics simply do not work.

And there’s no one that Donald Trump can fire to change that.

If not glass, how about polypropylene fabric?

Paving fabrics are another “unusual” road building technique that is used on 100 million square yards of road every year, according to Ray Myers, the executive director of the Asphalt Interlayer Association.

While there are some variations between the handful of manufacturers of paving fabric, the make up of waterproofing membranes (also known as paving fabrics or reinforcing fabrics) as originally developed by Phillips Petroleum Company in the 1970s are a non-woven polypropylene sheet, non-woven but needlepunched, that is heat-bonded on one side, along with a liquid asphalt tack coat. It is typically laid onto old pavement, especially where there are cracks, and then overlaid with new asphalt. An important feature of this material is its flexibility.

Pavement fabrics have one, very important job with regard to pavement preservation: to prevent moisture from entering. Studies show that use of paving fabrics extend the life of the pavement by 100% to 300%. But they cannot be placed on any existing pavement: this system can only work when placed on stable, even if cracked (“alligatored”), roads. It is not a pothole repair method.

Pavements

Pavement deterioration

Pavement deterioration is very complex. It involves structural fatigue as well as functional distresses. It results from the interaction between traffic, climate, material and time. Deterioration is the term used to represent the change in pavement performance overtime. The ability of the road to satisfy the demands of traffic and environment over its design life is referred to as performance. Due to the great complexity of the road deterioration process, performance models are the best approximate predictors of expected conditions.  

It is necessary to provide a good road network for the development of any country. India has the second largest highway and road networks system on the world. The total length of roads in the country exceeds 3.01 million kilometers. There is a great need for the effective and efficient management and maintenance of the road network. The funding available for periodic maintenance and management system is limited. In order to determine the most economical strategies, most essential input is development of deterioration models for structural and functional conditions of flexible pavements. Pavement performance is a function of its relative ability to serve traffic over a period of time (Highway Research Board,1962).

Cool pavement methods

 Cool pavements refer to a range of established and emerging materials. These pavement technologies tend to store less heat and may have lower surface temperatures compared with conventional products. They can help address the problem of urban heat islands, which result in part from the increased temperatures of paved surfaces in a city or suburb. Communities are exploring these pavements as part of their heat island reduction efforts. Conventional pavements in the United States are impervious concrete and asphalt, which can reach peak summertime surface temperatures of 120–150°F (48–67°C).2 These surfaces can transfer heat downward to be stored in the pavement subsurface, where it is re-released as heat at night. The warmer daytime surface temperatures also can heat stormwater as it runs off the pavement into local waterways. These effects contribute to urban heat islands (especially at nighttime) and impair water quality. 

                                                                   How It Works

 Understanding how cool pavements work requires knowing how solar energy heats pavements and how pavement influences the air above it. Properties such as solar energy, solar reflectance, material heat capacities, surface roughness, heat transfer rates, thermal emittance, and permeability affect pavement temperatures.

Here are some examples

Lets look at how this system works - Part 2

The road making process-

indian roads have their construction processes influenced by a variety of factors such as- climate location, availability of materials on that region and population.but the general road making process goes this way.

Now the materials available all over the country: