Highway Record Final

H I G H W A YRESEARCH

NUMBER 36General Report onRoad Research Work DoneIn India during 2008-09

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Edited and Published by the Secretary,IRC Highway Research Board, New Delhi - 110 011

Printed at : India Offset Press, A-1, Mayapuri Industrial Area, New Delhi-110 064

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CONTENTS

Page No.

INTRODUCTION 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMAERY 2

I. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, PERFORMANCE 10EVALUATION AND INSTRUMENTATION

1. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT 10

SUMMARY 10

A. NEW PROJECTS 11

1. Development of Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Road Side Barriers 11

2. Preparation of Computerized Inventory of Roads for 12Mulanthuruthy and Pampakuda Block Panchayaths inErnakulam District

3. Integrated Development of Rural Roads in Idukki District 13(Under Swaminathan Package)

4. Evaluation of Operational Efficiency of Highway Network Using 14Travel Time Reliability Measures

5. Application of Geographical Information System (GIS) in Traffic 15Congestion Management

B. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ONGOING PROJECTS 16

1. Development of Management System for Maintenance Planning 16and Budgeting of High Speed Corridors

2. Development of Road User Cost Models for High Speed Corridors 17

3. Development of GIS Based National Highway Information System 18

4. Development of Pavement Maintenance Management System 19for Selected Roads in Kerala

2. PAVEMENT EVALUATION 20

SUMMARY 20

A. NEW PROJECTS 21

1. Evaluation of Serviceability of Pavement Surface of Eastern 21and Western Express Highways in Mumbai Region

ISSN 0970-2598

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2. Determination of Pavement Classification Number of the 21Runway at Surat Airport and its Suitability for Use

3. Evaluation of Selected Roads of NDMC (Phase-II) for 22Improvement Measures


1. Evaluation of Selected MCD Roads in Division-V Area and 23Needed Maintenance and Rehabilitation Measures

2. Investigation to Determine the Causes of Distress on 24Mohammadpur-Dohrighat, Mohammadpur-Varanasi andAzamgarh-Ghazipur Roads in the State of Uttar Pradesh andNeeded Remedial Measures

3. Investigation to Determine the Causes of Distress between 25km 23.800 to km 35.000 on NH-91 and Needed Remedial Measures

4. Investigations for Review of Design of Pavement for Plant Roads 28at DCRTPP, Yamunanagar

3. PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE 29

SUMMARY 29

A. NEW PROJECTS 30

1. Study on Rut Behaviour of Pavements and its Significance in 30Design Methodology


1. Pilot Study on Effect of Overloading on Road Infrastructure 31

2. Rural Roads Pavement Performance Study 32

II. PAVEMENT ENGINEERING AND PAVING MATERIALS 35

1. SOIL STABILIZATION, LOW GRADE MATERIALS AND LOW VOLUME ROADS 35

SUMMARY 35

A. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ONGOING PROJECTS 36

1. Subgrade Soil Stabilisation by Sand-Lime Pile 36

2. Study on the Effect of Commercially Available Soil Stabiliser on 36Clay Subgrade Soil

3. Utilization of Marginal Materials for Subgrade Stabilization 37

2. FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS 38

SUMMARY 38

A. NEW PROJECTS 39

1. Laboratory Evaluation and Field Performance of a Ready Made 39Slurry Mix

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2. Use of Commercially Available Known Additive for Bituminous Road 39

Works

3. Utilization of Marginal Materials as an Ingredient in Bituminous Mixes 41

4. Influence of addition of Commercially Available Additive and 42Flyash in Bitumen and Bitumen Mix Design

5. Design of flexible pavement for M.P. Road between Sector 31-32 43and sector 36-37 (proposed Heliport) at Rohini, New Delhi


1. Resource Mapping of Road Construction Materials in Kerala-A 44Case Study of Pathanamthitta District

2. Study on the Use of Waste Plastics for Road Construction-An 45Evaluation of the Roads Laid with Plastic Wastes in Kerala

3. Study on the Characterization and Utilization of Waste Plastics- 45Green Technology

4. Advisory Inputs for the Needed Remedial Measures for 49Rectification of Distress (Settlement) in Flexible Pavement on theApproach Embankment of Railway Over Bridge at SAIL Township,Rourkela

5. Study on the Effect of Using Quarry Dust and Copper Slag in 50Sub Base

6. Development of Cold Mix Technology for Structural Layers of 50Flexible Pavement in Different Climates

7. Demonstration of CRRI Technology through Trial Stretch by 51Using Marble Slurry Dust in Rajsamand District

8. Development of Cold Mix Design Procedure for Dense Graded 52Bituminous Mix (BC-II)

9. Development of Fuel Resistant Bitumen 53

3. RIGID PAVEMENTS 54

SUMMARY 54

A. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ONGOING PROJECTS 55

1. A Study on Dry Lean Concrete with Portland Pozzolana Cement 55

2. R&D Studies on Performance Evaluation of Rigid Pavements on 55High Density Traffic Corridors Using Instrumentation Supportedby Laboratory Tests

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III. GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING 56

SUMMARY 56

A. NEW PROJECTS 57

1. Case Study of Ground Improvement for the Yamuna Expressway 57Road Project

2. Construction of Unpaved Rural Road Using Jute-Synthetic Blended 59Woven Geotextiles

3. Assessing Causes of Cracking of a Newly Built Road 61

4. Advise on Restoration of East - West Express Highway 63Damaged by Kosi River, Nepal

5. Investigation and Remedial Measures for Landslides on Dimapur- 64Kohima-Mao-Maram Road (NH-39) in Nagaland and Manipur States

6. Remedial Measures for Lowering Ground Water Table at Civil Airport 65(Runway and Roads Area), Pantnagar

7. Feasibility Study on Usage of Sea Water Treated Pond Ash for 66Road Construction

8. Design and Construction of Road Embankment and Pavement Layers 67Using Copper Slag


1. Study on the changes in Characteristics of Coarse/Fine Grained Soil by 67Adding Stone Powder (Quarry Dust) and changes in CBR Values atdifferent Soaking Conditions of the Specimen

2. Investigation, Instrumentation and Monitoring of Kaliasaur Landslide 69on National Highway - 58 (Uttarakhand) and Design of RemedialMeasures for its Long-Term Stability

3. Detailed Geological, Geotechnical Investigation, Instrumentation and 70Monitoring of Amparav Landslide (Uttarakhand)

4. Engineering of Structures Against Natural and Other Disasters 71

5. Pilot Project for Construction of PMGSY Roads Using Jute Geotextiles 71

6. Design of Railway Embankment Using Coal Ash 72

IV. BRIDGE ENGINEERING 73

SUMMARY 73

A. NEW PROJECTS 74

1. Evaluation of Corrosion of Steel through Galvapulse and Gravimetric 74Method

2. Detailed Analysis of Slopes through Finite Element Method 74

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1. Performance Evaluation of the Four Spans of a Grade Separator and 75Two Spans of a ROB through Load Testing Connecting NationalHighways at Lucknow

2. Study on Excessive Vibration in Mahatma Gandhi Setu Bridge 77

3. Vibration Studies in the Road-Way Portion of Rajahmundry Road-cum- 78Rail Bridge

4. Evaluation of Residual Prestress in the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge at Patna 78

5. Development of a Critical Infrastructure Information System in GIS 79Environment for Maintenance of Bridges on National and State Highways

6. To Review the Maximum Thickness of Individual Laminate in 81Elastomeric Bearing and Conditions of Properties and Tolerances

V. TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION 83

1. PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT 83

SUMMARY 83

2. SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT 83

SUMMARY 83

A. NEW PROJECTS 84

1. Traffic Forecast and Toll Revenue Estimation for Ganga Expressway 84

2. Economic Impact of Public Transportation Development - Case Study 85of Proposed Metro Rail in Cochin

3. Comparative Study of National Expressway -1 with NH-8 for Accident 86Analysis from Amdavad to Vadodara

4. Road Safety Public Education for Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai 87GQ Corridors


1. Transport Plan for Commonwealth Games 2010 88

2. Integrated Transportation Plan for National Capital Region 88

3. Computation of Price Index for Stage Carriage Operations (PISCO) 90

4. Computation of Price Index for Auto and Taxi Operations (PIATO) 91

5. Road Safety Aspects for Vulnerable Group (Children) including CwD 92(Children with Disabilities)

6. Mobile Combustion: GHG Emission Inventory for Transport Sector in India 93

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VI. RESEARCH WORK DONE IN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS RELATED TO 95THESIS WORK

A. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, PERFORMANCE 95EVALUATION AND INSTRUMENTATION

1. Measuring Travel Time Reliability of Road Transportation System 95

2. Analysis of Road Network Characteristics and Its Influence on Route-Choice 97Using GPS-GIS Integration

3. Determination of Optimum Timing and Maintenance Strategies for 99Rural Roads in Kerala

B. PAVEMENT ENGINEERING AND PAVING MATERIALS 102

1. Studies on Performance of High Volume Fly Ash Concrete for Rigid 102Pavements

C. TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION 103

1. Capacity of Four Lane Divided Urban Arterial Roads 103

2. Assessing Level of Service of Two Lane Highways Using User 104Perception and Its Comparison with Field Measurements

3. Analysis of Road Network Characteristics and its Influence on 105Route-Choice using GPS-GIS Integration

4. Short Term Traffic Volume Prediction under Heterogeneous Conditions 107

5. Carbon Rating for Indian Cities 109

6. Social Cost and Benefit Analysis for BRT: Case Study - Delhi 110

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 111

LIST OF ORGANISATIONS 112

APPENDIX A: Proforma Sheet for Reporting R&D Work for the General Report 113

ROAD RESEARCH IN INDIA 2008-2009 1

INTRODUCTION

Highway Research Record No.36 describes the General Report on Road Research Work done inIndia during the year 2008-2009. This document has been prepared by compiling the progress ofresearch work reported by 19 Research Organisations and Academic Institutions in the country. Thenames of reporting organizations have been listed at the end of the report. As the General Report onRoad Research is intended to provide information on research works carried out under variousresearch projects, works reported on routine investigations and laboratory/field testing have beenomitted from the document.

As per the classification, the entire material has been divided into five sections, namely, HighwayPlanning, Design, Management, Performance Evaluation & Instrumentation; Pavement Engineering& Paving Materials; Geotechnical Engineering; Bridge Engineering and Traffic & TransportationEngineering. The projects in each section are further classified in to two broad categories namely(i) Projects Reported First Time, i.e., New Projects and (ii) Completed Projects/On Going Projects.The research works carried out as a part of Master and Doctoral thesis in the Academic Institutionshave also been reported separately in Section VI of the report.

The research work in each section has been reported as per the standard Proforma for thethree broad categories of projects. The Proforma along with other related information are givenin Appendix A.

Each sectional report begins with a brief overview in the form of Summary followed by a few salientpoints towards channelising the discussions during the presentation of the report in the IRC AnnualSession.

GENERAL REPORT ON

2 GENERAL REPORT ON

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the General report on Road Research Work done in India for the year 2008-2009, published asHighway Research Record No. 36, the research work done by 19 organisations on various aspectshas been reported. The report has been compiled by CRRI. The R&D work reported under thefollowing five major areas and the research work done in Academic Institutions related to the thesiswork is reported under Section VI:

1. Highway Planning, Design, Management, Performance Evaluation and Instrumentation

2. Pavement Engineering and Paving Materials

3. Geotechnical Engineering

4. Bridge Engineering

5. Traffic & Transportation Engineering

1. Highway Planning, Design, Management,Performance Evaluation andInstrumentation

1.1 Highway Planning, Design andManagement

In this sub-section of HighwayPlanning, Design and Management, thereare five reported as newly taken projects.The projects reported deals with fiberreinforcement of plastic road sidebarrier on high speed highways,computerization of inventory of roads,integrated development of rural roads, traveltime reliability study of road network and GISapplications in traffic management issues.Four projects are reported as ongoing andcompleted projects. They are mainly on GISbased national highways information systemdevelopment, pavement maintenancemanagement system including the use coststudy on high speed corridors.

A study has been initiated with anobjective to develop detail design,specification and drawing of fiberreinforcement of plastic road sidebarrier to be adopted on high speed corridor

(100 km/h) of National Highways. Theinterim results shows that the laminatedesign which has been thoroughly testedfor material characterization and finallyadopted for fabrication of the FRP W-beam.The raw materials used for production of thebeam and the prescribed fabricationstechniques can withstand all weatherconditions encountered in the country.

Computerized Inventory of rural roads forMulanthuruthy and Pampakuda BlockPanchayaths in Ernakulam District is beingdeveloped to assess the settlement levelconnectivity and estimation of road lengthfor connectivity improvements. Similarly astudy has been undertaken to prepare ruralroad development plan by identifying therural roads on priority basis based onappropriate socio, economic and technicalconsiderations and cost-benefit analysisfrom among the large number of roadsrecommended by the concerned Local SelfGovernment Institutions in Idukki District ofthe Kerala State.

A study has been proposed to develop anefficiency of highway network using Traveltime reliability measures. The study


proposes application of stochasticsimulation technique and ArtificialIntelligence techniques for modelling traveltime distribution under various uncertaintyfactors of the road transportation system.

Geographical Information System (GIS) inTraffic Congestion Management has beenreported as newly undertaken project toapply GIS functionalities in trafficcongestions in urban areas. Thedevelopment of a GIS based CMS includingspatial design and querying of geographiccoverage, dynamic segmentation, networkconflation and overlaying capabilities.

The project on Development ofManagement System for MaintenancePlanning and Budgeting of High SpeedRoad Corridors has been undertaken todevelop a management system for roadsand bridges under the eleventh five yearplan. The system will provide maintenancestrategies and fund requirements. The studyinvolves calibration and adopt of HDM-4 forroad sector and development of bridgemaintenance and management system. Italso includes updation of road user costmodels. Similarly, development of pavementmaintenance management system forselected roads using natural rubber modifiedbitumen in Kerala.

1.2 Pavement Evaluation

Three newly taken up research works havebeen reported under the sub-section onPavement Evaluation. It mainly comprisesof evaluation of serviceability of expresshighways in Mumbai region,determination of pavement classificationnumber of the existing runway andevaluation for improvement of urban roads.Four projects have been reported under thecategory of completed/ongoing projects.They mainly deals with evaluation and needmaintenance and rehabilitation measures,

causes of distress and need measures andinvestigation for design of plant roads.

A study has been undertaken to evaluateserviceability of pavement surface of theEastern Express and Western ExpressHighways in Mumbai Region. The mainobjective of the project is to find out thepresent level of adequacy with regard to skidresistance (surface friction), riding quality(roughness index) and to provide quickcorrective maintenance actions to achievebetter serviceability.

A project has been undertaken todetermination of Pavement ClassificationNumber of the Runway at Surat Airport andits suitability for use. The broad objective ofthe study is to determine the safe loadcarrying capacity of the existing runway interms of Pavement Classification Number(PCN) value and its suitability for use bydifferent types of aircrafts.

Two projects has been reported to evaluatethe selected urban roads for theirimprovement measures. Field investigationshave been carried out as per requirementsand recommendations were proposed forimprovements based on the data analysis.Similarly, investigations for review of designof pavement for plant roads have beencarried out and suggestions have beenmade as per IRC guidelines.

1.3 Pavement Performance

Under this sub-section on PavementPerformance, one new project on study ofrut behaviour of pavements and itssignificance in design methodology hasbeen reported as newly taken project. Undercompleted section, one project on pilot studyon effect of overloading on roadinfrastructure and another on rural roadpavement performance study has beenreported.

4 GENERAL REPORT ON

A new project on rut behaviour of pavementsand its significance in design methodologyhas been initiated with an aim to arrive at amethod of determining the shift factorrequired in the fatigue equation forpavement design. The rut depth of thepavement layers and vertical strain aremeasured under different number of loadrepetitions due to a loaded single wheel withdifferent contact pressures. Different typesof sub-grades are being tested with differentcontact pressures in order to frame up thedesign curves.

2. Pavement Engineering and PavingMaterials

2.1 Soil Stabilization, Low Grade Materialsand Low Volume Roads

There are three projects that have beenreported as completed. The need to developlime injection technique for improvingsubgrade soil stabilization on existingpavement has been highlighted. Theoptimum lime required for stabilization ofpoor subgrade is found to be as high as 12per cent where as IRC Code recommendsonly 3-4 per cent lime.

A study on effect of commercially availablesoil stabiliser on clay subgrade soil A-7-6clay type soil is attempted by using differentdosage of 4 per cent, 10 per cent and12 per cent. The CBR values ofcommercially available soil stabiliser treatedclay soil show improvement at the initialstage but thereafter CBR value decreases.The soil stabiliser can be used for short termimprovement of soil.

A study on utilization of lime sludge 2 and burntsilica as marginal materials for stabilization ofsubgrade soil is reported. A 10 per centquantity of marginal material is recommendedfor use. Results were found to be satisfactorysince constituents in the marginal materials

do not make any hazardous effect on thenearby water bodies. Field oberservations areneeded to be studied.

2.2 Flexible Pavements

Research works reported in the area offlexible pavements include five new projectsthat have been taken up which are(i) Laboratory evaluation and fieldperformance of ready made slurry mix, (ii)Use of commercially available additive forbituminous road works, (iii) Utilization ofmarginal materials as an ingredient inbituminous mixes, (iv) Influence ofcommercially available additive and Fly ashin bitumen and bituminous mixes and(v) Design of flexible pavement forproposed heliport at Rohini. Slurry seal isthe most versatile and cost effective way topreserve and protect bituminous pavementsince it extends the life of existing pavement.An additive/modifier of bitumen, with dosageof 0.1 per cent is used in high strength mixeslike bituminous concrete but a detailedperformance study till failure is suggestedto be conducted.

Marginal materials such as steel slag andmedical field plastic wastes (glucose bottlesand syringes) have been used in a study.Maximum possible replacement ofaggregates and bitumen by using thesemarginal materials is being attempted. It isreported from the interim conclusions andsupporting data that 20-30 per cent bitumencan be saved by addition of slag. By adding3-5 per cent biomedical plastic wastebituminous mix strength can be increasedby about 17-63 per cent. In bituminousconstruction, 30-40 per cent aggregates canbe replaced with concrete waste.Commercially available additive and Fly ashare used in bitumen and bituminous mixes.Softening point, penetration, ductility,solubility, kinematic viscosity, thin film oven


test, flash point, elastic recovery, specificgravity and Marshall stability tests areconducted in the study. Use of commerciallyavailable additive increases softening pointand stability. To achieve higher stability (i.e.1114 kg & 1208 kg), one can use 5 per centbinder including 20 per cent flyash and 4.5per cent binder including 10 per cent flyash.

Eight projects are reported ascompleted/ongoing in the area of FlexiblePavement. Resource mapping of roadconstruction materials is reported based on34 rock quarry and 5 sand quarry samples.Laboratory results show that materials areavailable within the specified limits for roadconstruction and can be used. Waste plastichas been used in many studies reportedearlier also. The condition of roadconstructed by using waste plastic, in termsof distress (cracks and potholes), isbetter for the study stretches whencompared to the control section. A study oncharacterization and utilization of wasteplastic is reported as completed, underwhich Plastic Coating Aggregates (PCA) areused. PCA reduces water absorptionresulting into lesser voids in the mix. Itimproves soundness, Marshall stability butdecreases aggregate impact value andcrushing values, Los Angeles abrasionvalue. Study on the effect of using quarrydust and copper slag in sub-base is alsoreported for which field observations are inprogress. No sub-base failure has beenobserved so far.

Development of cold mix technology forstructural layers BM+SDBC or MSS of flexiblepavement under different climates is reportedat three locations. Based on the study,tentative specifications for BM, SDBC andMSS have been prepared and submitted toIndian Roads Congress for their finalization.Development of cold mix design procedurefor dense graded bituminous mix (BC-II) is

also reported. The Marshall properties of coldmix specimens are found to be inferior whencomared to that of hot mix specimens.Indirect tensile strength of hot mix specimensis higher than that of cold mix specimens.Indirect tensile strength is found to beincreasing with curing period.

A study on demonstration of CRRITechnology through trial section usingMarble Slurry Dust in Rajsamand isreported. Based on the laboratory resultsand field investigations it is recommendedthat marble slurry dust can be gainfullyutilized in bulk for construction of pavementlayers and also in embankments.

2.3 Rigid Pavements

In this section only three projects arereported. A study on Dry Lean Concrete(DLC) using Portland Pozzolana Cement(PPC) is reported. The strength criterion,as per IRC:SP:49 is not satisfied when200 kg/m3 of PPC is used. From empiricalformulae developed under the study, it isestablished that minimum cement contentshould be 270 kg/m3. Performanceevaluation of rigid pavements on highdensity traffic corridors usinginstrumentations supported by laboratorytests is currently in progress. A study onperformance of high volume flyash concretehas brought out interesting findings throughwhich high proportion of cement can bereplaced in pavement quality.

3. Geotechnical Engineering

Research work reported in this areaencompass projects dealing with 'GroundImprovement Techniques, Use ofGeosynthetics, Subgrade soil improvement/characteristics and landslide monitoring/remediation studies. Seven new R&Dprojects have been reported while Fiveprojects reported earlier have submitted

6 GENERAL REPORT ON

further progress made.

Adoption of ground improvement techniquesis becoming increasing imperative due tovarious reasons like necessity to constructroads over soft clay deposits andliquefaction prone loose deposits of sandy/silty soils. A project dealing on such situationhas been reported in this year. Use of Jutebased geosynthetics for rural roadconstruction is receiving special attention.Two such projects have been reported. Inone of these projects, a systematicperformance evaluation of jute geotextilelaid and control section (without jutegeotextile) is underway. Improvement ofsubgrade soil by resorting to mechanicalstabilization has been reported in oneproject. Innovative design of drainagemeasures to deal with high ground watertable has been reported in one project.

Landslide monitoring and design ofremediation measures has been taken upat various locations by researchers. A newproject taken up at NH-39 in North-Eastunderlined role of anthropological factorsaggravating hill slope instability problems.Many remedial works are often taken up atdifferent landslide sites by executingagencies. But after completion of civil works,maintenance of such measures does notreceive the due importance. As a result theremedial measures become ineffective andrecurrence of failure is seen after few years.These facts have been highlighted in thisyear's report. A study is also underway toprepare draft guidelines to deal with floodrelated damage to road infrastructure.

4. Bridge Engineering

Under this section, two projects on vibrationstudies on bridges have been reported bySERC, Chennai. Evaluation of performanceof bridges is a major task to ensure their

safety. It also helps in planning themaintenance scheme of bridges. CRRI hascompleted a project in which performanceevaluation of four spans of a grade separatorand two spans of a ROB have beensuccessfully completed through load testing.In this project, vibration characteristics anddynamic strains by running the loaded trucksat a specific speed traffic have also beenmeasured to evaluate the performance ofthe bridge spans. Evaluation of residualprestress is a PSC girder bridge is a complextask. SERC, Chennai has reported that anovel experimental technique has beendeveloped to evaluate the residualprestress.

There are large number of distressedbridges in our country which require repairand strengthening for efficient maintenanceof these bridges. Towards this, a CriticalInfrastructure Information System in GISEnvironment is being developed by CRRifor maintenance of bridges. The variousmodules being developed are InventoryModule, Inspection Module, and LoadCarrying Capacity Module, Maintenance/Rehabilitation/Strengthening Module,Budgeting Module and Advance DecisionSupport System Module. For the ease ofimplementation, it will be attempted forGhaziabad District. Therefore, the base maphas been prepared and verified with fieldstudies and the inventory data of bridgesand culverts pertaining to Ghaziabad Districthas been collected.

Corrosion of reinforcement is a major causeof distress in bridges located in coastalareas. A project has been initiated in CRRIto develop a correlation for loss of steel dueto corrosion using gravimetric method.

Slope failure is a very common problem inhilly roads during rainy season and it affectsthe normal life. A project on detailed slope


stability analysis using FEM has beenundertaken by CRRI.

5. Traffic & Transportation

The 1047 km long Ganga Expresswayconnecting Greater Noida and Ballia is goingto be developed as an 8 - lane accesscontrolled facility. Traffic estimation is donethrough a systematic development ofregional travel demand model. This is firstof its kind in India and the methodology isexpected to be utilized in traffic estimationof future expressways. In order to assessthe sensitivity of Ganga Expressway trafficestimates, two scenarios representing anOptimistic and Pessimistic growth potentialof the influence area have been prepared.Sectional traffic volume in pessimistic andoptimistic cases range in 32000-50000PCUs (in 2013) and goes upto 120000 -190000 (in 2033).

The reduction in accidents on NH-8 after theconstruction of Expressway - 1 has beenstudied. Another project on EconomicImpact of Public TransportationDevelopment - Case Study of ProposedMetro Rail in Cochin was undertaken tostudy the impact of development of publictransport in reducing the private transportdemand along with the associated positiveand negative impacts to the society.

The study on Integrated Transportation Planfor National Capital Region recommendsnew Expressways of length of 1245 km forHorizon Year [2032]. Some of the StateHighways, MDR, and ODR will be upgradedinto National Highways. The total length ofNH in the Horizon Year will be 1971 kmwhich is about 870 km more that of the BaseYear (2007). An extensive Regional RailNetwork has also been included along withthe Regional Road Network as an integratednetwork, for assignment of intra-region

passenger traffic by public transport(road & rail).

The study on Computation of Price Indexfor Stage Carriage Operations (PISCO)revealed that the Passenger fare for ordinarybus services in Kerala was fixed as 55 paisaper kilometer as per the last bus farepermission effected in July 2008. Therewere fall in fuel prices and certain other costinputs such as tyre and tube etc. The PriceIndex for Stage Carriage Operations(PISCO) fell to 200.80 as on January 2009prices as against 210.46 during the last farerevision in July 2008. The movement ofPISCO from July 2008 to February 2009justifies revision of ordinary fares downwardby 4.55 per cent. Similarly Computation ofPrice Index for Auto and Taxi Operations(PIATO) was also undertaken.

Study on Road Safety Public EducationCampaign was undertaken and it wasreported that change of behaviour with acultural shift for better awareness and saferactions on road is possible. To achieve thisinstitutional mechanism is required tomaintain the continuity and make it asustained effort, and involvement of media,in all forms.

The problems faced by Children includingChildren with Disabilities (CwD) while usingthe footpaths was assessed by interviewinga group of school children consisting of56 per cent females and 54 per cent maleswith locomotors problems, mentallychallenged 24 per cent males and 11 percent females, 11 per cent deaf and blindfemales, 11 per cent were only blind and11 per cent were having any other type ofimpairment. They expressed during opinionsurvey that generally they found no accessto the footpaths due to various factors forexample the encroachment of parkedvehicles, vendors, poor drainage system

8 GENERAL REPORT ON

and level differences on footpaths.

Study on Mobile Combustion: GHGEmission Inventory for Transport Sector inIndia endeavors to develop a robustemission inventory pertaining to greenhouse gas emissions from roadtransportation sector.

6. Research Work Done in AcademicInstitutions Related to Thesis Work

The salient features of some of thecompleted projects are:

• A study on Measuring Travel TimeReliability of Road TransportationSystem was carried out to measurethe performance of HanshinExpressway road transport networkJapan. ITS data has been used toestimate the section level (500 m)travel time and further path travel timeestimations by considering time slicemethod. This study proposed a framework for travel time variation under theinfluence of supply side demand sideand external factors and model thestochastic behavior of travel timevariability under the influence ofvarious uncertain variables. The studysuggests that stochastic Responsivesurface models well distributedbetween travel time 813 seconds to2678 seconds and also follows theactual travel time distribution. Also thisstudy considered the Jointly estimatedmodels such as Seemingly UnrelatedRegression (SURE) models to modelthe indirect relationship of rain fall andtraffic accident effect through trafficflow on travel time variation. The studyidentified that, if there is a trafficaccident, traffic flow will be effectedby 188 vehicles in that hour on Ikedaline by considering traditional

regression models but according toSURE model traffic flow will bereduced by 356 vehicles.

• A study was taken up on Analysis ofRoad Network Characteristics & itsinfluence on route-choice usingGPS-GIS Integration. The objective ofthe study is to provide a route-guidance system to the users in theform of Variable Message Signs(VMS), so that the users can avoidtaking the congested routes and plantheir trips wisely. The preliminaryanalysis of this study says that 60 percent of the respondents consideredRoad-condition as the most importantfactor for choosing the desired route.The study shows that majority ofrespondents are willing to follow theVMS, depending on their installationpatterns. Also this study suggests that79per cent preferred congestioninformation to be provided as VariableMessage Sign (VMS). Finally, thestudy establishes the effectiveness ofintegrating GPS & GIS for effectiveroute-choices among commuters.

• Another study taken was taken up onDetermination of Optimum Timing andMaintenance Strategies for RuralRoads in Kerala. The objectives thestudy is to find out optimalmaintenance strategies for rural roadsby carrying out life cycle cost analysisusing HDM-4. This study identifies thatwhen the IRI value is greater than 8.5,percentage ravelled area less than 28per cent and percentage area affectedby pothole is negligible, the optimaltreatment suggested was resurfacingwith premix carpet and the optimaltime obtained was 5 years forIRI > 10 m/km and 6 years for IRI upto 10 m/km. Similarly suggested that


when the IRI values is greater than8.5, percentage ravelled area greaterthan 28 per cent and percentage areaaffected by pothole is negligible,optimum treatment suggested wasresurfacing (PMC) with preliminarytreatment for ravelling and the optimaltime obtain was 5 years.

• To develop capacity standards for fourlane divided urban roads a study wasundertaken. The results revealed thatthe capacity of urban road changeswith the varying width of carriageway.The capacity based on dynamic PCUconcept for carriageway width of7.5 m is estimated as 3069 PCU/h.

• A study was undertaken forAssessing Level of Service of TwoLane Highways using User Perceptionand Its Comparison with FieldMeasurements. The results of thestudy are that Level of serviceobtained from the user perceptionmethods was found to be lower levelthan that obtained from the fieldmeasurement. The user perceptionattributes influences the determinationof LOS of two lane highwayssignificantly.

• A study was taken on Analysis of RoadNetwork Characteristics & its influenceon route-choice using GPS-GISIntegration. Some of the salientfindings of the study are that thedistance between the origin anddestination was considered as themost important factor for route-choiceby 39 per cent of the respondents and62 per cent of the respondentsconsidered Traffic jam/delays as the

major difficulty while traversing alongthe routes. 79 per cent preferredcongestion information to be providedas Variable Message Sign (VMS). Thestudy shows that majority ofrespondents are willing to follow theVMS, depending on their installationpatterns.

• Another study on Short Term TrafficVolume Prediction underHeterogeneous Conditions wasundertaken to predict short term trafficvolume using statistical method likeARIMA model.

• The study on Carbon Rating for IndianCities recommends Public transportoperation including the intermediatepublic transport for conversion toalternate fuel, namely, CNG.Urbanization strategies at national andstate must be directed towardscreation of large number of smallertowns rather than create biggermetropolitan cities. Bharat stage-IV,Bharat stage-V emissions norms beintroduced earlier than stipulatedschedule to cut CO2 emissions in thecountry.

• The study on Social Cost and BenefitAnalysis for BRT a case study of Delhiestimated that total cost of buspassengers before BRT isRs 8.10/h and during BRT isRs 5.73/h, for private vehicleusers before BRT cost per hour isRs 34.75 and during BRT it is Rs 67.14for while cyclist, time cost beforeBRT is Rs 0.48/h and during BRT it is0.91/h.

10 GENERAL REPORT ON

I. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, PERFORMANCEEVALUATION AND INSTRUMENTATION

1. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT

SUMMARY

In this sub-section of Highway Planning, Design and Management, there are five reported as newlytaken projects. The projects reported deal with fiber reinforcement of plastic road side barrier on highspeed highways, computerization of inventory of roads, integrated development of rural roads, traveltime reliability study of road network and GIS applications in traffic management issues. Four projectsare reported as ongoing and completed projects. They are mainly on GIS based national highwaysinformation system development, pavement maintenance management system including the roaduser cost study on high speed corridors.

SALIENT POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Development of Cost Effective Road Side Safety Barriers.

2. GIS Applications for Development of Road Information System.

3. Maintenance Planning and Budgeting of Road Corridors.

4. Travel Time Reliability Studies for Road Transport Network System.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Development of Fiber Reinforced Plastic(FRP) Road Side Barriers

Date of Start: April 2007

Date of Completion: Dec 2009

(i) National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) (R, S)

(ii) IIT Kharagpur (I)

Scope and Objectives

(i) Detail design, specification anddrawing of FRP barrier to be adoptedon high speed corridor (100 km/h) ofNational Highways.

(ii) The raw material of FRP compositeshould be able to withstand all weatherconditions encountered in country.

Methodology

The basic geometry of the W-Beam has not beenchanged since it has been evolved over the yearsthrough research and experience. FRP laminatetesting was done to find the tensile strength andmodules of elasticity. Simulation of FRP W-Beamwas carried out using ANSYS finite elementanalysis package.

FRP barriers were theoretically tested for animpact of vehicle of 1000 kg weight moving at aspeed of 100 km/h at different angles of impact.The final designed FRP barriers also fixed at sitefor assessing the performance after 1 year.

Interim Conclusions/Supporting Data

(i) The final laminate design which hasbeen thoroughly tested for materialcharacterization and finally adopted forfabrication of the FRP W-beam is asunder:

a) A gel coat is used as the firstlayer.

b) Subsequently the laminate isbuilt up using 4 layers of 450 gm/m2 chopped strand mat and 4layers of 610 gm/m2 wovenroving of c-glass fibers. They arelaid alternately.

c) Isopthalic resin with adequateclass amount of catalyst andaccelerator is used for curing thelaminate.

d) The average laminate thicknessis 7 mm.

e) 100 mm wide mild steel insert of2 mm thickness put at the boltingzone of the W-Beams toenhance the shearing strengthsof the laminate.

(ii) The FRP W-Beam designed anddeveloped can be used in high speedcorridors (100 km/h) withoutcompromising the vehicle safetyrequirements.

(iii) The FRP W-beams produced the rawmaterials and the prescribedfabrications techniques can withstandall weather conditions encountered inthe country.

Significance/Utilisation Potential

May be adopted in place of metal crash barrieralong the highways like, bridge approaches, highembankments, expressways, etc.

Report/Publications

(i) Interim Report

(ii) Final Report

(iii) Report on Design, Specification anddrawing of FRP barrier


Further information/copy of report can beobtained from

Dr Nisith R Mandal, Prof and Head, Departmentof Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, IITKharagpur-721 302.E-Mail [email protected]. Preparation of Computerized Inventory

of Roads for Mulanthuruthy andPampakuda Block Panchayaths inErnakulam District


Date of Completion: March 2009

National Transportation Planning andResearch Centre (NATPAC),Thiruvananthapuram (R)


The scope of the study is limited to rural roadscoming under the rural local bodies comprisingof Grama Panchayaths, Block Panchayaths andDistrict Panchayaths. Within the scope, theobjectives of the study are:

• Identification of all sub settlements(wards) within each GramaPanchayath in the study area;

• Listing of all roads passing through thesettlements (all categories);

• Inventory of Grama Panchayath roads(roads having a minimum width of sixmeters that can be developed tomotorable standards and a minimumlength of 500 m);

• Preparation of digitized road mapswith supporting data for each GramaPanchayath using the GIS format.

Methodology

• Settlement level data- sub settlement(within each Panchayath) identification,

road availability, location of facilities.

• Road level data-connectingsettlements, population benefitedfacilities along the road.

• Road inventory- length, width, surfacetype, settlements connected.

• Road mapping-base maps (cadastral)provided by the Kerala State Land UseBoard.

These maps were further modified by Digitizing,Mosaicing, Geo-referencing, Scaling using GISformat and development of attribute tables.

Interim Conclusions/Conclusions/SupportingData

• Assessment of settlement levelconnectivity

• Total settlements

• Connected/unconnected

• Road length required for connectivityimprovements

Significance/Utilization Potential

Development of an authentic spatial data baseon Grama Panchayath roads together withsupporting information required for thedevelopment of plan documents and rural roadmanagement system in GIS platform.

Recommendations for Further Work/FurtherProposed Work

Updated road details along with settlement leveldata can be used for the preparation of RoadDevelopment Plan required for PMGSY, BharathNirman or NABARD funded road developmentschemes.

Reports/Publications

Preparation of Computerized Inventory of Roadsfor Mulanthuruthy and Pampakkuda BlockPanchayaths in Ernakulam District.



The Director, National Transportation Planningand Research Centre, Sasthra Bhavan, PattomPalace P. O., Thiruvananthapuram- 695 004.

3. Integrated Development of Rural Roadsin Idukki District (Under SwaminathanPackage)

Date of Start: January 2009




The scope of the study was preparation of ruralroad development plan by identifying the ruralroads on priority basis based on appropriate socio,economic and technical considerations andcost-benefit analysis from among the largenumber of roads recommended by the concernedLocal Self Government Institutions forimprovement under the proposed SwaminathanPackage in Idukki District of the Kerala State.

Methodology

• Discussion with District Administrationregarding firming up the methodology.

• Review of the list of roads andpreliminary screening.

• Review of available study materialsincluding maps and the core networkof the District.

• Reconnaissance survey andinteraction with Engineering Wing ofDistrict Administration for finalizing thequestionnaire.

• Detailed Road Inventory and Socio-

Economic & Engineering Surveys.

• Preparation of Benefit-Cost Score:factors considered as benefits-number of households/commercialestablishments/public institutions/milkcollection centres, area underplantation/food/mixed crops. Factorsconsidered for cost-length of WBM/Earthen portion, retaining wall,quantity of earth work and span of CDstructures required.

• Other factors considered in prioritizing:Connectivity (number of GramaPanchayaths/sub settlementsconnected & accessibility to tar road-road starting/ending) and bus routeavailability.

• Link Priority Index was prepared usingthe formula RPI = 10*P+5*S+5*A+10*B+100* BCS where RPI=Road Priority Index for a road, whereP= Number of Grama Panchayathsconnected, S= Number of settlementsconnected, A = accessible to tar road(2, if both sides are connected and 1,if only one side is connected), B= busroute road (1 for bus route),BCS=Benefit Cost Score.

• Finally, Phasing of projects worked outon the basis of road width available,i.e., Phase-I for 8+ m width, Phase-IIfor 6-8 m and Phase-III for 6- wideroads.

Conclusions/Supporting Data

A Methodology was formulated forprioritizing the road projects, where all the roads inthe area cannot be taken up for improvement. Totallength of roads proposed for improvement is 1973km. Total 574 Roads covering a length of 1723 kmwere surveyed for analysis and ranked accordingto Benefit -Cost Score and Link Priority Index.



The methodology developed for selection of roadprojects can be applied elsewhere for prioritizationand ranking of similar projects for improvement.

Limitations of Conclusions/Further ProposedWork

Based on the roads identified and prioritized,Detailed Project Reports to be prepared.


Integrated Development of Rural Roads in IdukkiDistrict (Under Swaminathan Package).



4. Evaluation of Operational Efficiency ofHighway Network Using Travel TimeReliability Measures

Date of Start: March 2009

Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi(R)


• Selection of appropriate travel timereliability Indices for Indian Highways.

• Evaluate operational efficiencycharacteristics of roadway system byconsidering travel time reliabilitymeasures.

• Prioritize various road links based ontravel time reliability measures.

• Application of stochastic simulationmodeling technique and ArtificialIntelligence modeling techniques such

as Stochastic Response SurfaceMethod (SRSM), Neural NetworkModels and Genetic algorithmsmodels for modeling travel timedistribution in the light of demand sidefactors, supply side factors and otherexternal effects of the transportationsystem.

Methodology

The following methodology is designed to meetthe proposed objectives discussed in the earliersection:

• Review of Various PerformanceMeasures: Various performancemeasures of the transportation systemexisting around the world have to bethoroughly studied and reviewed.

• Development of Frame Work forFactors Influencing Travel TimeReliability Measures: Reliability oftravel time mainly varies due to variousfactors from supply side, demand sideand other external factors oftransportation system. These factorshave to be discussed and a relativeinterrelation frame work would bediscussed.

• Identification of Study Area: In thisstudy initially one corridor from urbanarterial road network (Delhi), onecorridor from National Highway and asmall road network (urban area, withinDelhi) will be identified forperformance measurement.

• Data Collection: Various surveys areto be carried out in the proposed studyarea for collecting the necessary trafficinformation, incident information.Similarly external data such as rainfallintensity and fog visibility informationis to be collected from various


Meteorological agencies related tostudy area. In this study continuous24 h data for 6 months duration wouldbe considered for travel timeestimation.

• Estimation of Travel Time:Estimation of travel time plays vital roleon travel time reliability analysis. Traveltime can be measured either by directmeasurements (floating car method,vehicle registration method or Probevehicle) or indirect measurements/modeling (models developed basedon spot speed such as Instantaneous,time slice methods). In this study thedirect measurements would beconsidered for travel time estimation.

• Performance Evaluation ofProposed Study Area: Examinationof various reliability measures for thestudy area and investigation of theappropriate measures to passengerand freight traffic.

• Application of SRSM and ANNSimulation Model for Travel TimeDistribution: Travel time variationunder various uncertainties which areaffected from supply side factors,demand side factors and otherexternal factors of the transportationsystem would be modeled.

• Studying Behaviour of Delay: Thebehaviour of traffic on the proposedroad network would be modeled byconsidering User Equilibrium (UE)principle. This can be achieved byadopting the travel time reliability indexinstead of travel time for the road linkin traditional UE assignment.


The output of present study will be more useful to

the transportation users of the study area in termsof planning their travel time to reach destinationin time. Also, the travel time reliability measuresdeveloped will be useful to for improving theregional road planning and in prioritizing the roadnetwork for taking policy decision and budgetallocation. Travel time reliability measures can actas new tool in policy decision making not onlyroad network planning but also its managementat the national level.

5. Application of Geographical InformationSystem (GIS) in Traffic CongestionManagement

Date of Start: Feb 2009

Date of Completion (Targeted): Feb 2011

Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi


The objectives of the Traffic CongestionManagement System (CMS) are:

• to locate and identify the congestedareas,

• to quantify the magnitude of thecongestion,

• to provide insight into the severity ofthe congestion,

• to provide insight into some of the rootcauses of the congestion identified,

• to develop a traffic congestion indexthat can describe urban arterial trafficcongestion in a practical manner, and

• to develop a methodology to measurethe congestion.

Methodology

A GIS has many capabilities that are appropriateto the design of a CMS. A CMS requires the


creation of large databases that can be used asa decision support tool for decision makers. Thesources of these data are generally very diversewhich adds to the complexity of creating thesedatabases. The capabilities of GIS to manage,manipulate, and query large spatial and attributedatabases coupled with its capability to integratedata from different sources make the GIS an idealplatform in the implementation of a CMS.Additionally, a GIS will serve as an integratingdatabase platform for a variety of monitoring andsystem usage programs with varied data sources.A GIS-based CMS potentially has advantagessuch as:

• The ability to graphically examinetraffic bottle-necks or under-utilizedcorridors in a transportation system;

• The ability to model large networks ofreal-streets, integrate data from trafficcounts, video surveillance, etc., andshow flows in real-time;

• The capability of using video imagerywith GIS to provide the decision-makerwith tools that better depict the natureof the problem; and

• The ability to assess the impact ofproposed traffic remedies alternativeson traffic flow and the environment.

Highly developed GIS have many of thenecessary tools for the successful developmentof a CMS including spatial design and queryingof geographic coverage, dynamic segmentation,network conflation and overlaying capabilities.However, additional modeling functionality needsto be developed. First, a more user friendlyinterface and less complicated links to other toolsneed to be provided. The user interface of CMSis an important element in determining how wellutilized these systems would be. Thisnecessitates the creation of user-friendly systemsthat decision makers can easily access.


The expected output of the study is amethodology for measurement of trafficcongestion, GIS based database that can be usedas a decision support tool for decision makers.The methodology and the database developedcan be used for development of trafficcongestion mitigation policies.


There are many benefits in having aGIS-based CMS. A GIS serves as an integratingdatabase platform for use with various modulesand data sets. Having the CMS encompassed intoa holistic system, a GIS, could potentially allowfor the ability to model large networks in real-time,the ability to graphical examine traffic conditionsin a transportation system, and allow for theflexibility in managing, querying and updating thesystem's large data sets. Additional benefitsinclude modeling traffic. This integrated systemshould ideally provide a platform fortechnological advances as well as conforming toCMS related legislation.

B. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ONGOINGPROJECTS

1. Development of Management System forMaintenance Planning and Budgeting ofHigh Speed Corridors(SIP-030)

Duration: April 2007 to March 2012

(i) Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi ( R),

(ii) Council of Scientific and IndustrialResearch (S)

Objectives and Scope

The overall objective of the study is to develop amanagement system towards making logical


decisions about the budget requirements andallocation of funds thereof, for maintenance ofpavements and bridges, based on optimal lifecycle costs.

Flexible as well as rigid pavements and bridgesinvolving network of high speed road corridors areincluded within the scope of the study.

Methodology

It is proposed to implement the study through twomodules viz., (i) Road Module and (ii) BridgesModule separately. Under road module, it isproposed to apply HDM-4 software forconducting strategic analysis by propercalibrations. For this purpose different roadsections are being selected for performanceobservation. A management system will bedeveloped through incorporation of logicalintervention criterion and analysis of differenttypes of maintenance/improvement treatments/schemes. As a part of this study road user costmodels are also being developed.

In the bridge module it is proposed to develop aBridge Maintenance and Management Systemconsisting different modules includes bridgeinventory and inspection, load carrying capacity,performance under seismic loads, rehabilitationand retrofitting and budgeting for maintenance.

Present Status and Progress

Selection of different road sections is underprogress and also infrastructure for carrying outthe study is being established. The developmentof road user cost models for this study is beingreported separately.

2. Development of Road User Cost Modelsfor High Speed Corridors

Date of Start: December, 2007

Date of Completion (Targeted):December, 2010

(i) Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi (R),

(ii) Council of Scientific and IndustrialResearch (S)

Objectives of the Study

• to build database for quantifying RoadUser Costs considering the spectrumof vehicles plying on high speedcorridors;

• to build Road User Cost relationshipsbetween vehicle speeds and roaddesign parameters with emphasis onhigh speed corridors;

• to calibrate and validate the Road UserCost Models;

• to develop a software for high speedcorridors incorporating the RUCmodels;

• collection and analysis of Time Seriesdata on accidents to identify theaccident prone locations on selectedhigh speed corridors; and

• to conduct field studies at the identifiedBlack Spots;

Scope of the Study

(i) To conduct traffic studiesencompassing Free Speed and Speed- Flow studies on 30 road sectionscovering mainly high speed corridorsso as to bridge the data gaps that existand thus establish relationships whichaccount for changes in road widths,vehicle technology and trafficcomposition.

(ii) To carry out "User Cost Surveys"covering about 12 cities involvinglimited study of selected vehiclesbased on actual vehicle operations onhomogeneous routes encompassing


mainly the high speed inter cityhighway corridors.

(iii) To review the database on which theURUCS-2001 study relationships weredeveloped with a view to establish theneed for augmenting and/or alteringthe same to reflect changes in vehicletechnology, fleet mix and prices.

(iv) Collection of Time Series accidentdata on the identified high speedcorridors from secondary sources.


In the last decade, Government of India has beeninvolved in road capacity augmentation bybuilding high speed corridors to link major citiesthrough the implementation of various projects likeGolden Quadrilateral, North-South, East-Westand some Expressway Corridors. These radicalchanges in road network and vehicle technologyhave resulted in variations in speed - flowcharacteristics. An attempt has been made in thisstudy to explicitly study the speed - flowcharacteristics on high speed corridors coveringboth straight and curved sections. From thecollected data, free speed profiles and speed-flowequations of different vehicle types on high speedcorridors have been developed and capacitynorms would be evolved. As of now, trafficstudies have been completed on about 14 roadsections and the preliminary analysis has beencompleted.

Interim Findings/Conclusions

• The free speed of different vehicletypes namely cars and two wheelerson high speed corridors are higher ascompared to previous studies. Thisclearly demonstrates the contributionof rapid improvements in vehicletechnologies and road designquality standards and however, nosignificant change in free speeds is

witnessed in the case of heavyvehicles.

• Speed - flow equations evolvedthrough linear and BPR methodsexhibits good statistical validity alongwith good R2 values.

• The intercept of the equations haveincreased significantly for cars and twowheelers and the trend is same inother vehicle types as well. Thecoefficient of the equation alsochanged significantly. Thisphenomenon is consistent with freespeed results.

• It is interesting to note that the capacityvalues arrived from the non-linear fitnamely BPR method is found to bemuch more realistic than the linear fit.This is corroborated by the fact thatthe present flow on the candidatetest sections even to the tune of5300 PCUs/h is catered for theaverage speed of the traffic streamranging between 30 km/h and60 km/h for various vehicle types.

• Based on the finding from this study,it can be concluded that the capacityof high speed corridors (four-lanedivided carriageway) is found to be inthe range of 6000-6500 PCUs/h.

3. Development of GIS based NationalHighway Information System

Date of Start: February 2006

Date of Completion (Targeted):December 2010

(i) Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi (R)

(ii) Ministry of Shipping, Road Transportand Highways, New Delhi (S)



Status: Ongoing

Year of Last Report: 2007-08

Progress

It is proposed to develop a GIS based databaseand information system for National Highways,which will include collection and collation ofspatial (Geo-referenced) data and the relatednon-spatial data for about 50,000 km of Nationalhighways except roads under NHDP Phase Iand II. The system will enable storing, retrievingand updating data and present the desiredinformation related to traffic and road assets. Theentire study comprises of the following fourmodules:

Module I: Development of GIS Based HighwaysInformation System Software

Module II: Inventorisation of National Highways

Module III: Traffic Volume and Axle Load Surveysfor National Highways

Module IV: Long Term Maintenance andRehabilitation Strategies for NationalHighways Based on HDM-4 Tool

The development of Web enabled GIS basedNational Highways Information System is beingdeveloped in association with M/s. NIITTechnologies Ltd. A sophisticated instrumentedvehicle known as Network Survey Vehicle (NSV)has been procured from ARRB to collect theprimary data like road inventory data, distressdata, riding quality and GPS data. Using the NSVabout 32000 kms of National Highway Networkpassing in the States - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,

Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Goahas been surveyed and the data is beinganalyzed to upload in the software. The PortableAutomatic Traffic counter cum Classifier has beenprocured for traffic volume survey in selectedlocations of National Highways.

4. Development of Pavement MaintenanceManagement System for Selected Roadsin Kerala


Date of Completion (Targeted): March 2010


Present Status and progress

Status: Ongoing

Year of Last Report: 2007-08

Progress

Periodic data collection is almost completed. Dataanalysis and modeling in progress.

Further Findings/Supporting Data

The crack and pothole initiation and progressiondata shows that the development andprogression of distress is slow in the case of roadsconstructed using Natural Rubber ModifiedBitumen.




2. PAVEMENT EVALUATION

SUMMARY

Three newly taken up research works have been reported under the sub-section on PavementEvaluation. It mainly comprises of evaluation of serviceability of express highways in Mumbai region,determination of pavement classification number of the existing runway and evaluation for improvementof urban roads. Four projects have been reported under the category of completed/ongoing projects.They mainly deals with evaluation and need maintenance and rehabilitation measures, causes ofdistress and need measures and investigation for design of plant roads.


1. Evaluation of Serviceability of Pavement Surface.

2. Determination of Pavement Classification Number of the Runway.

3. Determination of Causes for Distress and Remedial Measures.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Evaluation of Serviceability of PavementSurface of Eastern and Western ExpressHighways in Mumbai Region


Date of Completion: August 2009

(i) Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi (R, I)

(ii) Mumbai Construction Circle, P.W.D.Mumbai (S)


The project was taken up to find out the presentlevel of adequacy with regard to skid resistance(surface friction) and riding quality (roughnessindex) of the Eastern Express and WesternExpress Highways in Mumbai Region.

Scope of work included evaluation ofserviceability or functional quality in terms of ridingquality measurements and surface frictioncharacteristics of the two Express Highways inMumbai Region.

Methodology

Field investigations were undertaken to evaluatethe functional characteristics viz. surfaceroughness and skid resistance of Eastern andWestern Express Highways. Field works carriedout included (i) Roughness Measurements usingTowed Fifth Wheel Bump Integrator (ii) VisualAssessment of Pavement Surface Condition and(iii) skid resistance measurements by BritishPortable Skid Resistance Tester. Fifth WheelBump integrating unit was calibrated with Dipstick,before the commencement of field surveys. Theroughness surveys, for the entire length,covering both up and down travel directions, werecarried out lane wise, on all the 10 lanes (5+5lanes on each side) of both Eastern and Western

Express Highways. Surface frictionmeasurements were carried out using BritishPortable Skid Resistance Tester under both dryand wet pavement surface conditions and wereundertaken on the representative test locations/skid prone areas covering both carriageways onboth the express highways.

Findings/Conclusions

Skid resistance values obtained on the Highwayswere much below the specified minimum valuesand are very alarming particularly in view of hightraffic speeds. It is, therefore, recommended thatcorrective maintenance actions should beimmediately planned and taken for improving theriding quality and skid resistance of pavementsurfaces both on Eastern and Western ExpressHighways.


Report on "Evaluation of Serviceability ofPavement Surface of Eastern and WesternExpress Highways in Mumbai Region".

Further Information/copy of report can beobtained from

The Director, Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi.

2. Determination of PavementClassification Number of the Runway atSurat Airport and its Suitability for Use



(ii) Airports Authority of India, Surat (S)


The broad objective of the study is to determinethe safe load carrying capacity of the existingrunway in terms of Pavement Classification


Number (PCN) value and its suitability for use bydifferent types of aircrafts.

The scope of work under the study includes thefollowing major activities/tasks:

• Pavement deflection measurementson different sub sections of the runway,at pre-determined loads, by usingFalling Weight Deflectometer (FWD).

• Assessment of pavement surfacecondition through visual inspections.

• Extraction of 4" diameter cylindricalcores.

• Measurement of layer thicknesses inthe pavement structure.

• Test pits observations and collectionof subgrade soils and other roadbuilding materials used forconstruction of the existing runwaypavement.

• Laboratory evaluation of in-situmaterials and mixes retrieved from theexisting pavement structure forascertaining the construction quality ofpavement component layers.

• Analysis of data to estimate PCN andrecommend remedial measures.

Methodology

The runway 04/22 at Surat Airport is 2250 m x45 m with flexible pavement and is designed tobe used by A319, A320 and A321 type of aircrafts.The runway was put into operation on 06.05.2007after Widening/Extension/Strengthening ofrunway by Airports Authority of India. Non-destructive testing method by using Falling WeightDeflectometer (FWD) has been used for theevaluation of Pavement Classification Number(PCN) of runway pavement. Pavement deflectionmeasurements, by using FWD, were undertakenat an interval of about 50 m in staggered position

over the main runway pavement, and largely onthe most used lanes on both sides of the centralline. Similarly, FWD deflectionmeasurements were taken on runway ends/turning pads also at representative locations, wellspread over the pavement. Test pits observationsfor different pavement component layers wereundertaken by digging test pits of 1 m x 1 m sizeat suitable locations on old runway, strengthened/widened portion of the runway and the extendedrunway, well spread out on both sides of thecentral line of runway.

Based on the pavement's structural composition;subgrade strength that is modulus of subgradereaction (k-value); flexural strength of concretefor runway end and the features of aircrafts (ACNvalues, size and movements of various aircrafts)presently using the airport pavement, thedeflections data from FWD system is beinganalyzed for determining PCN for runwaypavements viz. main runway and Runway Ends.

3. Evaluation of Selected Roads of NDMC(Phase-II) for Improvement Measures


(i) Central Road Research Institute ,New Delhi (R, I)

(ii) New Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) (S)


The primary aim of the study is to evaluate someselected roads in NDMC area under Phase-IItowards suggesting improvement measuresneeded to achieve high service standards andgood quality roads.

The scope of work under the study includes(i) Visual assessment of pavement surfacecondition (ii) Roughness measurements usingduly calibrated Fifth Wheel Bump Integrator(iii) Structural evaluation by Benkelman Beam


Deflection method and (iv) Classified trafficvolume studies on selected roads.

Methodology

Field investigations were undertaken for theevaluation of selected roads identified in NDMCarea. Assessment of pavement surface conditionwas done by visual inspection. Deflectionmeasurements by Benkelman Beam deflectionmethod were taken at every 100 m interval instaggered manner. Roughness measurements,using duly calibrated Fifth Wheel BumpIntegrator, were taken along the outer wheel pathsfor different carriageways. Classified trafficvolume counts were recorded for 24 h round theclock on selected roads only. Data collected forthe project roads has been analysed and basedon the characteristic deflections obtained on theseroads, bituminous overlays have beenrecommended.

Interim Conclusions

Results of Benkelman Beam deflection studiesindicate that all the selected roads (except oneroad) are structurally adequate and thus don'trequire any major overlay/strengthening for thenext ten years.


1. Evaluation of Selected MCD Roads inDivision-V Area and Needed Maintenanceand Rehabilitation Measures

Date of Start: August 2007

Date of Completion (Actual): August 2008


(ii) Municipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD) (S)


To evaluate the existing condition of some roadsin Division-V area towards recommending

maintenance and rehabilitation measures viz.resurfacing and overlays (both Flexible and Rigidoptions) etc., needed to improve their presentcondition.


Field investigations to evaluate the existingcondition of some roads in MCD area have beencompleted and included (i) Benkelman BeamDeflection Measurements (ii) RoughnessMeasurements using Towed Fifth Wheel BumpIntegrator (iii) Visual Assessment of PavementSurface Condition (iv) Classified Traffic VolumeSurveys (v) Collation of Axle Loads Data fromTata Steel Ltd. and Steel Authority of India Ltd.and (vi) Test Pit Observations. Design of rigidoverlay was done by considering the in-situstrength of subgrade soil and as per the axle loaddata collated from SAIL and M/s. Tata Steel Ltd.Benkelman Beam deflections were taken up onLodhi road and Fourth Avenue road, as per CGRAprocedure laid down in IRC: 81-1997. Based onthe characteristic deflections obtained on theseroads, bituminous overlays for various roads wererecommended. The design details about theDowel and Tie Bars are also given in the report,as per the site requirements.


(i) Different types of distresses/defects,as observed on the project roads, wererecorded as affected area in terms ofpercentage of total surface area.Pavement surface condition onvarious project roads was observed tobe varying from fair to poor.

(ii) The roughness data shows that thecondition of various roads in OkhlaIndustrial Area is poor where as thecondition of both Lodhi road andFourth Avenue road is fair to good.


(iii) The characteristic deflections obtainedon these roads are in between0.38 mm to 0.71 mm which implies thatthese roads are structurally adequateand that only renewal course will beenough to improve upon their surfacecondition. Hence, 40 mm thickBituminous Concrete (BC) isrecommended as the renewal course.

(iv) Based on the traffic data collected,laboratory evaluation of materials/mixes and axle loads data collatedfrom steel industries near to the projectroads (M/s. Tata Steel Ltd. and SteelAuthority of India Ltd.) in OkhlaIndustrial Area, the concreteoverlay, for different roads, has beenrecommended.


Report on "Evaluation of Selected MCD Roads inDivision-V Area and Needed Maintenance andRehabilitation Measures".



2. Investigation to Determine the Causes ofDistress on Mohammadpur-Dohrighat,Mohammadpur-Varanasi and Azamgarh-Ghazipur Roads in the State of UttarPradesh and Needed Remedial Measures

Date of Start: September 2008

(i) Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi (R, I)

(ii) Uttar Pradesh Public WorksDepartment (UPPWD), Lucknow (S)

Present Status and ProgressData collected from the field and laboratory

investigations undertaken for the three roadsunder three Road Maintenance Contract (RMC)packages were analysed and report prepared.Field investigations carried out included pavementsurface distress surveys, test pit observations,Benkelman Beam deflections, traffic volumecounts, axle loads survey, roughnessmeasurements and laboratory evaluation ofin-situ materials collected from different pavementlayers for the three roads.

Conclusions

1. The existing surface profile shall becorrected with either BituminousMacadam or Dense BituminousMacadam, before providing therecommended structural overlay.

2. In the submerged/ water logging / lowlying areas, special attention needs tobe given in terms of raising thepavement levels, to overcomefrequent submergence/overtopping ofthe pavement surface.

3. The hot mix plant shall be dulycalibrated before start of production,so as to produce the mix of designedcomposition. The mix compositionshall be regularly checked forgradation, binder content, stability, flowand air voids.

4. In Dense Bituminous Macadam andBituminous Concrete mixes, goodquality lime stone dust shall be usedas the filler material, as specified inMoRTH specifications.

5. For construction of BM and DBM, 60/70 penetration grade paving bitumenshall be used while modified bitumenshall preferably be used forconstruction of BC layer. Appropriategrade of modified bitumen, as indicatedin IRC: 53-2002, shall be used.


6. The camber of road needs to bemaintained at 2.5 per cent for quickrun-off of surface water. The catchpits/drains/cross drainage works(culverts/Hume pipes etc) shall beproperly cleaned and maintainedregularly in order to prevent/minimizethe damage to road occurring due toinfiltration/entry of water into the lowerpavement layers.


Report on "Investigation to Determine the Causesof Distress on Mohammadpur-Dohrighat,Mohammadpur-Varanasi and Azamgarh-Ghazipur Roads and Needed RemedialMeasures".



3. Investigation to Determine the Causes ofDistress between km 23.800 tokm 35.000 on NH-91 and NeededRemedial Measures

Date of Start: October 2008

Date of Completion: December 2008


(ii) U.P.Public Works Department,National Highways Division,Ghaziabad (S)


The broad objective of the assignment is toevaluate the current condition of project road,particularly km 30, 31 and 33 on NH-91 andsuggest remedial measures needed to improvethe road condition. Scope of work included thefollowing:

(a) Field investigations

• Assessment of pavement surfacecondition through visualobservations.

• Test pits evaluation.

(b) Laboratory investigations involving theengineering properties of pavementmaterials.

Methodology

The field investigation was undertaken with a viewto carry out the structural and functionalevaluation of pavement, including the assessmentof quality of road building materials/mixes usedduring the widening and strengthening works,particularly the bituminous layers. The variousactivities undertaken include (i) Assessment ofpavement surface condition through visualobservations and (ii) Test pits evaluation. Basedupon the pavement surface condition datacollected through visual survey, the locations oftest pits were decided. The test pits were locatedon the widened portion as well as in the oldportion of carriageway. A total of four test pits-twopits on Kanpur bound carriageway and two pitson Ghaziabad bound carriageway, measuring1.2 m x 1.2 m in size, were cut open upto thesubgrade level at these selected locations.

In-situ densities of granular subase and subgradesoil were also determined by sand replacementmethod. The thickness of each constituent layerswas measured at four spots in each test pit andaverage value was taken. The samples ofbituminous materials, granular materials, as wellas the subgrade soil were also collected from eachtest pits for detailed evaluations in CRRIlaboratory.

Traffic data in terms of total number ofcommercial vehicles (2-axle trucks, Bus, LCV's,4 axle trucks) was supplied by NH Division, P.W.D.Ghaziabad. Since no axel load survey was


planned under this project, the weighted averageVehicle Damage Factor (VDF), obtained by CRRIin the past from nearby road sites, a VDF of 8.367has been assumed/ considered for the projectroad.


Based on the data/results obtained through the fieldand laboratory investigations carried outunder this project, adequacy of total pavementthickness provided for the project road for theprevailing conditions (that is subgrade CBR of6 per cent and design loading of 118 msa in10 years) has been worked out. It is seen that thethickness of bituminous layers alone in old roadportion is 400 mm. The structural thicknessrequirement of pavement is worked out using thesubgrade CBR (of 6 per cent) and calculatedcumulative standard axles (of 118 msa), as per IRC:37-2001. The additional thickness requirement, for5 and 10 years design life, has been worked outand needed remedial measures recommended.


(a) The surface distress on existingpavement was assessed quantitativelyduring the visual condition survey. Thevarious distress forms viz. cracks andpatch works were observed in km 31at few locations and only patch work inKms 30 and 33 in widened portion atfew locations only. However, there aresome stretches which have no distressalso. Ghaziabad bound carriagewayhas less distress as compared toKanpur bound carriageway.

(b) Structural inadequacy of the pavementdue to heavy traffic volume (7294CVPD excluding LCVs in the year2005) coupled with severe overloading(VDF of 8.367), resulted in cracking/settlement/rutting/dislodging ofmaterials.

(c) The specification selected forpavement layers, particularly thebinder course and wearing coursesare not appropriate, as can be seenfrom the pavement design cataloguegiven in IRC: 37-2001, for this classof road (sub grade CBR 6 per cent anddesign loading of 118 msa).

(d) Poor intra-drainage conditions belowthe pavement layers as GSB layersare not present throughout (that is uptothe full formation width). The seepageof water into the pavement layers (ascan be supported due to FMC ofsubgrade and GSB layers being morethan OMC) coupled with high voids inBituminous Macadam layer furtheraggravated the situation. Whereverthe SDBC has been provided, thecondition of pavement surface iscomparatively still good than sectionswhere BM has been laid as the toplayer. The pavement surfacecondition is expected to deterioratefurther in future as the pavementneeds to be strengthened with thickand dense bituminous mixes, whichare capable of withstanding higherstresses and strains, as the traffic onproject road is very high due to theroad section passing through highlyindustrialized area.

Recommendations

The following recommendations/remedialmeasures were given:

• For ensuring long term pavementperformance, focus now must shift tothe use of dense graded bituminousmixes (such as DBM and BC) ratherthan the open graded and semi densebituminous mixes (such as BM andSDBC). The future trend is now


towards utilizing high modulus rutresistant mixes to take care of theproblems of rutting in bituminouslayers. Rutting/settlement occurbroadly due to inadequacies in the mixdesign and/or wrong selection ofbituminous mixes.

• Bituminous Macadam is a highlypermeable mix which is prone torutting and water induced damage.Bituminous Macadam, though iswidely used at present, but needs tobe gradually replaced with DBM in thecoming years, because it is not costeffective in the long run and does notperform better during the design lifeof a pavement subjected to heavytraffic. Similarly, the use of Semi-Dense Bituminous Concrete is alsoneeded to be discouraged as it suffersfrom "pessimism" voids, which havepotential to trap water resulting intodamage due to moisture. It should besubstituted by Bituminous Concrete asit is a better performing mix and is alsocost effective in the long run.

• Use of thick wearing course of 40 mmBC instead of 25 mm thick SDBC isrecommended since the project roadfalls under moderate to heavy rainfallarea and is subjected to very heavytraffic volume and loading. It is,therefore, very much essential to sealthe surface from the ingress of water/moisture, which is achieved throughthe application of BC.

• The project road has developeddistress because it is structurallyinadequate for the projected trafficloading and thus requires majorstrengthening/rehabilitation. Therehabilitation for project road can be

undertaken by utilizing appropriatebituminous specifications. Thestructural capacity of project roadneeds to be augmented by providingthe additional structural layers in termsof DBM and BC.

• It is proposed that SDBC work, whichwas stalled in between, may becompleted on the remaining sectionsalso as of now before rehabilitationtreatment is undertaken. Therefore, itis preferred to wait for one monsoonbefore the rehabilitation measures, asrecommended can be taken up. If it isnot acceptable to PWD, therehabilitation measures recommendednow may be taken up immediately soas to prevent the existing surface fromfurther damage. Prolonged exposureof BM surface (which is an opengraded mix) is not at all desirable fora road subjected to heavy trafficvolume and overloading.

• It is extremely important to extendGSB layer right upto the formationwidth, before taking up any bituminouswork, if the recommendedrehabilitation treatments are to servethe intended purpose. Also, theprovisions for adequate drains bemade since it is very much necessaryto avoid infiltration/accumulation ofwater into the pavement structure oralong the road, either by way ofseepage from the surface or onaccount of any other reasons, forexample capillary action.


Report on "Investigation to determine the causesof distress between km 23.800 to km 35.000 onNH-91 and the needed remedial measures".




4. Investigations for Review of Design ofPavement for Plant Roads at DCRTPP,Yamunanagar


Date of Completion: April 2009

Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi(R,I)


Completed and detailed report submitted forimplementation of recommendations.

Further Findings/Conclusions/SupportingData

Review of pavement design was carried out basedon the field observations and laboratory studies.

The design traffic and VDF were to be assumedbased on the client's inputs. The designverification was based on the stipulatedrequirements as per IRC:37-2001. It wasconcluded that the design adopted duringconstruction of internal road network was not inconformity of the requirements of IRC: 37-2001.

Limitations of Conclusions

The review of design was based on limitedlaboratory evaluation and assumptions of certaindesign factors. The performance of roadpavement may be monitored.


Final Report, April 2009.




3. PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE

SUMMARY

Under this sub section Pavement Performance, one new project on study of rut behaviour of pavementsand its significance in design methodology has been reported as newly taken project. Under completedsection, one project on pilot study on effect of overloading on road infrastructure and another on ruralroad pavement performance study has been reported.


1. Effect of Overloading on Road Infrastructure

2. Rut Behavior of Pavements and its Significance in Pavement Design Methodology.

3. Rural Roads Pavement Performance Study.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Study on Rut Behaviour of Pavementsand its Significance in DesignMethodology

Date of Start: June 2007

Date of Completion (Targeted): May 2010

(i) NSS College of Engineering,Palakkad (I)

(ii) Kerala State Council for Science,Technology and Environment (S)


(i) To measure the rut depth of thepavement layers subjected to differentnumber of load repetitions due to aloaded single wheel with differentcontact pressures.

(ii) To measure vertical strain of thepavement at different locations of thepavement with respect to loadingpositions.

(iii) To estimate the fatigue life of thepavement in terms of number of loadrepetitions till failure.

(iv) To arrive at a method of determiningthe shift factor required in the fatigueequation for pavement design.

Methodology

To measure the rut, an instrument named as'Single Wheel Test Track Assembly' has been setup at Department of Civil Engineering, NSScollege of Engineering, with which the compactedsoil is tested. The methodology involved thefollowing steps:

(i) The pavement system to be tested(subgrade with additional layers overit, if any) is to be prepared in the testtrack simulating the field conditions.

(ii) Place the wheel assembly in positionthat is the test wheel touching thesubgrade.

(iii) Place the required amount of weightson the loading pan provided over thetest wheel, so that required contactpressure can be attained.

(iv) Apply the load by starting the motorand note the number of loadrepetitions from the digital counter.

(v) Note the rut measurements using aVernier depth guage of accuracy0.02 mm at increments of 50, 100,500, 1000, 5000, 10000 and so on.

(vi) From the observations noted, thefatigue life of the pavement can beestimated.


Different types of sub-grades are being tested withdifferent contact pressures in order to frame upthe design curves.


• The set up can be successfullyperformed in any type of subgradeconditions such as Compactedsubgrade soil, Unpaved roads whichmay be reinforced or unreinforced,Subgrade stabilised with stabilizers,Paved roads with multiple layers of subbase; WBM or WMM and/orbituminous surfacing.

• The rut depth can be measured to anyamount of accuracy as desired, at anydesired number of load repetitions withexact field conditions.

• Fabrication and operation of theinstrument is less expensive. It issimple and requires less maintenance


and less wear and tear etc. Moreoverskilled supervision is not required


Dr. A. K. Raji/Dr. V.Sudha, Department of CivilEngineering, NSS College of Engineering,Palakkad, Kerala.E-mail : [email protected]. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ONGOING

PROJECTS

1. Pilot Study on Effect of Overloading onRoad Infrastructure


Date of Completion: October 2008


(ii) Ministry of Road Transport andHighways, New Delhi (S)


The objective of the project is to study the effectof overloading of trucks on pavementdeterioration and its service life, performance ofbridges, vehicle operating costs, fuelconsumption, cargo safety and vehicle damages.The methodology includes some theoreticalstudies, based on the existing database, and alsoincludes experimental studies. The study hasbeen planned to carry out the effect onoverloading of 10 per cent, 20 per cent, and30 per cent above the legal limit. This project iscompleted and Final Report was submitted toMoRTH.


Some of the recommendations and conclusionsdrawn from the pilot study are as follows:

• Legal Axle Load Limit should not be

increased unless design of roadinfrastructure is upgraded.

• Law enforcement agencies shouldtake stringent actions against the truckoperators for overloading and applyenforcement at source of loading itself.

• Setting up of weigh-in-motion stationsand empowering highway authoritiesfor enforcement on the axle load limits.

• Encouraging the multi-axle vehicles tocarry more goods, thereby reducingVDF and damages to roads andvehicles.

• Installation of Vehicle OverloadingManagement System to minimise thedamages to the roads.

• Road authorities should be advised todesign the road pavements taking intoaccount axle load spectrum on actualbasis.

• In India, there is a need to develop anintegrated system for monitoring truckloads and verify the truck load carryingcapacity of bridges so that they canbe classified in terms of the truck loadthat can safely pass through thebridges.

Recommendations on the study of CargoSafety and Vehicle Damage are:

• In case of tippers no amendments inthe height of load body should bepermitted and OE should restrict theload body to 14 m3. RTOs shouldensure, both at the time originalregistration as well as at the time ofannual inspection, no amendments inthe cubic capacity of the vehicle takesplace beyond 14 m3.

• Overhang beyond 60 per cent of thewheel base should not be allowed as


per CMVR. Both at the time of originalregistration as well as at the timeannual inspection this should bestrictly followed. RC book shouldspecifically mention the length of thevehicle registered on the RC book aswell as on the body of the vehicle.

• In the case of Tractor-trailer combinationlength of the vehicle i.e prime mover andtrailer should not be more than 18 mpermitted under the law.

• In the case of 16.2 t vehicles height ofload body should be restricted to onemeter only and this must be ensuredboth at the time registration of vehicleby RTO as well as at the time of annualinspection besides height beingmentioned on the body of the vehicle.

• For 25 t vehicles height of the loadbody should be restricted to 1.5 m only.This should be insured at the time oforiginal registration as well as at thetime of annual inspection. Besides thisheight be mentioned on the load body.

Limitations of Conclusions or InterimConclusions

The study is being conducted on pilot basis withthe available data on axle road spectrum. TheHDM-4 software has been used to find out thedeterioration pattern of flexible pavements. Due tonon-availability of trucks for overloading, only onetruck has been used for field studies on fuelconsumption and emission calculation. Operatingcosts of overloaded trucks are not available withthe operators. Therefore, it is recommended forfurther detailed studies, to establish the effect ofoverloading precisely on various roadinfrastructures.

Recommendations for further work

This study is proposed to have detailed long termstudies on axle load spectrum and its effect on

various types of road pavements, bridges andother detailed aspects under various design,geo-climatic and regional considerations so as todetermine the correct damages accused byoverloading of trucks and cost involved. This willalso help in determining the optimal design andconstruction standards for various types ofpavements and bridges.

Recommendations for Dissemination(Revision of Codes/Specifications)

Further it is recommended to carryout detailstudies on the effect of overloading on variousroad infrastructures in different regions toascertain specific impacts and its implications.

Further information/copy of the report can beobtained from



2. Rural Roads Pavement PerformanceStudy

Date of Start: July 2007

Date of Completion (Targeted): March2010

(i) National Rural Roads DevelopmentAgency (R,C)

(ii) Ministry of Rural Development, Govt.of India, New Delhi (S)


The study is limited to 180 roads works, alreadyconstructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana, before 2006. The project proposed tocollect one time inventory data and performance


data after every six months over three years. Theobjectives defined for the study are:

(i) To evaluate the efficacy of the currentdesign procedures for sustainability.

(ii) To understand trends in the growthpattern of the traffic plying on the roadsunder different socio-economicenvironments.

(iii) To assess the progression ofdeterioration of the pavements over aperiod of time under different fieldconditions.

(iv) To study relative performance ofdifferent specifications vis-a-vis theconditions associated, including cost.

(v) To establish mathematicalrelationships among PavementDeterioration with relevantindependent variables/parameters.

(vi) To develop Rural Road Pavementfunctional performance models basedon roughness and distress (in termsof rutting, cracking, potholes etc.)

(vii) To develop Rural Road pavementstructural performance models basedon properties of materials and layersin correlation with external factors liketraffic, temperature and moisture.

(viii) To develop Maintenance and Assetmanagement strategies with a view tohave strategic investment at thenetwork level and optimum use ofavailable maintenance funds based onthe Pavement deteriorations and trafficgrowth trends.

Methodology

Project is being implemented through StateTechnical Agencies (STAs) and Principal Technical

Agencies (PTAs) of NRRDA. STAs/PTAs are theidentified technical education institutions of reputein different states of the country. 16 institutionsworking as STA/PTA are involved in datacollection. STAs/PTAs have been requested tocollect one time inventory data by selecting roadsections of 500 m each and performance dataafter every six months up to three years. Inperformance data, roughness is to be measuredwith MERLIN and deflection data is to be recordedby using Benkelman Beam. Other observationssuch as shoulder condition, pothole formation,cracking etc are to be visually observed ormeasured.


1. Traffic data analysis indicates that thegrowth rate of traffic on some of therates is more than 50 per cent,whereas in some cases the trafficgrowth rate is less than 6 per cent.

2. Rut depth measurements indicateprogressive rutting during four cyclesof observations, in the range of2.85 mm to 62 mm.

3. Roughness measurements indicateprogression of roughness varying inthe range of 4 to 8 in terms ofInternational Roughness Index in fourcycles of observations.

4. Rutting is found to be in the range of5 to 16 mm.

5. Raveling area percentage is varyingbetween 5 to 60 per cent and Severityof cracking is low with cracking up to15 per cent of the area.

6 The characteristic deflection wasfound to be in the range of 0.88 mmto 1.40 mm.



The study may likely to lead to review of designpractices, maintenance management and help therural road sector.

Limitations of Conclusions Recommendationsfor Further Work/Further Proposed Work

The Rural Roads Pavement Performance Study(RRPPS) was launched with the objective ofevaluating the performance of roads through asystematic and scientific measurement of theparameters such as rutting, raveling, cracking,pot hole formation, edge breaking (Edge dipping)etc that reflect the performance of the road. Someof the institutions are at the advanced stage andmany institutions are still in their second and thirdcycle of data collection. Though the institutes triedto develop mathematical models followingdifferent approaches with the limited datacollected, it would be possible to develop bothlocal and global models only after completion ofdata collection and evaluation by all theinvestigators.

For this purpose, it is proposed that while allowingindividual institutes to develop models with theirown approach, a nodal agency such as I.I.T.,Kharagpur is being considered for making use ofthe data from all individual investigators anddeveloping global and regional level performancemodel with universal data. The universal datacompiled from all the institutions will have dataentries in most of the cells of matrices of soil, trafficand environmental conditions considered. This willhelp in developing a variety of models with thelatest approaches.


(i) One Paper Publiched in IndianHighways.

(ii) One Paper Published in NationalConference.

Further information/copy of report can beobtained from:

The Director (Technical), National Rural RoadsDevelopment Agency, New Delhi.


II. PAVEMENT ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS

1. SOIL STABILIZATION, LOW GRADE MATERIALSAND LOW VOLUME ROADS

SUMMARY

Research works reported in the area of Soil Stabilisation, Low Grade Materials and Low VolumeRoads relate to projects on soil stabilization, study on the effect of stabiliser on clay soil and utilizationof marginal materials for the subgrade stabilization.

There are two projects that are reported as completed. Subgrade soil stabilization by sand-lime pile isreported. Upto 12 per cent lime is used for stabilization of poor subgrade where Ias RC Coderecommends only 3-4 per cent. Lime injection technique improves poor subgrade soil in existingpavement. Study on the effect of stabiliser on clay subgrade soil is conducted. Different dosages ofstabiliser are used but CBR values improve initially and thereafter CBR value decreases. Stabilisercan be used for short term improvement.

One ongoing project on utilization of marginal materials for subgrade stabilization is reported. Limesludge and burnt silica sand as marginal materials can be successfully used.


1. Use of Waste Materials for Stabilization of Soils.

2. Utilisation of Marginal Materials in Road Construction and for Subgrade Stabilisation


A. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ ONGOINGPROJECTS

1. Subgrade Soil Stabilisation bySand-Lime Pile


Date of Completion: Dec 2008

Highways Research Station, Chennai-25(R)


Reported first time; Completed.

Finding/Conclusion

The requirement of optimum lime to stabilise thesubgrade soil tested under the present study isas high as 12 per cent whereas IRC: SP:1 (Limestabilization) recommends 3-4 per cent lime forthe soil stabilisation.

Recommendation for Further Work

Guidelines, adopting lime injection technique, arenot presently available for the stabilisation of poorsubgrade soil. If guidelines are framed for limeinjection then it will be very useful for improvingthe poor sub grade soil in existing pavements.This will tremendously reduce the cost ofrectification for distressed pavements.


The Director, Highways Research Station,Chennai-25.

2. Study on the Effect of CommerciallyAvailable Soil Stabiliser on Clay SubGrade Soil


Date of Completion: Jan 2009

Highways Research Station, Chennai-25(R, I, S)


To study the effect of Stabiliser on the CBR valuesof Clay soil (PRA classification).

Methodology

Stabiliser was added to the clay soil at 4 per cent,10 per cent and 12 per cent by the weight of soiland the samples were allowed to cure. CBRs oftreated soil were found on 10th, 30th, 45th, 60thand 90th days of mixing. Atterberg's limits andSpecific Gravity were found for every sample ateach cycle. The results were compared and finalconclusions were arrived on the effect of stabiliserin stabilising A-7-6 type clay soil.

Conclusion

The CBR values of stabiliser treated A-7-6 Claytype soil show improvement initially, i.e. on 10thday of testing. But, thereafter, CBR valuesdecreased with increased time from the date ofmixing. The improvement observed is notsustained permanently.


Stabiliser could only be used wherein short termimprovements of sub grade soil are required suchas formation of temporary roads etc.

Limitation of Conclusion

The study was carried out on A-7-6 Clay soil onlyand the findings are applicable only to these soiltypes. Further studies are necessary tounderstand the effect of stabiliser on other typesof soils.


The Director, Highways Research Station,Chennai-25.


3. Utilization of Marginal Materials forSubgrade Stabilization


Date of Completion (Targeted):May 2010

N.S.S. College of Engineering, Palakkad (I).


Status: Ongoing

Year of Last Report: 2008

Subgrade soil used Marginal Material Suggested addition of marginalUsed materials (from laboratory

investigations), per cent

Clayey soil withLL= 40 per cent, PL = 28 per cent,PI = 12, IS Classification : OI Lime Sludge 2 10d max.=1.48 g/ccOMC=31.5 per cent,CBR=4.2 per cent

Red soil withLL=47 per cent, PL = 18 per cent,PI= 29, IS Classification: CI Burnt Silica Sand 10d max.=1.73 g/ccOMC=15.1 per cent,CBR=3.65 per cent

Progress: About 90 per cent of work has beencompleted so far.


Soil stabilisation and replacement of aggregatesusing Steel Slag, Lime Sludge 1 (from Rubberfactory), Fly ash and Demolished Concrete Wastewas reported earlier. Further tests were conductedusing marginal materials such as LimeSludge 2 (from Textile mill industry) and BurntSilica Sand. Results obtained using two marginalmaterials are given below:

Environmental studies for marginal materials werealso conducted by using chemical analysis.Results were found to be satisfactory sinceconstituents in the marginal materials do not makeany hazardous effect on the nearby waterbodies.


• Utilisation of other industrial wastes tobe explored.

• Conduct fatigue studies.

• Conduct field observations.


Published one Paper at 9th Kerala ScienceCongress held at Kollam and another Paperpublished at National Conference, Race-2009,held at CUSAT, Cochin.


Dr. A.K.Raji/Dr. V.Sudha, Department ofCivil Engineering, N.S.S. College ofEngineering, Palakkad.e-mail : [email protected]


2. FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS

SUMMARY

Research works reported in the area of Flexible Pavement include laboratory evaluation and fieldperformance of ready made slurry mix; use of commercially available known additive for bituminousroad works; utilization of marginal materials as an ingredient in bituminous mixes; influence of additionof commercially available additive and Fly ash in bitumen and bituminous mix design; and design offlexible pavement as the new projects.

Research projects viz. utilization of waste plastic as green technology; remedial measures forrectification of distress in flexible pavement on the approach embankment of railway over bridge atSAIL township Rourkela; demonstration of CRRI technology using marble slurry dust;development of cold mix design procedure for dense graded bituminous mix (BC-II) and developmentof fuel resistant bitumen are reported as the completed projects.

Ongoing research projects viz. resource mapping of road construction materials; use of waste plasticsfor road construction - an evaluation of roads laid with plastic wastes in Kerala; involving study on theeffect of using quarry dust and copper slag in sub-base and development of cold mix technology forstructural layers of flexible pavements in different climates are also reported.


1. Use of Cold Mixes in Structural Layers.

2. Development of Cold Mix Design Procedure for Dense Graded Bituminous Mix (BC-II).

3. Utilisation of Marginal Materials as an Ingredient in Bituminous Mixes.

4. Use of Waste Plastics for Road Construction as Green Technology.

5. Use of Commercially Available Additives and Fly Ash in Bitumen and Bituminous Mixes.

6. Demonstration of CRRI Technology for Construction of Flexible Pavement by Using MarbleSlurry Dust.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Laboratory Evaluation and FieldPerformance of a Ready Made Slurry Mix


Date of Completion (Targeted):March 2010



The objective and scope of this study are givenas under:

• Evaluation of slurry mix in laboratory.

• Application of slurry mix on selectedroad sections in Delhi and theirperformance evaluation.

• Submission of report.

Methodology

The following methodology has been adopted:

• Slurry seal was evaluated in thelaboratory for different properties viz.Water per cent, Non-volatile per cent,Ash of Non-volatile, Solubility of Non-volatile per cent, Sp. gravity,Drying Time-hours, Adhesion andResistance to Kerosene, etc.

• Field trials were carried out bypreparing slurry seal mix. The agitatorin the sealer tank should be kept on atall the times to ensure an uniform mix.The machine should be equipped witha fog bar to be used for pre-dampening if the pavementtemperature exceeds 30oC.

• Coat the edges first. Pour a continuousribbon of the slurry seal mix along with

the pavement edge 6-12 inches awayfrom kerbing.

• Draw the slurry seal mix away fromthe pavement edge by pulling asqueegee or brush perpendicularthrough the ribbon of material at aslight angle. Walk parallel to thepavement edge. Repeat the processin the opposite direction, pulling theexcess material towards the center ofpavement. For best results, use thesqueegee followed by the brush.

• Pour more slurry mix to maintain aworking ribbon of material andcontinue across the pavement until itis completely covered.


• Slurry seal is the most versatile andcost effective way to preserve andprotect bituminous pavement. Theapplication of slurry seal significantlyextends the life of existing pavementsby protecting the undersurface fromthe effects of aging and environment.

• Slurry seal is textured, skid resistant,flexible, waterproof, and has goodcohesion which makes it economicaland a hard wearing surface.


The Director, Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi

2. Use of Commercially Available KnownAdditive for Bituminous Road Works


Date of Completion: August 2009

Gujarat Engineering Research Institute,Vadodara (R)



• To know the effects on variousparameters of bitumen after additionof commercially available additives inbitumen viz. Penetration, Softeningpoint, Ductility and Specific gravity.

• To know the effects on strippingproperties of good basalt and badweathered stones after addition ofadditives in bitumen.

• To know the effects on variousparameters of bituminous mixes(Dense mix like Bituminous concrete)such as Marshall stability, Marshallflow, Retained Marshall stability index,Bulk Density, Voids in mix, Voids filledwith bitumen after addition of additivesin bitumen.

Methodology

I. Representative samples ofcommercially available additives, 60/70 Penetration Grade Bitumen andAggregates (from Sevaliya area/quarry) are collected.

II. List of essential phases

Phase I: Testing of coarseaggregates and fineaggregates for differentphysical properties andtesting of strippingproperties.

Phase II: Testing of bitumen andmodified bitumen withadditive.

Phase III: Testing and evaluation ofbituminous concrete mixdesigns with plainbitumen and modifiedbitumen (with additive).

Phase IV: (a) Compilation ofresults andanalysis of data.

(b) Preparation ofreport.

III. Methodology adopted in thelaboratory

(A) Materials: Following materials areused for the study:

• Aggregates: coarse aggregateand fine aggregate are used.Both the aggregates aretested for their physicalproperties in accordance withnorms laid down in MoRT&Hstandards.

• Bitumen: 60/70 PenetrationGrade Bitumen is used for thestudy.

• Modifier or Additive is used.

(B) Laboratory Tests: Admixture of60/70 Pen. Grade bitumen and 0.1per cent commercially availableadditive is prepared in the laboratory.Using this admixture, following tests,on bitumen and bituminous mixes arecarried out:

(a) Bitumen tests:

(i) Penetration test : IS 1203

(ii) Softening Point test :IS 1205

(iii) Ductility test : IS 1208

(iv) Specific gravity test :IS 1202

(b) Bituminous mix tests:

(i) Marshall Stability test

(ii) Marshall Flow test


(iii) Compacted Density of Mix(CDM) test

(iv) Voids analysis.(v) Retained Marshall Stability

Index


Based on the laboratory investigations, thefollowing major conclusions can be drawn:

1. Marshall Stability, Marshall Flow,Compacted density of mix andSoftening point increases.

2. Temperature susceptibility of thebinder improves as the softening pointincreases which will result into highstrength mixes.

3. Penetration value and ductility valuedecreases.

4. Addition of commercially availableadditive makes bitumen harder withwhich production of high strengthmixes are possible.

5. Stripping property of aggregatesimproves by using additive.

Singnificance/Utilization Potential

High strength mixes are possible with modifiedbinder which can be used for construction ofbituminous roads.

Limitations of conclusions/further proposedwork

• Continuous stirring of admixture ofbitumen and additive is required so asto have homogenous mixture.

• Material fumes were observed duringmixing of bitumen and additives.

• Construction of experimental stretchusing additive in bituminous wearingcourse.

• A detailed field performance studyuntill failure is suggested for furtherwork.


The Joint Director (Roads), Gujarat EngineeringResearch Institute, Vadodara.

3. Utilization of Marginal Materials as anIngredient in Bituminous Mixes

Date of Start : June 2007

Date of Completion (Targeted) : May 2010

(i) N.S.S. College of Engineering,Palakkad (I)

(ii) Kerala State Council for Science,Technology and Environment (S)


(i) To check the suitability of someindustrial wastes as aggregate inbituminous mix and to suggest themaximum possible replacement ofaggregate with concrete waste.

(ii) To compare the properties ofbituminous mixes using stoneaggregate blended with selectedwastes in the suggestedproportion for different bitumencontents and thereby to determine theoptimum binder (bitumen) contentrequired in the mix satisfying thespecifications.

(iii) Framing up of guidelines/recommendations for practicalapplications in the light of resultsobtained from pilot field studies.


Methodology

The methodology involves the following steps:

Step 1: Determination of maximum possiblereplacement of aggregates byperforming aggregate impact valuetest on different combinations ofaggregate with wastes andcomparing these values with thespecifications.

Step 2: Determination of optimum binder(Bitumen) content using Marshall test.


Marginal materials such as steel slag, medicalfield plastic wastes (glucose bottles and syringes),demolished concrete waste etc. were collectedto replace the aggregates used in bituminous mixdesign. Marshall tests were conducted to find outthe properties of mix and Optimum BitumenContent. Results obtained are reported below:

• Bitumen content can be saved byabout 20-25 per cent by the additionof slag.

• By adding 3 to 5 per cent biomedicalplastic wastes like used syringe plasticand glucose bottle plastics by weightof bitumen in the bituminous mix,strength of mix can be increasedremarkably by about 17 to 63 per cent.

• In bituminous construction, the naturalstone aggregates can be replaced withconcrete waste by 30 to 40 per cent.

• The optimum binder requirement in30 per cent replaced aggregate is5 per cent instead of 6 per cent whichwould result in a saving of bitumen byabout 17 per cent.


• Use of marginal materials in an eco-friendly manner.

• Saving in conventional materials usedfor road construction.

• Cost of construction of roads can bereduced.


(i) Utilisation of other industrial wastes tobe explored.

(ii) Conduct field observations.

(iii) Formulate guidelines for application.


Published three Papers (i) at National conferenceheld at Kottayam, (ii) at Kerala Science Congressheld at Kollam and (iii) at InternationalConference held at Pune.

Further information/Copy of report can beobtained from

Dr. A. K. Raji/Dr. K. K. Babu, Department of CivilEngineering, N.S.S. College of Engineering,Palakkad, Keralae-mail : [email protected]

4. Influence of Addition of CommerciallyAvailable Additive and Flyash in Bitumenand Bituminus Mix Design


Date of Completion: June 2008

M.S. University, Vadodara (R)


• Marshall stability & flow tests and tests


for determining the physical propertiesof bitumen with different percentageof commercially available additive andflyash.

• Indirect tensile strength test, wheeltracking test, frass breaking point testand stripping value tests for binderused in the study.

Objectives

• To study the performance of bitumenwith addition of commercially availableadditive and flyash.

• To study the performance ofbituminous mix design with addition ofcommercially available additive andFly ash.

Methodology

Two different types of binders were prepared byusing various percentages of commerciallyavailable additive and flyash.

1. Different percentage of commerciallyavailable additive (i.e. 0.5 per cent, 1per cent.1.5 per cent and 2.0 per cent)were added in 80/100 grade bitumenand mixing is done at 168°C for1.5 h in mechanical stirrer.

2. Different percentage of flyash (i.e.5 per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per centand 20 per cent) were added in80/100 grade bitumen and mixing isdone at 168°C for 1.5 h.

Softening point, penetration test, ductility,solubility, kinematic viscosity, thin film oven test,flash point, elastic recovery, specific gravity andMarshall stability & flow tests were performed forthe above mentioned two types of binders.

Conclusions

• As the percentage of additive

increases, softening point increases,solubility decreases and stabilityincreases.

• As the percentage of flyash increases,solubility also decrease considerably.

• Additive has less specific gravity thanthe fly ash.

• To achieve higher stability values (thatis 1114 kg and 1208 kg), one can use5 per cent binder including 20 per centflyash and 4.5 per cent binderincluding 10 per cent flyashrespectively. These combinations areeconomical than optimum bindercontent (4.2 per cent) of 80/100.

• Higher stability can also be achievedby using certain combinations that is4.2 per cent binder including 2 per centadditive; 4.5 per cent binderincluding 2 per cent additive; and4.5 per cent binder including 4 per centadditive, which gives stability of1241 kg, 1256 kg & 1289 kg,respectively.


Vaishakhi M.Shinde, Civil Engg. Deptt, Facultyof Technology & Engg., M.S. University,Vadodara - 390023.

5. Design of Flexible Pavement for M.P.Road Between Sector 31-32 and Sector36-37 (Proposed Heliport) at Rohini, NewDelhi


(i) Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi (R, I)

(ii) Delhi Development Authority, (S)



The primary objective of this assignment is todesign a flexible pavement for M.P. Road betweenSector 31-32 and Sector 36-37, Phase IV & V atRohini, New Delhi, linking the proposed heliport.

Methodology

The methodology adopted includes the following:

(i) Traffic assessment/surveys on road(s)around the proposed new alignmentfor assessing the expectedcommercial traffic.

(ii) Field investigations and collection ofsubgrade samples.

(iii) Laboratory testing of soil samplesproposed to be used as subgrade forthe new road.

(iv) Analysis of data/results forrecommending design of flexiblepavement.

Based on the data/results obtained from the fieldstudies, pavement design was calculations weredone as per IRC: 37:2001.


Design calculations have been done andpavement design recommended.

Conclusions

Structural composition of flexible pavement,recommended for the new road construction, forits full design life of 15 years, is as given under:

• BC - 40 mm

• DBM (2 layers of 75 mm - 150 mmthick each)

• WMM (2 layers of 125 mm - 250 mmthick each)

• GSB (2 layers of 130 mm - 260 mmthick each)

(Upper layer; Grade 1 for close gradedgranular material)

(Lower layer; Grade 1 for coarse gradedgranular material)

The following structural composition of flexiblepavement is also recommended for the new roadif stage construction practice is to be adopted.

• BC - 40 mm• DBM - 100 mm• WMM - 250 mm• GSB - 260 mm


1. Resource Mapping of Road ConstructionMaterials in Kerala-A case Study ofPathanamthitta District





Status: Ongoing


Progress

Samples and data collected from 34 rockquarries and 5 sand quarries. Laboratory testingof the collected samples completed. Mapping andanalysis of the test results is in progress.Collection of samples from the remainingquarries is in progress.


The laboratory test results show that theproperties of coarse aggregate and sandavailable are within the limits of specified for roadconstruction.




2. Study on the Use of Waste Plastics forRoad Construction- An Evaluation of theRoads Laid with Plastic Wastes in Kerala


Date of Completion (Targeted):March 2010


Present Status and progress

Status: Ongoing


Progress: Periodic evaluation is in progress.


The condition of road in terms of distress (cracksand pothole) is better for the study stretches whencompared to the control section.


Interim report has been published.



3. Study on the Characterization andUtilization of Waste Plastics-GreenTechnology

Date of Start : January 2006

Date of Completion: July 2009

(i) Thiagarajar College of Engineering,Madurai (R)

(ii) Department of Science andTechnology (S)


The project is completed. The coating of moltenplastic over the surface of aggregate reduceswater absorption (Table 1). This shows that voidsat the surface get reduced. Generally, voidsshould be less than 2 per cent. Lesser the voidsbetter the quality of aggregate. Otherwise, the airentrapped in the voids would cause oxidation ofbitumen resulting in stripping, pothole formation,etc. Moreover, the presence of water in the voidsis detrimental to the adhesion between aggregateand bitumen. Hence, the aggregate with lesservoids is considered to be good for the purpose ofroad construction. The coating improvesSoundness. The coating of plastics also improvesthe quality of aggregate. a) By decreasingAggregate Impact Value (AIV), b) By decreasingAggregate Crushing Value (ACV) and c) Bydecreasing Los Angeles Abrasion Value (LAAV).These observations help to conclude thatplastics waste coated aggregate can beconsidered more suitable for flexible pavementconstruction.

In the above process the aggregate are coatedwith plastics and then blended with bitumen. ThePlastic Coated Aggregate (PCA) is not only easyto prepare but also helps to use higherpercentage of plastics waste for coating withoutmuch difficulty. Result on the extraction ofbitumen (Table 2) from Dry process show that thebonding in Dry process is stronger. The results(Tables 3 and 4) also show that Marshall StabilityValues (MSV) are higher and there is no


stripping. This shows that the mix is much betterfor use in flexible pavement. The mixing ofbitumen with plastics waste takes place at thesurface of aggregate and at a temperature around160 deg. C. At this temperature both the plasticsand bitumen are in the liquid state, capable ofeasy diffusion. This process is further helped byincrease in the contact area (increased surfacearea). Both polymer and bitumen are similar inchemical nature. These factors help to generatebetter adhesion/binding. Moreover, the polymermolecules interact with the constituents ofbitumen namely asphaltene and other similarcompounds which results in a three dimensionalinternal cross-linked net work. The cross-linkingresults in strong and elastic structure. This alsoadds to its suitability as a blend for flexiblepavement. The Marshall Stability values are fairlyhigh and Marshall Quotient (MQ) is around 500.Flow value is in the expected range. Voids filledwith bitumen (VFB) are expected to be around65 per cent.

The data given in Tables 3 and 4 also suggestthat with the use of plastic waste coatedaggregate, the quantity of bitumen needed forproducing a good mix can be reduced to the extentof 0.5 per cent by the total weight of mix whichaccounts for about 10 per cent reduction in theuse of bitumen. This saving goes to the extent ofseveral hundred crores of rupees and it is a greatnational saving.

Performance Evaluation of Roads

As can be inferred, the load bearing capacity ofplastic road increases significantly. This is provedby conducting various performance tests on theroads built with plastic on different, sites atdifferent times. These tests have been carried outwith the guidance of National Transport Planningand Research Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.The tests show very good results in terms ofperformance waste plastic roads as compared toconventional roads (Table 5).

Table 1 Properties of Aggregates

Stone % of Plastic Moisture Soundness A I V A C T L A R VoidsAggregate with respect Absorption (%) (%) (%t) (%) (%)

to total (%)weight

Without plastic 0 4 5+/- 1 25.4 26 37 4coating

With plastic 1 2 Nil 21.20 21 32 2.2coating

With plastic 2 1.1 Nil 18.50 20 29 1coating

With plastic 3 Traces only Nil 17.00 18 26 Nilcoating


Table 4 Comparative Study on MSV for PCA and PMB

Percentage Percentage Type of PCA/PMB MSV Flow VFB M.Qof Bitumen of Plastic Plastic (kg) x 0.25 % (kg/mm)

with respect (mm)to total weight

4.5 0.5 PP PCA 2000 5 55 400

4.5 0.5 PE foam PCA 2000 4 58 500

4.5 0.5 LDPE PCA 1750 4 55 438

4.5 0.5 PP PMB 1700 3.3 62 515

4.5 0.5 PE foam PMB 1800 3.4 66 529

4.5 0.5 LDPE PMB 1700 3.5 62 486

Table 2 Extraction Characteristics of Polymer Coated Aggregate Bitumen Mix

Percentage of plastic added Bitumen removed Bitumen removed Bitumen removedwith respect to total weight after 5 Min. (%) after 10 Min. (%) after 15 Min. (%)

0 96.0 98.0 99.0

0.5 63.5 88.7 92.3

0.75 63.2 86.7 90.7

1.0 61.3 76.7 83.6

Table 3 Effect of Variation of Type and Plastic Content on Marshall Stability Values

Percentage Percentage Type of Stability Flow VFB M.Qof Bitumen of Plastic Plastic (kg) x 0.25 (mm) % (kg/mm)

with respectto total weight

4.5 0.25 PP 1600 4 53 400

4.5 0.50 PP 2000 5 55 400

4.5 0.25 LDPE 1600 4 55 400

4.5 0.50 LDPE 1750 4 55 438

4.5 0.5 PE FOAM 2000 4 58 500

4.5 0.75 PE FOAM 2250 4 56 563

4.5 1.0 PE FOAM 2650 4 56 662


Further Findings/Conclusions

As per the process (Dry process), plastics wasteis coated over aggregates. This helps togenerate better binding of bitumen with plasticswaste-coated aggregate due to increasedbonding and increased area of contact betweenpolymer and bitumen. Polymer coating alsoreduces the voids; this prevents the moistureabsorption and oxidation of bitumen by entrappedair. This results in reduced rutting, raveling andthere is no pothole formation. The roads canwithstand heavy traffic and show betterdurability. In a net shell, the Dry Process helps to:

1. Use higher percentage of plasticswaste.

2. Reduce the need of bitumen by around10 per cent.

3. Increase the strength andperformance of road.

4. Avoid the use of anti stripping agents.

5. Reduce the cost to around Rs. 20000/km (single lane road).

6. Carry the process in-situ.

7. Avoid disposal of plastics waste byincineration and land filling.

8. Generate jobs for rag pickers.

9. Add value to plastics waste.

10. Develop a technology which is eco-friendly.

Studies on the performance of plastic roadsconclusively proves that it is good for heavytraffic due to better binding , increased strengthand improved surface condition for a prolongedperiod of exposure to variations in climaticchanges.

Recommendations for Further Work

Further studies on pavement technology havealready been taken up and have been sanctionedby Department of Science and Technologyentitled "Characterization and utilization ofemerging flexible waste plastics-Green

* Control section road constructed with plain bitumen.** Theoretical value for the effective performance of a good road.

Table 5 Summary of Performance Data

Road Year Unevenness Skid Mean Reboundlaid (mm/km) number Texture Deflection

Depth (mm)(mm)

Jambulingam Street 2002 2700 41 0.63 0.85

Veerabadhra Street 2003 3785 45 0.702.55 0.60

Vandiyur road 2004 3005 41 0.66 0.84

Vilachery Road, Mdu 2005 3891 45 0.50 0.86

Canteen Road 2006 3100 45 0.65 0.86

Plain Bitumen Road* 2007 5200 76 0.83 1.55

Tolerance Value** 2008 <4000 <65 0.6-0.8 0.5-1


technology” with three major objectives viz.(i) Development of polymer bitumen emulsion forcold road laying process, (ii) Reuse of road scrapwith polymer coating, (iii) Preparation of boards,blocks and iron rods with plastic coating.


1. Project Report Submitted to Departmentof Science and Technology, New Delhion "Study on the Characterization andUtilization of Waste Plastics- GreenTechnology".

2. Study Report Submitted on " Studieson the Performance of Built Plastic TarRoad" to the Central Pollution ControlBoard, New Delhi.

Recommendations for Dissemination/Revision of Codes/Specifications

1. Central Pollution Control Board, NewDelhi has published

(a) Performance Evaluation ofPolymer Coated Bitumen BuiltRoads; Probes/121/2008-2009;Central Pollution Control Board,New Delhi.

(b) The process has been approvedby Central Pollution ControlBoard, Delhi and it has publishedthe process booklet underProgram objective series/probes/101/2005-2006.

2. National Rural Roads DevelopmentAgency has published "Guidelines forthe Use of Plastic Waste in RuralRoads Construction".

Further information/Copy of report can beobtained from

Dr. R. Vasudevan, Dean ECA and Professor,Department of Chemistry, Thiagarajar College ofEngineering, Madurai- 625015.Email: [email protected]

4. Advisory Inputs for the Needed RemedialMeasures for Rectification of Distress(Settlement) in Flexible Pavement on theApproach Embankment of Railway OverBridge at SAIL Township, Rourkela

Date of Start: March, 2009

Date of Completion (Actual): May, 2009



Completed and detailed report submitted forimplementation of recommendations.


On the basis of observations of distress at siteand considering settlement occurring due tocombined actions of poor soil, high moisture andon account of overloaded commercial vehiclesplying on the road, the following conclusions weredrawn :

1. The pavement is weak and inadequatein thickness and composition.

2. Water has been the main deterrent inthe expected performance ofpavement.

3. The earthen embankment needsimmediate make-up.

4. The surface and sub-surface drainagerequires remedies on priority basis.

5. The pavement and the overallstructure is to be rehabilitated followinga detailed evaluation, for long termmeasures.


There are several factors involved in thepavement's performance. The main factors


being the reduced subgrade support because ofpoor soil type and retained moisture, distressedpavement surface, earthen shoulder furtherhelping water ingress and heavy loads whichcompound the problem. On the basis of fieldinspection and limited laboratory evaluation of soilsample, the indicative conclusions with respectto causes of development of settlement/cracks inthe surface over the bridge and appropriatemethodology to be adopted for long lastingrepairs were presented.


A detailed evaluation of all the factors involved inpoor performance of pavement.


Final Report, May 2009

Further information can be obtained from


5. Study on the Effect of using Quarry Dustand Copper Slag in Sub-base


Date of Completion (Targeted):January 2010


Field observations are in progress. No sub basefailure has been observed so far.


The Director, Highway Research Station,Chennai-25.

6. Development of Cold Mix Technology forStructural Layers of Flexible Pavementin Different Climates


Date of Completion (Targeted):December 2010



Status: Ongoing

Year of Last Reporting: 2007-08

Progress

For the first time in India, construction of testsections with BM + SDBC or MSS usingemulsion based cold mix technology was carriedout in different climatic conditions of India withmechanized methods by using basicinfrastructures such as Hot mix Plant (withoutheating facility) for manufacturing of cold mixes,paver for laying mixes and road roller forcompaction. Three locations, viz. (i) Dantaur-Khajuwala in Rajasthan in desert area, (ii) By-passRoad -Aizawl, Mizoram, in heavy rainfall area, and(iii) near Jawahar Tunnel on Jammu-SrinagarNational Highway (NH-1A) in J&K under cold andsnow bound areas. The marginal aggregates wereused for construction of Premire Carpet (PMC) inMizoram. The performance evaluation of testsections is in currently progress.


From the field studies, it is inferred that bindercourse (ie BM)and wearing courses such asSDBC, MSS and PMC produced with bitumenemulsion perform comparable to conventional hotmixes (with paving grade bitumen). It was alsoobserved that due to its low viscosity, bitumenemulsion penetrated into the cracks and helpedin sealing surfacing them during tack coatingwhich resulted into retardation of reflective crackson overlays. The performance of SDBC withbitumen emulsion was also found comparable tothat of SDBC produced with paving gradebitumen.



The following tentative specifications of cold mixtechnology have been developed and sent toIndian adoption Roads Congress for theirfinalization and subsequent adoption:

1. Tentative Specification for BituminousMacadam (Base & Binder Course)with Cationic Bitumen Emulsion.

2. Tentative Specification for Semi-Dense Bituminous Concrete UsingCationic Bitumen Emulsion.

3. Tentative Specification of Mix SealSurfacing (Dense-Graded PremixCarpet) with Cationic BitumenEmulsion.


Framing of Code for Cold Mix Design of DenseGraded Mixes.



7. Demonstration of CRRI Technologythrough Trial Stretch by Using MarbleSlurry Dust in Rajsamand District


Date of Completion: February 2009


(ii) Department of Scientific and IndustrialResearch (DSIR), New Delhi (S)

Status: Completed


• The results of laboratory and field

investigations suggest that marbleslurry dust (MSD) can be gainfullyutilized in bulk quantities in theconstruction of road pavement layersand also in embankments.

• Optimum quantities of MSD to be usedin the construction of sub-grade etc.should be worked out separately fordifferent soil types.

• Use of MSD will result in the saving ofnatural resource viz. soil, besides theprotection of environment.

• Economy in terms of cost of naturalmaterial (that is soil) and saving inconstruction of subgrade.


More demonstration stretches can be taken upfor dissemination of the technology.


(i) A Paper entitled "Marble Slurry Dustin Roads: An Apt solution for theIndustrial Waste", published inHighway Research Bulletin No. 65,Dec. 2001;

(ii) A Paper entitled "Marble Slurry Waste-A Potential Building Material",published in Indian Cement Review,Aug. 2003;

(iii) A paper entitled "Wollastonite andMarble Slurry Dust - Inert MineralAdmixtures of Concrete, published inHighway Research Bulletin, Dec.2007;

(iv) Report submitted to Department ofScientific and Industrial Research(DSIR) , New Delhi in Feb. 2009.



To make marble industry environmentallysustainable, development of a participatoryapproach in the management of waste is needed.Towards this end, construction of moredemonstration stretches under the supervision oftechnical experts will go a long way in gaining theusers' confidence for bulk utilisation of marbleslurry dust in the country.


The Director, Central Road Research Institute,Mathura Road, P.O. CRRI, New Delhi - 110 020

8. Development of Cold Mix DesignProcedure for Dense Graded BituminousMix (BC-II)


Date of Completion (Actual): June 2008



In the present thesis work, the followingobjectives are taken into consideration:

(i) Determination of basic properties ofaggregate, bitumen, bitumenemulsion, and residual bitumen.

(ii) Determination of optimum bitumencontent of hot mix by using Marshallmethod of mix design.

(iii) Determination of optimum emulsioncontent of cold mix by using Marshallmethod of mix design.

(iv) Determination of Indirect TensileStrength (destructive test) of cold mix

(at 3, 7 and 14 days of curing at roomtemperatures of 300C to 350C) as wellas of and hot mix.

(v) Conducting Indirect Tensile ModulusTest (non destructive test) on both coldmixes (at 3, 7 & 14 days of curing atroom temperatures of 300C to 350C)and on hot mixes at 250C , 350C and500C.

(vi) Determination of creep properties ofboth mixes by conducting Creep Testat 250C and 500C temperatures.

(vii) Cost comparison of cold and hotmixes.

Proposed Methodology

Marshall properties of dense graded BituminousConcrete (BC-GradeII) were determined usingslow setting grade (SS-Grade II) emulsion. Forcarrying out Marshall test, cold mix specimensare cured for 3 days at room temperatures of 300Cto 350C. After finding out optimum emulsioncontent, the following tests were carried out oncold mix specimens after 3, 7, and 14 days ofcuring at room temperatures of 300C to 350C.. TheStatic Indirect Tensile Strength of cold mix is foundout at 250C. The Indirect Tensile Modulus test iscarried out at 250C, 350C, and 500C. Also Creeptest is carried out at 250C and 500C.

Salient Findings and Conclusions

(i) The Marshall properties of cold mixspecimens are found to be inferiorwhen compared to that of hot mixspecimens.

(ii) Coating obtained for the aggregatesis almost full in the case of hot mixspecimens. On the other hand, only75 per cent coating is obtained for theaggregates in case of cold mix evenafter ensuring thorough mixing.


(iii) Indirect tensile strength of hot mixspecimens is higher than that of coldmix specimens.

(iv) Indirect tensile strength of cold mixspecimens is found to be increasingwith curing period.


Framing of Code for Cold Mix Design for DenseGraded Mixes.



9. Development of Fuel Resistant Bitumen



Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Faridabad(R, S)

Present Status & Progress

Status: Completed

Progress

Fuel resistant bitumen was developed fromconventional bitumen 80/100 using commerciallymodified and specific additives in R&D centre. Along chain aliphatic hydrocarbon, molecular chainlength 40-100 carbon atom was found useful toimprove the fuel resistance of the Bitumen. Thedeveloped product evaluated for fuel resistanceby immersing Marshall specimen in ATF for24 h and the results were compared withconventional and modified bitumen. At present,there is no international or national specificationfor Fuel Resistant Bitumen.


The developed Fuel Resistant Bitumen whichindicates weight loss less than 1 per cent w/wwhen Marshall Specimen prepared from FuelResistant Bitumen (5.5 per cent) and aggregateimmersed in ATF for 24 h.

Recommendations for Dissemination/Revision of codes/Specifications

A national specification for Fuel resistant bitumenneeds to be drafted for specific applications.


3. RIGID PAVEMENTS

SUMMARY

Research works reported in the area of Rigid Pavements relate to a study on Dry Lean Concrete withPortland Pozzalona Cement and R&D Studies on the Performance Evaluation of Rigid Pavement onHigh Density Traffic Corridors Using Instrumentations Supported by Laboratory Tests. A study onperformance of high volume flyash concrete has brought out interesting findings through which highproportion of cement can be replaced in pavement quality.


1. Use of Portland Pozzolana Cement in Dry Lean Concrete.

2. Performance Evaluation Using Instrumentation.


A. COMPLETED PROJECTS/ ONGOINGPROJECTS

1. A study on Dry Lean Concrete withPortland Pozzolana Cement

Date of Start: May 2008

Date of Completion: July 2008



Status: Completed


• The strength criterion as perIRC: SP:49 are not satisfied when upto200 kg/m3 of Portland PozzolonaCement (PPC) is used in thepreparation of concrete.

• From the empirical formula developedunder the present study, it isestablished that the minimum cementshould be 270 kg/m3 of concrete.

• The optimum water content can befound out using Vee Beeconsistometer. which was found to be8 per cent by the weight of total mix.

• Curing period of 7 days is required forachieving desired strength of DLCwhen Portland Pozzolona Cement isused.


Further research is needed to reduce the quantityof PPC by using some additives etc.



2. R&D Studies on the PerformanceEvaluation of Rigid Pavements on HighDensity Traffic Corridors UsingInstrumentations Supported byLaboratory Tests

Date of Start: May 2007

Date of Completion (Targeted):December, 2009

(i) Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi (R)



Status: Ongoing


Progress

The work of embedment of sensors had beencompleted in August, 2008. The sensors wereembedded in concrete slabs at three different sitesviz. Allahabad by-pass on NH-2; Kota, Rajasthanon NH-76; and Siliguri, West Bengal, on NH-31.The field testing of the instrumented concretepavement slabs and the collection of performancedata from all the three sites is in progress.


III. GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

SUMMARY

Research works reported in this area encompass projects dealing with 'Ground ImprovementTechniques, Use of Geosynthetics, Subgrade soil improvement/ characteristics and landslidemonitoring/ remediation studies. Seven new R&D projects have been reported while Five projectsreported earlier have submitted further progress made.


1. Role of Ground Improvement Techniques and their Selection.

2. Use of Jute Geotextiles for Rural Road Construction.

3. Flood Induced Damage to Road Infrastructure and its Remediation.

4. Anthropogenic Factors Influencing Landslide Activity.

5. Road Construction in High Water Table Areas.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Case Study of Ground Improvement forthe Yamuna Expressway Road Project


Date of Completion (Targeted): June 2008

(i) Intercontinental Consultants &Technocrats Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (R),

(ii) M/s. Jaypee Infratech Ltd. (S)


The 165 km long Yamuna Expressway is a greenfield project connecting Greater Noida and Agralocated along the left bank of the river Yamuna,and M/s. ICT Pvt. Ltd. is associated as theSupervisory Consultant to the ConcessionaireM/s. Jaypee Infratech Ltd. The involvement is inthe construction of the access controlled six lanedivided expressway.

During construction, unusual site conditions wereencountered while laying foundation of highearthen embankment, box culvert and cart trackbetween km 110.225 and km 115.003. Fieldborehole information showed SPT N-values aslow as 0 upto a depth of 7 m in predominantlySilty Sand subsurface in saturated state. Also, thetop soil up to a depth of 5.0 m was susceptible toliquefaction, the site being located in a seismicallyactive area of Mathura falling under Zone IV.

The specific problems for which the specializedinvestigation and analysis was necessitated areas follows:

1. Subsurface supersaturated withparched water.

2. Negligible load bearing capacity of thesubsurface that could not even takeload from excavator or grader.

3. Subsidence of attempted initial fewlayers of embankment fill into ground

owing to unexpectedly low strength ofsub-soil.

4. Difficult site for conventionalimprovement with removal andreplacement of top problematiclayer(s).

Analysis of the site condition andrecommendations for ground improvementmeasures proposed for progressing withconstruction are detailed here.

Methodology

Site observations revealed that the top layer(1 m thick) is with minimum cohesiveness andwere stable due to the vegetative cover of theagricultural land. Below 1.0 m depth, theexcavated soil was fully saturated, slushy, weakin strength, and failed due to even littledisturbance from excavation or movement ofequipments. There was an unlined drainagechannel (where water was flowing at level higherthan the existing ground level) in close proximityto the alignment of the expressway. It was feltthat there is potential for liquefaction in this arearesulting in failure of any structure or highembankment. This condition has been manifestedby perennial seepage of water from the unlinedcanal through granular sub-soil and resulting intotal saturation of the subsoil at all times.

Since the ground water table in the adjoining areawas reported to be more than 10 m belowexisting ground level and the entire terrain of theproject road belonged to the plain category, theshallow water level referred above could not bejustified as natural ground water table. Theobserved high water level might be due toretention of seepage water around someimpervious strata at greater depth aptly referredas Parched Water table.

Conclusions

Conclusions included the following


recommendations to mitigate the unusual siteproblem:

1. For construction of embankment (upto 5.0 m height), top 5.0 m soil to bepre-loaded by providing vertical drainswith a drainage blanket on top andthen pre-loading with embankment fillin two stages.

2. IS: 15284 (Part 2) was referred tofinalize on the appropriate type ofvertical drain as PVD preferable forfacilitating consolidation undersurcharge load. Installation by way ofdriven closed-end mandrel wassuggested due to low to non-plasticnature of the subsoil.

3. Vertical drains were designed toprovide:

- 500 mm diameter vertical sanddrains at a spacing of 2.0 m.

- A drainage blanket of 0.4 m -1.0 m on top surface afterinstallation of sand drains.

- First stage pre-loading of 3 membankment fill for 60 days andthen second stage filling ofembankment up to 5 m height andduration of second stage loadingwould be minimum 120 days.

- Spacing of the drains wasincreased to 2.5 m on the projectedarea of sloped portion of theembankment.

4. To ensure 90 per cent consolidationprior to laying the pavement layers, asimple instrumentation scheme priorto pre-loading was proposed formeasuring the settlement and porepressure at any time during

pre-loading and construction period.Also, the Vane Shear testing isproposed to be conducted at eachstage of pre-loading to obtain shearstrength of top soil upon improvement.

5. The past case histories of sand pileinstallation suggest that shearparameters are improved by about1.7-2 times the initial values after theconsolidation is over. Based on thisassumption, the design requirement ofSBC was projected to be achieved.Since most of the settlement wouldtake place during the period ofpre-loading, the total settlement of theembankment was estimated to bewithin permissible limit.

6. For embankments of height more than5 m, sub-soil parameters deeper than10 m depth was not available foraccurate estimation.

7. For lightly loaded structures likeunderpasses, culverts, etc, soilreinforcement with Stone Column wassuggested. Detailed design wascarried out and the capacity of stonepiles was estimated to meet thedesign and site requirements.

8. Maximum usage of light-weight fly-ashmaterial was proposed for constructionof embankment.

9. Since underground seepage waterfrom the unlined canal running alongthe expressway alignment was a primefactor responsible for the saturatedand slushy state of the top soil, it wasrecommended that the adjoining canalbe lined properly to prevent anyfurther seepage beforeimplementation of the above groundimprovement measures.



In majority of the cases where similar siteconditions are encountered, the conventionalmethod of removal and replacement techniqueof ground improvement is always adopted.However, economic viability for alternative groundimprovement methods as adopted here can alsobe examined. This will also develop skilled labourgroup in this area.

Limitations of Conclusions/ Recommendationsfor Further Work

The construction of stone column and sand drainsis a specialized task and must be done byexperienced agencies. The specializedcontractor also holds the onus of preparing the"Good for Construction" drawings for executionof the works for ground improvement by use ofstone column, sand blanket, leveling pad andsubsequent construction of the structure orembankment at the site. For this job, thealternative ground improvement technique couldnot be used due to lack of specialized labour andgeneral engineering awareness for the same.


Intercontinental Consultants & TechnocratsPvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

2. Construction of Unpaved Rural RoadUsing Jute-Synthetic Blended WovenGeotextiles



National Institute of Research on Jute andAllied Fibre Technology, Kolkata (IndianCouncil of Agricultural Research)


The prime objective of the reported work is

(i) to explore the possibility of producingstandard geotextiles using jute as amajor element in conjunction withsynthetic materials having improved/comparable performance propertysuitable for construction of rural roadsof Indian sub-continent,

(ii) to lay down a range of specificationsof jute-based geotextiles which caneasily be produced in most economicway, and

(iii) to evaluate the performance of thedeveloped geotextile in practicalsituation. For this, different types ofjute-HDPE union fabric samples weredeveloped in a high speed automaticweaving machine. Some importantproperty parameters for geotextileswere evaluated at the laboratory as perASTM recommendation to identify thefabric specification(s) which providesthe optimum property parameters. Themechanical property of developedjute-HDPE blended geotextiles wasalso compared with those of theconventional synthetic geotextilesprepared from HDPE slit-film. Finally,a field trial was carried out using ourdeveloped geotextiles as separation-cum-reinforcing material for makingunpaved rural road.

Methodology

Development of Jute-Synthetic CompositeGeotextiles

Jute yarns of different linear densities wereprepared for this work in conventional jutespinning system using a non-mineral oil basedspinning additive. Plain-weave fabric of differentstructural parameters were woven in a fullyautomatic high-speed circular weaving (numberof weft carrier-4) machine. The geotextiles were


developed for using as separation-cum-reinforcing material for construction of mediumvolume unpaved rural road.

Field trial

Undulating road surfaces were dressed properly;loose stray gravels were removed and the weedsand grasses were uprooted and finally thesurface of the subsoil was compacted by rolling.Large pot-holes and sunken portions of earthensub-base were filled with small size (0.5-1.5 mm)black granite granules. The earthen sub-base wascovered with the black granite granules as fillingcourse before laying the geotextile. Thegeotextiles were folded and overlapped to permitproper placement in the designated area. Thegeotextile panels were joined by overlapping theroll-ends 1.0 m and sides a minimum of 0.25 mand securing the overlap against the underlyingfoundation materials with clamps and nails.Rectangular steel sheets with the dimension of100 mm x 100 mm x 3 mm, having 10 mm hole atthe centre and nails of 100 mm in length wereused for clamping the geotextiles with the soilsurface. The geotextiles were restrained with theclamp set as needed to prevent lifting andslippage, folding, or other displacements duringconstruction. The upstream or up-slopegeotextiles were placed overlapping abutted thedown-slope geotextiles. Base course materialswere placed on the geotextiles without causingtears, punctures, or separations of overlaps. Thegeotextiles were covered with a layer of 10 cmthick standard quality laterite gravels (size,approximately 5-7.5 cm) as the sub-grade,compacted by rolling, and then finally covered with10 cm small granular lateritic stones, (commonlycalled 'Murram') and rolled again . The entirerolling work was done by 10 t three-wheeled roadroller. The road was then opened for traffic.

It was noted that the geotextiles could be laidwithin less than 2 h by 6 trained labourers up to aminimum stretch of 1 km of 3 m wide road.Apparently, no such problems as crushing or

melting of HDPE, or cutting or tearing of fabricdue the applied dynamic load were observedduring rolling. Use of such types of materials(laterite stone and Murram) for construction of lowcost non-bituminous roads has been adopted ascommon practice (CSIR, 2004) in India. Nonotable change in fabric appearance wasobserved after the spreading of stones androlling operations.

Schematic diagram of the cross-section of theroad under field trial

Monitoring

It was observed that in spite of heavy rainfall,around 216 cm during the period of June-September 2006, much higher than the previousthree years' average (145 cm) and a flash floodoccurred around the surrounding area, no notablechange in the apparent condition of the road wasobserved till the end of the month of November2006 (EO, 2006). On physical verification of theroad in the month of June 2007, it was found thatthe portion where fabric was under-laid showedan even surface without any significant marks ofsubsidence or canalization (i.e., rut/depression).No such defects as crack and patch marks werefound on the top of the road surface. On thecontrary, the rest portion of the road constructedwithout the fabric, marks of ruts and cuts has beenfound and rupture was observed in places withvibrating sensation felt in journey in vehicleResult of CBR tests (carried out after 11 monthsand 18 months of construction) also show notableimprovements in the road condition due to use ofjute-synthetic reinforcement fabric. It wasobserved that due to use of jute-syntheticmaterials, gain in strength of the road was 67 and73 per cent respectively over the CBR values ofthe part of the road where geotextiles were not


used. It is noteworthy that the In-situ CBR valuesare much higher than that obtained by standardtest method at the laboratory. It is worthy tomention that on digging at some portions of thesite, it was found that in some places the juteelement was partly and in other places was fullydegraded leaving behind the HDPE tape as sub-base strainer. However, in both the cases, a hardcake of soil has been formed underneath thegeotextiles, imparting the necessary resistanceto the downward loads of the carriages whichultimately increases the longevity of the roadsurface.


Following may be concluded from the presentstudy:

1. Jute-HDPE woven geotextiles havebeen developed. Laboratory test resultshows that this woven geotextile canbe suitable for use as a separationlayer as well as a reinforcing materialfor construction of medium traffic-volume unpaved roads. The structuralparameters of the geotextile havebeen optimized. The use of jute incross direction resulted in notableincrease in modulus, breakingstrength, CBR puncture resistance ofthe geotextiles as compared to100 per cent HDPE geotextile.

2. The blended woven geotextiles areless costly than 100 per cent jutegeotextiles due to the use of somequantity of cheaper (than jute)synthetic material, but little costlier andheavier than similar types of100 per cent HDPE fabrics.

3. A field trial using the blendedgeotextiles for construction of anunpaved lateritic road showed an evensurface without any significant marksof subsidence or rutting even after

18 months where geotextile was used.However for the rest of the roadconstructed without the geotextile5-35 mm deep ruts were visible clearly.CBR test (conducted 11 months, and18 months after construction) alsoshowed a notable improvement(67 per cent and 73 per centrespectively) in the road condition dueto placing of jute-synthetic geotextile.The gain in strength of the road wasmuch higher (73 per cent) due to theuse of jute-HDPE blended geotextilesthan that obtained for the part of theroad where geotextiles were not used.

Recommendations for Further Work/FurtherProposed Work

1. Basic work on soil-fibre interaction(chemical and physical) and its effecton soil stabilization.

2. Improvement in microbial resistanceof jute fiber under the soil.

Reports/Publication

A Paper entitled “Construction of Unpaved RuralRoad Using Jute-Synthetic Blended WovenGeotextiles-A Case Study” authored by G. Basu,A.N. Roy, S.K. Bhattacharyya, S.K. Ghosh hasbeen accepted for publication in Geotextiles andGeomembranes.

Further information/copy of the reportavailable from

The Director, National Institute of Research onJute and Allied Fibre Technology, (Indian Councilof Agricultural Research), 12 Regent Park,Kolkata.

3. Assessing Causes of Cracking of aNewly Built Road

Date of Start: April2008


Date of Completion: May 2008

(i) Intercontinental Consultants andTechnocrats (ICT) Pvt. Ltd. (R)

(ii) Ethiopian Road Agency (ERA) (S)


The 93 km long Hossana-Sodo Road Upgradationproject in Ethiopia, with ICT associating asSupervisory Consultant to the Ethiopian RoadsAuthority (ERA), involved construction of typicalflexible pavement finished with two coat surfacedressing. While the work was at different stagesof completion, longitudinal cracks of considerablelength and width were noticed developing alongvarious stretches, mostly parallel to the center lineof the road. The cracks developed on finishedsections, the primed surface of the base course,in the shoulder/embankment and the adjoiningnatural ground over a section of about twokilometer length. This was seen initially during thefirst dry spell, and later found to be stretching tosome other reaches also during later period ofdry conditions, raising doubts about quality of workand adequacy of quality control duringconstruction.

Detailed investigations were undertaken to assessthe causes leading to the distress and for arrivingat recommendations for actions to be taken thatwould prevent recurrence of the phenomenon infuture.

Methodology

Distress had developed while construction of theroad was at different stages of completion,involving both sections where traffic was plyingas well as the un-trafficked sections. Also, crackswere observed even at areas outside theembankment or right of way limits, where noworthwhile construction activity had taken place.It was, therefore, obvious that the reason forcracking was neither traffic, nor deficiency in

construction and had to be connected with thesub-soil ground conditions and the environment.Subgrade soil properties with regard to theirswelling and shrinkage potential wereinvestigated; and sub-soil moisture regime alongthe road alignment was also investigated relatingto the predominant vegetation along the road.

Conclusions

The locally occurring soil which was classified asred clay, having liquid limit ranging from 53 to 64and plasticity index varying from 19 to 29, showed1.9 to 2.2 per cent swell during 4 days soakingfor CBR testing, indicating that the soil hadrelatively high linear shrinkage capability.Eucalyptus trees had been planted intermittentlyadjacent to the road on both sides. These treesare known to need copious quantities of water forgrowth. A 4 m high tree would, on the averagerequire up to 100 l of water a day. Studies on thesubgrade soil showed that at locations whereeucalyptus trees were either absent, present insmall numbers or were far away from the road,the Natural Moisture Content (NMC) of the soilvaried from 22 to 36 per cent with average of 28.5per cent, as compared to the locations with talleucalyptus trees in larger numbers close to theroad having NMC in the range of 19 to30 per cent with average of 23.5 per cent.

Investigations and analysis of the generated dataindicated that the observed cracking had resultedon account of desiccation of the soil mass duringthe dry spell, caused by moisture suction by rootsof the eucalyptus trees standing nearby. Thephenomenon of surface cracking to occur at alocation, it is necessary that all of the followingthree parameters must be present:

(i) The soil forming sub-grade/embankment and surroundings shouldbe a clayey soil with sufficient finerfraction and having good potential forswelling and shrinkage with moisturefluctuations.


(ii) Presence of vegetation in terms ofmature trees that draw substantialamounts of ground water in closeproximity of the road in large numbersand in dense patches.

(iii) Absence of a regular source of watersupply to meet the water requirementof the trees.

If any one of the three parameters is absent atany location, the pavement at that location willnot suffer dry shrinkage cracking.


To ensure that the problem of shrinkage crackingdoes not occur during dry spells the followingshould be adhered to

(i) Trees with high water requirementshould not be grown along the roads,especially in areas with subgrade soilshaving high swelling/shrinkagepotential.

(ii) Such trees, especially the eucalyptustrees, on both sides of the road within22 m from the toe of the embankmentmay be cut and all the roots removedto ensure that the plants do notre-grow from the stumps. The 22 m,as per convention, is equal to one andhalf times the height of 15 m of amatured eucalyptus tree.

(iii) Wherever some eucalyptus treesremain standing within this zone of 22m width, for whatever reason, andthose beyond the 22 m zone up to 30m should be pruned every 3-4 yearsto keep the water demand of thesetrees at a low level.

Arboriculture within the road land limits, istherefore, very important and trees and shrubs tobe planted in the area should be selected withgreat care based on the prevalent conditions.

Every effort should be made to see that nodetrimental effects occur due to the plantationswithin the road land and the surroundings.


A Paper with the title “Case Study of Cracking ofa Newly Built Road” was published in IndianHighways, Special Number, Vol. 37 (6),June 2009.



4. Advise on Restoration of East - WestExpress Highway Damaged By KosiRiver, Nepal

Date of Start: December 2008

Date of Completion: June 2009

Central Road Research Institute (R)


Kosi river delta experienced excessive flooddamages during 2008 monsoon. As a result, largeareas in Bihar (India) were inundated and lakhsof people were affected. Kosi River originates fromNepal. In the Terai region of Nepal (Plain areabordering Nepal and India) the river banks werebreached by flood waters and sections of EastWest Express Highway of Nepal were damaged.As part of this project, a field visit was undertakenand damage caused to the road infrastructure dueto floods was assessed. The main objectives ofthe project included field inspection of thedamaged road stretch and providing advice onroad restoration/ repair measures.

Methodology

Field inspections were carried out by the CRRIteam and visual inspection/assessment of


damage to road pavements, embankments andCD structures were carried out. Variousalternative repair measures were assessedstretchwise and stability analysis of proposedembankments was done.


The entire road length for the purpose ofrestoration was divided into several sectionsaccording to the condition of the road. It was foundthat different kind of damages were observed onthe road at different chainages (km) dependingupon the severity of the flow of flood water. Dueto flooding it was observed that, box culverts hadsunk because of surging waters undercutting soilbeneath the culvert. Restoration of such culvertsalong with increasing the number of vents wassuggested. At locations where height of theembankment was about 1 to 2 m and where,flooding was not severe, the embankment sideslopes had been damaged by rain cuts.Repairing such damages by filling andcompaction, providing flatter slopes followed bystone pitching to prevent recurrence of suchdamages was advised. About 600 m length of theroad had been washed away due to overtoppingof flood waters. This had occurred due to lowdischarge capacity of single pipe culvert at thatlocation which had led to flooding and consequentovertopping by flood waters. Reconstruction ofroad stretch, providing culverts of adequatecapacity, ensuring a flatter side slope duringreconstruction and side slope protection wereadvised.


A preliminary report detailing the restoration worksto be taken up for repairing the damages causeddue to floods has been submitted to Governmentof Nepal.

5. Investigation and Remedial Measures forLandslides on Dimapur-Kohima-Mao-Maram Road (NH-39) in Nagaland andManipur States

Date of Start: October 2008

Date of Completion: Continuing

(i) Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi (R)

(ii) Border Roads Organisation (I)


The NH-39 forms an important arterial road forNagaland and Manipur states. The hills alongNH-39 are very fragile and experience landslidesand subsidence which have been active sinceinception of this road. Due to sinking and slidingof road along NH-39, particularly during monsoonperiod, traffic movement gets disrupted for monthstogether. The Border Roads Organisationsponsored this project to investigate and suggestremedial measures for five chronically landslideaffected sites at this road.

Methodology

The field investigations were carried out at all thefive landslide locations and large scale base mapof 1:500 was prepared for each location. Thesebase maps enable one to understand the terrainand its micro details, which are important forstudying the landslides. Detailed geological,geomorphological and geotechnical investigationsof each of the referred landslide area was carriedout by CRRI team. Soil and rock samplescollected during field work were tested in the CRRIlaboratory to determine their strengthcharacteristics. Based on the findings of field andlaboratory investigations, design of remedialmeasures has been carried out.


Interim Conclusions/Conclusions/Supportingdata

• Infiltration of rain water into the hillslope and subsequent decrease in theshear strength of sub-soil, leading toslides was identified as one majorreason for slides. Several locationspecific measures to improve drainagehave been suggested. It wassuggested that road side drains shouldbe properly constructed andconnected to culverts to ensure safedischarge of rain water on downhillslope. The damaged and blockedculverts needs to be repairedimmediately so that the water from theroadside drain should pass downwardwithout entering the downhill slope.Percolation of water from crownportion into the slope through tensioncracks is another most critical factoraffecting the slope stability. Thereforeit was suggested to seal the tensioncracks visible at the surface. Further,based on the examination of detailedmapping carried out at site, it wasfound that depressions havedeveloped at many locations. Acombination of longitudinal surfacedrain, feeder drain and contour drainswere suggested for removal ofaccumulated water from thedepressed areas.

• Anthropological factors likeindiscriminate dumping of house holdgarbage as well as building demolitiondebris; excavated earth on the roadside slopes is another importantreason affecting stability of slopes.Certain drains and culvertsconstructed by BRO have beendamaged and blocked due to dumpingof such wastes. Dumping of demolition

debris and excavated earth by the roadside needs to be checked and safealternative sites for depositing thesewastes should be established. Alsosteps should be taken to stopquarrying uphill slopes adjoining theroad side as this will make cavities aswell as loosen the debris materialleading to further erosion anddebris flow.

• Erosion control measures on slopewere suggested for promoting thegrowth of local vegetation to preventshallow slides. Since the slopes in theslide area are devoid of vegetation andnutrients due to loss of soil cover,innovative methods like application ofjute geogrids/ geotextiles are requiredfor promotion of the vegetation.

• The gabion retaining walls were foundto have failed at different locations dueto low bearing capacity and seepageof water/erosion of soil at the toe ofthe gabion wall. Proper design ofgabion walls for undertakingreconstruction of retaining structureswas suggested.


A draft report detailing the restoration works tobe taken up for repairing the damages causeddue to landslide has been submitted to BRO.

6. Remedial Measures for Lowering GroundWater Table at Civil Airport (Runway andRoads area), Pantnagar


Date of Completion: December 2008

(i) Central Road Research Institute (R)

(ii) Airports Authority of India (I)



Marshy soil conditions and high water table areencountered at plains situated in the foothills ofHimalaya. Construction of infrastructureincluding airports and roads require lowering ofwater table to prevent water damage tobituminous pavement which may lead topremature failure. Field investigations wereundertaken to design suitable remedial measuresto lower ground water table at Pantnagar Airfield,Uttarakhand.

Methodology

To suggest the remedial measures, detailedsub-soil investigations were carried out anddisturbed as well as undisturbed soil samples weretested. Suitable sub-soil drainage measures andcapillary cut-off systems were designed.


The results of the field and laboratory tests onsub-soil indicated that water logging in thewestern edge of airport occurs mainly due to lowground elevation and subsequent watercollection in the area. Eventhough sandy sub-soilwas seen in the boreholes, lack of drainagemeasures had led to waterlogging. It wassuggested that in case of road embankment,either of the two alternatives viz., raising the heightof the embankment and providing capillarycut-off layer or provision of sub-surface drainagecan be adopted to lower the water table. In otherareas where raising of embankment was notfeasible and which are at a comparatively lowerelevation and prone to waterlogging during rainyseason, sub-surface drainage measures(geotextile encapsulated aggregate drains) wereadvocated.


A project report detailing the remedial measureshas been prepared and submitted to sponsoringagency.

7. Feasibility Study on Usage of Sea WaterTreated Pond Ash for Road Construction


Date of Completion: January 2009


(ii) Simhadri Power Project, NTPC Ltd (I)


Simhadri Thermal Power Project, which issituated near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradeshstate is one of the several coal based thermalpower plants being operated by NTPC Ltd. Theannual ash production at Simhadri power projectis estimated to be about 21 lakh tones. At Simhadripower project, ash is being transported to the ashpond using sea water. To evaluate feasibility ofsea water treated pond ash utilisation in roadworks, this project was taken up.

Methodology

Under this project, characterisation work of pondash samples collected from different locations inthe ash pond was done to determine its variousphysical, chemical and engineering properties.Pond ash sample was also subjected tostabilisation using cement and strengthproperties of cement stabilised pond ash weredetermined.


Based on the results of the laboratoryinvestigations, it was concluded that physical andengineering properties of sea water treated pondash are similar to physical and engineeringproperties of pond ash treated with normal water(non-saline water). However, UCS strength ofcement stabilised pond ash does not meetspecification requirements even at 8 per cent ofcement addition and hence cement stabilisationis not a feasible option.



A project report containing details of CRRIfindings has been submitted to Project Sponsorer.

8. Design and Construction of RoadEmbankment and Pavement LayersUsing Copper Slag

Date of Start: August 2008



(ii) Sterilite Industries (I) Pvt.Ltd.,Tuticorin (Tamilnadu) (S)

(iii) National Highways Authority of Indiaand the Concessionaire (I)


The Institute had earlier completed a laboratoryfeasibility study of using copper slag in differentlayers of road pavement. Based on this study, onekm length of test track is being constructed onNH-45B using copper slag in road embankmentand pavement layers. It is proposed to constructfour test tracks each of length 150 m, withdifferent embankment cross sections.

Methodology

To finalise the construction methodology to beadopted, trial stretch construction was undertakenusing copper slag-pond ash/soil mixes. For triallength construction, it was decided to try threedifferent material combinations - 100 per centcopper slag, copper slag (50 per cent) + Pondash (50 per cent) and copper slag (50 per cent) +soil (50 per cent).


Trial length construction showed that when 100per cent copper slag was used, severalconstruction problems like difficulty incompaction, uneven compaction, shearing ofcompacted layer by truck traffic, construction

vehicles/ trucks getting bogged down even incompacted layer, etc were faced. Henceconstruction of embankment core using 100per cent copper slag was discarded. No suchdifficulties were faced while constructing trialstretch using copper slag + pond ash or copperslag + soil mixture. Construction of embankmentwith copper slag-pond ash/soil mixes is nowbeing carried out.

Further Proposed Work

Different pavement sections using copper slag areproposed to be constructed to monitor theirperformance.


An interim report has been submitted by CRRI toProject Sponsorer.


1. Study on the Changes in Characteristicsof Coarse/Fine Grained Soil by AddingStone Powder (Quarry Dust) andChanges in CBR Values at DifferentSoaking Conditions of the Specimen

Date of Start: November 2007


Karnataka Engineering Research Station,Krishanarajasagara


The pavement design is mainly depending onCBR values of sub grade. The CBR value of subgrade decides the thickness and differentcomponents of a pavement or in other words theCBR value decides cost of construction. Lowerthe CBR value higher will be cost of construction.There are methods or ways to improve sub gradepenetration resistance. One of the simple way isto lay a layer of Granular Sub Base (GSB)materials over the sub grade (apart from drainagepurposes) these GSB layer will have a higher CBR


value (from 15 to 25 per cent) and serves as asub base for other layers. The Indian RoadCongress has specified different grades andspecifications for these GSB materials. Ingeneral these GSB materials consist of coarseaggregates and granular materials in the rangeof 75 mm to 0.075 mm. This may be from naturalsource or manufactured in pug mills. But as seenfrom the schedule of rates of different departmentsthe cost of GSB is higher. As such improvementsof sub grade by overlaying a layer of GSB, cost isgoing to be higher. As such improvements of subgrade may reduce the cost to certain extent.

If sub grade soil to certain depth is excavatedmixed with a known quantity of stone dust and if

the combination gives a higher CBR value thenthe cost of construction could be reduced. Thesame methodology will be applicable to the roadembankment/fill material.

The present study being taken with the intensionof reducing burden on highway engineer forlooking economics of road construction, lookingsources for specified materials and also inlimiting pavement thickness.


1. Addition of stone dust to coarsegrained soil

The results obtained are as follows:

Inference

The addition of stone powder (quarry dust)to soil causes decrease in its liquid limit,reduces plasticity characteristics, increasesits density and penetration resistance (CBRvalue).

As seen from the study report, addition of40 per cent of quarry dust i.e. replacing40 per cent soil with quarry dust could

increase the CBR value. It is also noticedthat in spite of change in soil characteristicssuitable for sub grade/sub base have beenachieved its classification remains same thatis SM or A2. Final conclusion will be drawnafter conducting further studies during thisyear.

2. Addition of stone dust to finegrained soil

The test results are as follows:

Sl Soil Soil Soil Soil SoilNo. with 5% with 10% with 30% with 40%

QD QD QD QD

1 Liquid limit (per cent) 40 40 36 34 30

2 Plastic limit (per cent) 27 26 22 23 20

3 Plasticity index 13 14 14 11 10

4 MDD (gm/cc) 1.737 1.831 1.843 1.992 2.04

5 OMC (per cent) 12.25 12 12.5 9.95 10.4

6 CBR (per cent) 4 7.50 8 11 16


Sl Soil Soil Soil Soil SoilNo. with 5% with 10% with 30% with 40%

QD QD QD QD

1 Liquid limit (per cent) 59 57 53 43 45

2 Plastic limit (per cent) 35 35 32 29 28

3 Plasticity index 24 22 21 14 17

4 MDD(gm/cc) 1.587 1.55 1.59 1.81 1.805

5 OMC (per cent) 21.6 21.15 21.5 15.7 12.4

6 CBR (per cent) 2 2 2 3 3


(i) Chief Research Officer, SoilMechanics and Foundation,Engineering Division, KarnatakaEngineering Research Station,Krishanarajasagara.

(ii) Director (Chief Engineer), KarnatakaEngineering Research Station,Krishanarajasagara.

2. Investigation, Instrumentation andMonitoring of Kaliasaur Landslide onNational Highway - 58 (Uttarakhand) andDesign of Remedial Measures for ItsLong-Term Stability



(i) Central Road Research Institute (R),

(ii) Department of Science & Technology(S),

(iii) Border Roads Organisation


This landslide has been active for last fivedecades and has been causing immense

Observations

As observed during studies, the additions ofquarry dust causes lowering of liquid limit,plasticity index. Also, soil could be made denserand higher resistance to penetration. But evenwith 30-40 per cent of soil replacement with stonepowder (quarry dust) the increase in CBR wasonly about 1 per cent (2 to 3 per cent).


On the basis of studies, the addition of quarrydust to fine grained soil requires somemodification in the methodology of studies. Themethod found to be suitable for coarse grainedsoil may not be suitable for fine grained soil.

The test data have been studied in detail andnoticed many discrepancies which requiredrepetition of studies. Hence, it was decided toconduct studies on fine grained soil in detail withall other alternatives.

This study is being conducted in parallel to abovestudy. Since, results obtained found to containsome discrepancies and also requires someadditional characteristics viz. cohesion, swellingpressure, permeability etc to draw conclusions, itwas decided to continue this studies further.


problems on this strategically important NationalHighway. The studies carried out so far at thislandslide consisted of evaluation of topographicparameters on a detailed scale, geological andstructural analysis, rock mass and slope masscharacterization, hazard micro-zonation,geo-technical analysis and design of remedialmeasures for long-term stability. Geo-spatialanalysis with the help of Remote Sensing and GISwas also done in order to detect the changesexperienced by the terrain. Seventy fivepedestals have been installed in the landslide bodyand their initial positions were recorded usingDGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) forthe maximum possible precision to be obtainedduring subsequent monitoring phases. Thislandslide has been monitored thrice since thestarting of the project. DGPS monitoring hasrevealed that the vertical movement of thepedestals is in the order of about 0.2 to 2 m.Monitoring will be continued on a regular basis torecord behavior of the landslide.

Zonation of the landslide area has been done onthe basis of the ranges of RMR (Rock MassRating) and SMR (Slope Mass Rating) and hasshown agreement with the field conditions to fairextent. The results of the RMR and SMRanalyses have been found to be in agreementwith the fact that rock mass in the weatheredcondition earns a poor or very poor rock massrating. Likewise, it has been observed that therock mass in the vicinity of the faults and folds isalso having poor to very poor range of rock massrating. This is attributed to the fact that fracturedensity increases in the vicinity of such majordiscontinuities. It has been observed that rockmass is having less value in the vicinity of thefaults and thereby results in the increasedfracture density in the faulted zones. Safer rangesof the rock mass and slope mass are at relativelymore distant locations than the lower ranges. Suchlocations are less affected by weathering and arealso less deformed, which is attributed to their

distance from the faulted and folded zones.


1. A Project Report containing work carried outso far has been submitted to DST.

2. Kumar Kishor, Kimothi Shivashish, GoyalNitesh, Prasad, P.S., Rawat Sarita, andMathur Sudhir "Dynamic Nature of KaliasaurLandslide: A Geomorphological Appraisal",in Diamond Jubilee Conference on"Landslide Management: Present Scenarioand Future Directions" conducted byCentral Building Research Institute,Roorkee, Uttarakhand, February 2008.

3. Detailed Geological, GeotechnicalInvestigation, Instrumentation andMonitoring of Amparav Landslide,(Uttarakhand)




(ii) Department of Science & Technology(S),

(iii) Uttarakhand Public WorksDepartment (I)


Amparav Landslide is located on theKathgodam - Nainital road, 4 km before Jyolikoton NH-87 in Kumaun Division of UttarakhandState. In continuation of work reported in theprevious year, detailed geological andgeotechnical studies have been carried out inAmparav Landslide and its surrounding areas. Itwas observed that the study area is highlysusceptible for slope instability and there are threedifferent types of failures namely, Plane/blockfailure, Talus failure on the upper reaches andcircular failure at lower reaches close to NH-87.


Further, studies revealed that natural factors likelithology, structure, geomorphology steep slopes,heavy rains etc., and anthropological factors suchas deforestation, excessive irrigation, nonmaintenance of old remedial measures etc. areplaying important role for causing instability atAmparav landslide site. The construction of civilengineering structures without takingconsideration of present slope stability status isalso equally responsible for the slope instabilityin the area. Based on comprehensive studies, aset of remedial measures have been designedand suggested for controlling all type of landslidesviz. Plane failure/block, Talus failure and circularfailure in the Amparav area.

4. Engineering of Structures AgainstNatural and Other Disasters




(ii) Structural Engineering ResearchCentre (C)


Under this project, CRRI had taken up studies oneffect of landslides and floods on roadinfrastructure. In continuation of the work reportedin the previous year, at Patalganga landslide onNH-58, specially designed 65 numbers of steelpedestals have been installed in the landslideaffected area, and their original positions havebeen marked by using DGPS. The movement ofthe pedestals at this landslide location can beattributed to the movement of the blocks (formedby dilational and shear fractures in the main body)resting on the slip surfaces on which pedestalswere installed. The monitoring of pedestalsshowed that the vertical movement of pedestalsat this site varied from 0.15 m to 4.2 m andmovement is mainly shallow. Movement of lowermagnitude has been observed in the upper parts

of the landslide area whereas higher magnitudemovement has been recorded in the lower partsof landslide area which can be attributed to toeerosion. In the task relating to study on flooddamage to road infrastructure, collation ofinformation on flood damages to roadinfrastructure and details regarding measures tobe taken to minimise flood damage have beencarried out. The project is currently underprogress.

5. Pilot Project for Construction of PMGSYRoads Using Jute Geotextiles




(ii) Jute Manufactures DevelopmentCouncil (S),

(iii) National Rural Roads DevelopmentAgency (I)


This project has been taken up as a sponsoredproject supported by Jute ManufacturesDevelopment Council (JMDC). Under this project,five PMGSY roads in four states (Assam, M.P,Chattisgarh and Orissa), where construction workhas been completed, have now been taken upfor performance monitoring. The objective of theproject is to study efficacy of Jute Geotextile (JGT)for drainage, erosion control, capillary cut-off andsubgrade improvement and hence performancemonitoring forms an important component of thisproject. Each of these PMGSY Roads, compriseof several sub-sections in which JGT of differentvarieties (woven, non woven and open weave),of different strengths and rot treated as well asnon treated varieties have been laid to study theirrelative performance. Control sections with outJGT have also been constructed. Adistinguishing feature of these test roads is theconstruction of reduced pavement thickness


sections where in JGT as drainage improvementlayer has been laid above subgrade. Visualcondition survey of the test sections, recording ofvarious types of distress in the pavement,shoulder area, embankment side slopes,Benkelman Beam deflection studies anddetermination of field CBR of subgrade soil usingDCP test are being carried out as part of theperformance observation. Besides samples ofJGT are being exhumed from these test roadsand they are being tested for determiningclogging, remaining strength characteristics, etc.Performance observations would be carried outfor a period of 18 months in all these roads.

6. Design of Railway Embankment UsingCoal Ash




(ii) National Thermal Power CorporationLtd (S)


This project has been sponsored by NationalThermal Power Corporation, Ltd. In continuationof work reported earlier, to investigate thefeasibility of pond ash as a backfill material forreinforced railway embankment, designs werecarried out as per BS:8006. Two types ofreinforced pond ash embankments were chosenin the design viz. (a) Vertical Reinforced pond ashembankment of height 4 m and (b) Steep Slope(0.5H:1V) Reinforced pond ash embankment.Designs were checked for both internal andexternal stability considerations. Global stabilityof these embankments was checked for bothsurcharge and without surcharge conditions. Thefactor of safety values ranged between 1.13 to1.31 with surcharge and without surcharge, FOSranged between 2.14 to 2.41. It was concludedthat, these structures could be used in theapproaches of culvert and bridges. The designshave been communicated to NTPC to carry outconstruction of trial embankment.


IV. BRIDGE ENGINEERING

SUMMARY

Research work reported in the area of bridge engineering comprises of a variety of projects, coveringstructural investigations, laboratory investigations, analytical studies and on critical infrastructureinformation system for maintenance of bridges.


1. Performance Evaluation of the Four Spans of a Grade Separator and Two Spans of a ROBthrough Load Testing connecting National Highways at Lucknow.

2. Study on Excessive Vibration in Mahatma Gandhi Setu Bridge.

3. Vibration Studies in the Road-Way Portion of Rajahmundry Road-cum-Rail Bridge.

4. Evaluation of Residual Prestress in the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge at Patna.

5. Development of a Critical Infrastructure Information System in GIS Environment for Maintenanceof Bridges on National and State Highways:


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Evaluation of Corrosion of Steel throughGalvapulse and Gravimetric Method


Date of Completion (Targeted):September 2009

Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi(I)


To develop a correlation for loss of steel due tocorrosion as measured by Galva-pulse equipmentand gravimetric method.

Methodology

Concrete slab specimen of size 100 mm x 100mmx 100 mm, 50 mm x 100 mm x 230 mm and50 mm x 100 mm x 330 mm shall be cast usingM 20 and M 30 concrete mixes. The slab specimenshall be embedded with 3 numbers of 10 mm diarebars, along its width. The cover over the rebar inthe entire specimen shall be 20 mm. The spacingbetween the rebars in the smaller and larger slabspecimen shall be 50 mm and 100 mm,respectively. The concrete mixes shall be cast withand without NaCl added to the mixing water, atdifferent percentages by weight of cement. Thetest specimen shall be subjected to theaccelerated corrosive conditions by alternatedipping and drying in salt solution. All the testspecimen shall be tested for rebar corrosion byGalvapulse at three months interval, and at theend of each interval, one set of specimen shall bebroken to extract steel bar, which shall be cleanedand corrosion loss shall be determined by weightloss. A correlation shall be developed between theweight loss as estimated from the corrosion currentand through the actual weight measurements.

Interim Conclusions

A comparison of crushing compressive strengthwith different proportions of NaCl at different ages

showed that there has been a decrease incompressive strength with increase in NaClcontent. The analysis of the corrosion current andthe development of correlation between thecorrosion loss determined through galvapulse andweight loss method is in progress.


Galva-pulse is a non-destructive equipment tomeasure corrosion rate of steel reinforcement(and subsequently loss of mass of steel) in a RCCstructure. Gravimetric method is a laboratorybased method to estimate the corrosion rate (andloss of steel). In this technique the steel rebar isextracted from the concrete specimen, aftersubjecting the same to accelerated corrosionconditions, and the corrosion rate is estimatedfrom the weight loss measurements. Theproposed technique would seek to develop acorrelation between the corrosion rate measuredthrough Galva-pulse and the gravimetric methodso that the same can be used when Galva-pulseis employed to measure the corrosion rate is realstructures.


Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi.

2. Detailed Analysis of Slopes throughFinite Element Method


Date of Completion (Targated): February2010

Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi(I)


FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis of slopesthrough strength reduction technique to computeF.S. (Factor of Safety) of the whole slope.


Computation of stresses and displacements withinthe embankment at all Gauss Integration pointsand the zone of similar F.S. and its comparisonwith conventional method of slope stabilityanalysis (Bishop's method) which can only obtainthe F.S. of the whole slope along a predefinedfailure surface.

Methodology

FEM analysis of slope will be carried out in threeways:

(i) Overall F.S. of the slope, by strengthreduction Technique. StrengthReduction factor will be the F.S. forwhich factor the maximumdisplacement will have a sudden jumpfrom its previous strength reductionfactor.

(ii) Stresses will be computed at Gaussintegration points for each finiteelement and then the F.S. will beobtained at these points by comparingthe values of shear stresses at thoseGauss integration points with theshear strength of the soil at thosepoints. From those values a zone ofsimilar F.S. will be identified,consequently the zone offailure will be determined.

(iii) The average shear stresses and shearstrength will be computed along adefined path from the values ofstresses obtained at various Gaussintegration point and hence the F.S.will be computed along anypredefined failure path.

Finally on the basis of these results obtained fromFEM analysis, a comparative study will becarried out with conventional method of slopestability analysis to establish the authenticity ofthis method. Then a guideline will be developedto use this method for slope stability analysis onroutine basis.

Interim Conclusions

Detailed Analysis by FEM is capable of zonationof slope with respect to F.S., hence, accurate andeconomic remedial measures can be suggestedto control the slope failure which is anprerequisite for uninterrupted road networkthroughout the country in all seasons specially inhilly areas.


Slope failure is a very common problem in hillyroads during rainy season and it stops thenormal life in those areas during this natural andmanmade phenomena. So smooth running ofnormal life is impossible without prevention of thisnatural phenomenon. This is possible by takingsome preventive measures with the help ofdetailed analysis of slope stability, and which isonly possible by analysis of slope through FEM.



B. COMPLETED /ONGOING PROJECTS

1. Performance Evaluation of the FourSpans of a Grade Separator and TwoSpans of a ROB through Load Testingconnecting National Highways atLucknow

Date of Start : December 2008

Date of Completion : March 2009


(ii) Public Works Department, Govt. ofUttar Pradesh, Lucknow (S)

Scope and objectives

The objective of the project was to obtain theresponse through load testing of four spans of


superstructure of outer carriageway of newlyconstructed grade separator connecting IndiraNagar and Faizabad Road at PolytechnicCrossing in Lucknow (UP). Also, to carry out loadtest the two spans (one each Solid slab andVoided Slab types) of a Rail Over Bridge (ROB)along the same route.

Methodology

The following methodology of work has beenadopted for this project:

1. It was opined that the load testingprotocol illustrated in IRC:SP-37 isquite general in nature and in order toevaluate the structural response ofsuch kind of bridge which is havingcurved PSC BOX Girders with higherdegree of super elevation present withlarge cantilevers, the testing of thebridge needs to follow a rigorousexercise. Therefore, CRRI tested thebridge not only for deflections andrecoveries as stipulated in IRC but alsoevaluated the structural responsethrough other performanceparameters with the help ofsophisticated testing toolssimultaneously, such as vibrationsignature analysis using FFT analyserSurface Strains through vibrating wirestrain gauges and strains underdynamic vehicular loading using strainintelliducers. Also, measured thedisplacements of bearings and piercap under loading and unloadingstages.

2. Theoretical analysis of the bridge wascarried out for the estimation of IRCloading (the maximum allowable load,including impact factor for which thespan has been designed and limitingdeflection), their critical placementpattern, etc.

3. Visual inspection of test spans carriedout after getting them cleaned/whitewashed to remove surface dirt,unevenness/roughness to observe thecracks or distress during the courseof load testing.

4. There were some distressed areasnoticed during visual inspection of thetest spans; same were repaired beforeload testing was taken up.

5. Recorded the deflection and strainsunder temperature effect (24 h cycle)for their compensation in final calculationbefore structural qualification.

6. Tested all the bridge spans as per IRCprocedures, that is placement of loadin an incremental manner, recordinginstant and final deflection, retentionof load for 24 h, incremental removalof loads, instant and final recoveryafter 24 h.

7. Analysis and presentation of test dataduly corrected for temperaturevariations as per IRC.

8. Studied the Structural response forother performance parameters suchas dynamic strains, vibration underapplication of dynamic loads bymovement of loaded trucks at designspeed.

9. Compilation of findings andsubmission of report.


The load testing results are based on the loadsapplied on selected spans only and giveassessment for selected spans on qualitativebasis. The bridge authority is to follow a strictregime for inspection of bridge at regular intervalas specified in Appendix 5 of IRC: SP-35"Guidelines for Inspection and Maintenance


of Bridges" and inspection format as perAppendix 3 of IRC:SP-52-1999 and takecorrective actions for any distress without loss ofany time. It is also requested to regulate the trafficas per designated axle load with specified designspeed for this bridge. Due consideration shouldalso be given to check the design speed in casetraffic hazard develop on account of sharp curve.No higher axle load other than prescribed in IRCand under Motor Vehicle Act shall be allowed toply on the bridge. This being a highly curved bridgecoupled with higher degree of super elevation,the performance of bearings needs specialattention. A suitable enforcement mechanism isessential to keep structure in a good conditionduring its service life.


• The results of the project have beenused to assess the condition of bridgeand will give be useful in maintenanceaspects of the bridges.

• The special methodology developedfor this project will be useful forevaluation of such kind of bridgesspecially, in city flyovers where acutecurvature is unavoidable due to trafficand space constraints.

Reports/Publication

J.K. Goel, et al, "Performance Evaluation of theFour Spans of A Grade Separator and Two Spansof A ROB through Load Testing ConnectingNational Highways at Lucknow", March 2009.


Public Works Department, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh,Lucknow.

2. Study on Excessive Vibration inMahatma Gandhi Setu Bridge

Date of Start : September 2008

Date of Completion : October 2008

(i) Structural Engineering ResearchCentre (SERC), Chennai (R,I)

(ii) L & T - RAMBOLL ConsultingEngineers Limited, Chennai (S)


To evaluate the dynamic characteristics of thebridge for typically two spans, one span the mostdamaged and the other least damaged.

1. Response measurement of the bridgeunder controlled vehicular movementwith a known weight of a lorry runningat various speed.

2. Ambient response measurement ofthe bridge when a normal trafficconsisting of passenger buses, carsand other light vehicles are passedthrough the bridge.

Methodology

By conducting field measurement vibration dataare collected with known control parameters. Dataanalysis is carried out to understand andestablish the system parameters (that of bridge).Having established system parametersimprovements are suggested to control excessivevibrations.


Vibration levels are either unpleasant or painfulto human and "strong" to "very heavy" withreference to structures.


Having established that the vibration levels arestrong and based on established systemparameters, suitable remedial measures aresuggested.



Lakshmanan, N., Muthumani, K., Gopalakrishnan,N., Sathish kumar, K., Ramarao, G.V., Ravisankar,K., Parivallal, S., Kesavan and Amarprakash,"Study on Excessive Vibration in Mahatma GandhiSetu" Consultancy Report to L& T - RAMBOLL ,October 2008.


M/s. L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Limited,Chennai.

3. Vibration Studies in the Road-WayPortion of Rajahmundry Road-cum-RailBridge


Date of Completion : January 2009

i) Structural Engineering ResearchCentre (SERC), Chennai (R,I)

ii) Roads & Buildings Department, Govt.of Andhra Pradesh (S,C)


• To ascertain the structural condition ofbridge;

• To specify the upper limit on vehiculartraffic on the bridge to be allowed, interms of both the weight and speed ofthe vehicle;

• To point out problem areas in thebridge which require immediateattention-by conducting dynamic test.

Methodology

By conducting elaborate dynamic testing on thebridge at selected spans, vibration data arecollected with known control parameters duringthe movement of road traffic and train movement.Data analysis is carried out to understand andestablish the system parameters (that of bridge).Having established system parameters

improvements are suggested to improve theperformance.


Vibration levels are "heavy" to "strong" withreference to structures.


Having established that the vibration levels arestrong and based on established systemparameters suitable remedial measures aresuggested.


Lakshmanan, N., Muthumani, K. Gopalakrishnan,N., Sathish kumar, K., Sreekala. R and Ramarao.G.V., "Vibration Studies in the Road Way Portion ofRajahmundry Road-cum-Rail-Bridge" ConsultancyReport to Roads & Buildings, Department, Govt. ofAndhra Pradesh , January 2009.


Roads & Buildings Department, Govt. of AndhraPradesh.

4. Evaluation of Residual Prestress in theMahatma Gandhi Bridge at Patna


Date of Completion (Targeted ) :October 2008

(i) Structural Engineering ResearchCentre (SERC), Chennai (R,I)

(ii) L& T - RAMBOLL ConsultingEngineers Limited, Chennai (S)


Evaluation of residual prestress in two spans ofthe bridge by a novel experimental technique.


Methodology

By using concrete core trepanning technique, theresidual prestress was determined from the strainreleases which were obtained at the concretesurface due to core cutting.


The residual prestressing forces in theprestressed concrete girders at different sectionswere obtained for the two spans.


The outcome of the investigation is useful toevaluate the structural safety and also used todesign the strengthening/repair of the bridge.


Estimation of residual prestress from themeasured strain values mainly depend on theaccurate value of the modulus of elasticity ofconcrete.


K. Ravisankar, et al, "Residual PrestressEvaluation in the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge atPatna", Consultancy Project Report No.621341,SERC, Chennai, October 2008.


M/s. L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Limited,Chennai.

5. Development of a Critical InfrastructureInformation System in GIS EnvironmentFor Maintenance of Bridges on Nationaland State Highways

Date of Start : February 2005

Date of Completion (Target) :December 2008

(i) Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi ( R, I)

(ii) Department of Science & Technology,New Delhi (S)


There are more than 5 lakh bridges in ourcountry, but data base giving the importantdetails of these bridges is not available. It isestimated that about 25 per cent of these bridgesare in distress and needs the funds for theirstrengthening. Considering that the number ofbridge assets is increasing quite rapidly, there isa need to develop a scientifically designedCritical Infrastructure Information System in GISenvironment for prioritization of allocation of fundsfor maintenance of Bridges of National Highwaysand State Highways in the country. It is essentialthat the allocations are used in such a way thatthey yield the greatest possible benefit to societyat the lowest possible cost. The actions to becarried out must be technically correct and takeplace at the correct points in time and on the rightobjects. The objectives may thus be stated asfollows:

• To develop Inventory module forcondition of bridges in GISenvironment.

• To develop methodology and softwarefor Inspection, Load CarryingCapacity, Strengthening & Budgetingfor Bridge Structures.

• To develop an Advanced DecisionSupport System module forprioritization of repairs andmaintenance of bridges.

Methodology

A fully developed system will comprises of :

(i) Inventory Module

To develop this module, the following


methodology will be adopted:

• Preparation of a base map ofGhaziabad district of UP, usingSurvey of India Topo sheets andsatellite data.

• Road inventory for NationalHighways and State Highwaysincluding rail network and waterbodies.

• Collection of bridge related datafrom various Governmentagencies, such State PWD,NHAI and MoRTH etc.

• Bridge inventory.

(ii) Inspection Module

There are three types of inspectionsin practice e.g. routine inspection,detailed inspection and specialinspection. The commonly occurringdistresses are identified duringinspection of the bridges. This moduleinclude collection of data related tovarious inspection reports, summaryof maintenance work taken up frominception and analysis of non-destructive testing data if any.

(iii) Load Carrying Capacity Module

The system comprises of a loadcarrying capacity program for rating ofthe bridges based on the inventorydata.

(iv) Maintenance/Rehabi l i ta t ion/Strengthening Module

If the load carrying capacity of thebridge is less than the required one,various possible alternativestrengthening measures for differentcomponent of the bridges to beconsidered in this module.

(v) Budgeting Module

On the basis of the various possiblealternative strengthening measures fordifferent components of the bridge, acost effective solution to be selectedon the basis of the availability of funds.

(vi) Advance Decision Support SystemModule

Prioritization of maintenance must bebased on carefully selected criteriaand trade-off between them. Mainobjectives, generally expressed are tominimise the total risk for all bridges,maximise the performance of a systemof bridges, minimise the maintenancecost or to maximise the usage ofallocated budgets and to maximise theeconomic and social benefits from themaintenance. The importance of eachelement for the function and safety ofthe bridge and the importance of theroute is to be included in a model thatcalculates the ranking point for thebridge. This module will generate acustomized query system formaintenance, rehabilitation andstrengthening of bridges and alsoprepare a prioritization list on the basisof ranking and funds availability.


The structure of the GIS data base fordevelopment of critical infrastructure informationsystem for bridges has been prepared.

Preparation of base map and its verificationcompleted by undertaking field visits. Verificationof location of bridges/culverts along all the NH &SH were marked on the map and upgraded.During the field visits, data related to latitude,longitude and chaingage of bridge; length of span;number of span; width of road/footpath/railing;


width of carriage way; number of lanes; structuralID; Road/Rail-line/River crossed etc. werecollected as well as the photographs taken. Forobtaining the data related to Latitude, Longitudeand Chainage, GPS based data acquisitionsystem was used. All the relevant informationabout the bridge/culvert along with its Photographwas uploaded into GIS database.

Software has been developed for estimating thepresent/ future load carrying capacity and ratingof RCC slab and RCC T-girder bridges based onthe degradation of the materials due to Chlorideingress, Carbonation and Alkali-Silica Reaction(ASR).


• The outcome of the project will beused in planning the maintenance ofthe bridges.

• Computer software will be developedwhich will be useful to the owner ofthe bridges such as National HighwayAuthority of India (NHAI), Ministry ofRoad Transport & Highways(MOSRTH), State PWD's etc.

Publications

Rajeev Goel, RK Garg and Ram Kumar,"Assessment of Present and Future Rating ofExisting RCC Bridges", Accepted for publicationin First International Conference on Advances inConcrete, Structure, and GeotechnicalEngineering being held during October 25-27,2009 at BITS Pilani.

Rajeev Goel et al, GPS based data acquisition ofbridges and culverts on National and StateHighway of Ghaziabad District - March 2009



6. To Review the Maximum Thickness ofIndividual Laminate in ElastomericBearing and Conditions of Propertiesand Tolerances

Date of Start: 2003

Date of Completion: 2005

National Highways Authority of India (R )


• Under BOT (Annuity) Project ofNellore Bypass using more than 300bearings with individual laminate of16 mm.

• Checking of existing acceptance ofcriteria of property and tolerances.

Methodology

Design and supply installation and behaviourunder D.L. and L.L. including Bulging, ribformation, twist, sway etc.

Limitations of Conclusions/Recommendationof Further Work

• Further testing on elastomeric bearinghaving 16 mm Laminate may be doneto improve vulcanization.

• Go for PTFE in case conditions arenot changed.

Recommendations for Dissemination/Revision of Specifications

In view of the observation of more than 320bearings it is suggested that use of 16 mm oflayer should better be avoided. Instead alternativedesign with internal layer of 12 m or less if possibleshould be preferred.

For use of 16 mm, the code framer may like toreview the provisions of properties and tolerancesdescribed in Clauses 915.2, 916.3 and 917.7 and


making acceptance level 1 mandatory.

In case use of 16 mm is retained then the followingmodifications are suggested in the tolerance ofdimensions:

(a) Variation in thickness of internal layerof Elastomer+/- (10 per cent)maximum of 1 mm.

(b) Variation in thickness of steel laminate+/-(5 per cent).

(i) With the limitation of above16 mm layer can be either15 mm or 17 mm and never14 mm.

(ii) With the limitation of above theminimum thickness willautomatically be 15 mm or more.In this particular example internallayer will be [{128-6x 6.3-2x7}]/5is > 15.

Over and above following modifications in theproperties of elastomer are suggested as furthersafeguard:

(a) Hardness 60+5,

(b) MTS 20 MPa,

(c) Maximum change in hardness +5,

(d) Maximum change in TS andelongation -10, -20 per centrespectively,

(e) Minimum Shear modulus 1 MPa(+0.2),

(f) UCS 60 MPa,

(g) Minimum Adhesive strength 10 kN/m,

(h) Elastic modulus 242+20 per cent


"Need to Review the Maximum Thickness ofElastomer in Bearing" by Dr. B.P. Bagish, IRCJournal Vol. 69-2.


National Highways Authority of India, New Delhi.


V. TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION

1. PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

SUMMARY

Research works reported in the area of Traffic Planning and Management relate to projects onTransportation Planning for Commonwealth Games 2010, Integrated Transportation Plan for NCR,Computation of Price Index for Stage Carriage Operations, Computation of Price Index for Auto andTaxi Operations. In this section there are four completed projects and two new projects.


1. Traffic Forecast and Toll Revenue Estimation.

2. Economic Impact of Public Transportation Development.

3. Integrated Regional Transportation Planning.

4. Computation of Price Index for Different Transport Modes.

2. SAFETY AND ENVIRONEMNT

SUMMARY

Research works reported in the area of Safety and Environment relate road safety Audit for vulnerablegroup including children disability, comparative study for accident analysis of National Highway andNational Expressway, Road Safety Public Education for Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai and GHGemission inventory for transport sector in India.


1. Road Safety Audit for Vulnerable Group.

2. GHG Emission Inventory for Transport Sector in India.

3. Accident Analysis of National Highways and Road Safety Education.


A. NEW PROJECTS

1. Traffic Forecast and Toll RevenueEstimation for Ganga ExpresswayDate of Start : July, 2008


(i) Intercontinental Consultants &Technocrats Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (R)

(ii) M/s. Jaypee Venture Private Limited(JVPL) (S)


The main objectives of this study are

1. To conduct necessary traffic studiesfor assessment of traffic forecast ofproposed Ganga Expressway.

2. Planning of interchanges in terms ofidentifying location and type ofinterchange facilities required:

3. Development of tolling and revenuecollection strategy for estimating totalrevenue generation over differentyears of Expressway operations.

4. Assessment and identification oftolling system requirements.

Methodology

The 1047 km long Ganga Expresswayconnecting Greater Noida and Ballia is going tobe developed as an 8 - lane access controlledfacility. Ganga expressway is planned along avirgin alignment with many competing roads andthe influence area of the expressway is going tobe the central spine and potential economic basefor the state of Uttar Pradesh over time.

Methodology adopted in this study is given in thefollowing steps:

1. Development of the coded transportnetwork.

2. Up gradation and validation of theobserved O-D matrix from trafficsurvey through estimation from linkcount by 'maximum likelihoodtechnique'.

3. Development of regional demandmodel using CUBE5.0 software.

4. Calibration and validation of regionaldemand model.

5. Application of model for expresswaytraffic forecast.

Conclusions

The study findings and appropriaterecommendations evolved in this study are brieflysummarized below:

1. Calibrated matrices have been able toreplicate the observed/estimated baseyear O-D matrices with the R2

(correlation) value between theobserved and the modeled matricesin the range of 0.9 for all modes.

2. The sectional volumes on GangaExpressway are expected to be in theorder of 40000 PCUs/day in theopening year of 2013 and reaches to150000 PCUs/day in the year 2033.

3. The sensitivity of traffic and tollrevenue estimates with variation in thetoll rates indicates that over thehorizon years of 2033 and 2043, evenwith an increased toll rate of 10 to 20per cent, the toll revenue is expectedto be higher than the expected tollrevenue from the adopted rate ofRs 1.00/PCU/km.

4. In order to assess the sensitivity ofGanga Expressway traffic estimates,two scenarios representing anOptimistic and Pessimistic growthpotential of the influence area have


been prepared. Sectional trafficvolume in pessimistic and optimisticcases range in 32000-50000 PCUs (in2013) and goes upto 120000 -190000(in 2033).


The first expressway in the country being takenup for more than 1000 km length, and trafficestimation is done through a systematicdevelopment of regional travel demand model.This is first of its kind in India and themethodology is expected to be utilized in trafficestimation of future expressways.

Limitations of Conclusions/Recommendations for Further Work

The model developed is intended for the studyarea only, and if needed to be adopted for otherstudies it can be applied after due calibration andvalidation.


Consultancy Services for Traffic Forecast and TollRevenue Estimation for Ganga Expressway - FourReports Submitted.



2. Economic Impact of PublicTransportation Development - CaseStudy of Proposed Metro Rail in Cochin

Date of Start : April 2008

Date of Completion : Ongoing


Scope and objectives

The scope of the study will be confined to theeconomic impact of proposed Metro Rail Systemin Cochin Region.

The aim of the study is to identify the impact ofdevelopment of public transport in reducing theprivate transport demand along with theassociated positive and negative impacts to thesociety. The major tasks involved in the study are:

• Assessment of existing travel pattern,modal split and transportationexpenditure of households.

• Assessing the role of existing publictransport system in meeting the traveldemand.

• Identification of the most importantfactors behind users' choice of modeof transport.

• Working out options for thedevelopment of an efficient publictransport system.

• Evaluation of likely impact of theproposed Metro rail on the travelpattern and modal split.

• Working out the cost involved in thedevelopment of the Metro Rail.

• Evaluation of expected impact of thepublic transport system in the overalleconomy of the region (Benefits in theform of reduced travel cost, time,energy, congestion, pollution,accidents, etc).

• Provide policy recommendations.

Methodology

Proposed methodology for the study involves thefollowing activities:

• Compilation of secondary data.


• Conducting primary surveys likeHousehold survey and userpreference survey.

• Analysis of data.

• Development of modal split models.

• Evaluating the impact of the proposedMetro rail.

• To work out the economic implicationof development of Metro rail.

• To work out policy measures.

Interim Conclusions/Supporting data

Data pertaining to the travel and trafficcharacteristics of Cochin City was compiled fromsecondary sources. Public transport infrastructureand their utility pattern were assessed from thedata compiled. In addition to the above, primarysurveys were conducted to estimate the modalshift of public transport users to the proposedmass transport system namely Metro Rail. Thecost and time implications of the proposed shiftwere being assessed to establish the economicimpact of the proposed Metro Rail System.


The proposed output from the study is expectedto present the positive economic impacts of themass transport system, and hence, serve as amajor policy initiative for the promotion of masstransport system in Kerala State.



3. Comparative Study of NationalExpressway-1 with NH-8 for AccidentAnalysis from Amdavad to Vadodara.

Date of Start : November 2008

Date of Completion (Targeted) :November 2010

Gujarat Engineering Research Institute,Vadodara (R)


To work out the comparative study of NationalExpressway-1 with NH-8 from accident point ofview by analysing the accidents occurred onNH-8 before the construction and after theoperation of Expressway-1.

Methodology

Data collection

• Accident data shall have to becollected from all the Police stationsof NH-8 passing from Vadodara toAhmedabad.

• Data shall have to be collected for theperiod of five years before the openingof NE-1 & up to 2008 after the openingof NE-1 both for NH-8 & NE-1.

Data Analysis

• The data shall have to be analysed tofind out the Accident Black Spots andto suggest remedial measures for theirimprovement.

Significance/Utilization potential

By improving accident prone zones, accidents willbe reduced.


The comparative study is carried out for accidentprone locations and volume of accidents only.


The Joint Director (Roads), Gujarat EngineeringResearch Institute, Vadodara.


4. Road Safety Public Education forDelhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai GQCorridors

Date of Start : January 2006

Date of Completion (Actual) : December2008

(i) Intercontinental Technocrats andConsultants Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (R,I),

(ii) National Highways Authority of India(S)


The objectives of the project were to:

(i) Make community residents aware thatroad safety should be a majorcommunity concern;

(ii) Encourage community residents toidentify the specific road safetyproblems faced by the community aswell as their remedial measures;

(iii) Strengthen local Non-GovernmentOrganizations (NGOs) andCommunity Based Organizations(CBOs) and their linkages to externalinstitutions with a role in road safety;and

(iv) Educate community residents and theroad users in safe use of the road andactions to be taken in the event of anaccident.

Methodology

The strategy adopted for conducting publiceducation, through the Road Safety Campaign,has been to create a pool of road safetyAwareness Raisers (ARs), who would act ascatalyst for initiating the process of spreading thesafety message among their peers and others intheir community. The Road Safety Public

Education Campaign has been delivered in 25selected Campaign Delivery Centres (CDCs) foreach of the D-M and M-C arm of GQ, in threecycles of the Campaign.


Road Safety Public Education Campaign was firstinitiative of its kind to be implemented in India.The project was of great significance due to vastdevelopment of roads all over the country underthe NHDP, in which high speed roads are beingbuilt and the communities along the highwayshave been suddenly exposed to such high speedtraffic.

Limitations of Conclusions/Recommendations for Further Work

The main conclusion could be that change ofbehaviour with a cultural shift for betterawareness and safer actions on road is possible,and it is more promising in the youngergeneration. An institutional mechanism is requiredto maintain the continuity and make it a sustainedeffort, and involvement of media, in all forms, canincrease the spread and effectiveness of thepublic education.


• Inception Report.

• Campaign Implementation Plan.

• Midterm Evaluation Report.

• Final Evaluation Report for RoadSafety Public Education.


(i) Intercontinental Consultants & TechnocratsPvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

(ii) National Highways Authority of India,New Delhi.



1. Transport Plan for CommonwealthGames 2010

Date of Start : 2007

Date of Completion (Actual) : December2008

Consulting Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd,New Delhi.


(a) For demand modeling first thepopulation and PCTR were projectedfor the year 2004 & 2010. Thenaccordingly trip productions & tripattractions were calculated for 2004(for whole city & its zones).

(b) Using survey OD matrix & travel timematrix and estimated productions &attractions for each zone, expandedmatrix was built for the city in 2004.

(c) This resulted in an OD matrix inpassenger trips with city demand. Thismatrix was validated on the basis ofthe TLFD of the Survey OD matrix.This matrix was converted into PCUsby using a factor of 0.25.

(d) Then, the regional demand for the year2004 was added in this matrix.


• Inception Report.

• Draft Final Report.

• Report on Traffic Circulation andParking Plan.

• Report on Provision of TransportServices.

• Report on Specific Arrangements forOpening/Closing Ceremonies.

• Final Report.


Sh. S.P Arora, Executive Director, M/s. ConsultingEngineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

2. Integrated Transportation Plan forNational Capital Region

Date of Start : May 2007

Consulting Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd,New Delhi.

Present Status and Progress : Ongoing


• Study of existing traffic and travelcharacteristics and distributionpatterns.

• Construction of NCR Transport Model.

• Assess the level of utilization, potentialand deficiencies in the presenttransport system.

• Assess the characteristics of theregional road and rail network formovement of passengers and goodstraffic.

• Construct Regional TransportPlanning Models appropriate toconditions and planning needs of NCRso as to develop alternative transportstrategies for short term, medium termand long term upto the year 2032.

• Prepare an Integrated Multi-ModalTransportation System for NCR withphased program of its implementationupto the year 2032.

• Identify various project proposals, whichare economically viable, sociallyacceptable, environmentally sustainableand financially feasible.


• Train and build capacity of NCRPB.

• Preparation of an Integrated Multi-modal Transport System for NCRbased on forecasted road and railtraffic upto 2032 including passengerinterchange facilities and terminals.

Methodology

Module 1: Study of NCR plans (1981 /2001 / 2021) and otherreports related to NCRTransport System Plan.

Module 2: Appreciation of regional,physical, demographic,social, economic andenvironmental characteristicsto evaluate their impact ontravel demand and transportsystem plan.

Module 3: Conduct of various surveyssuch as traffic, highway,environmental and social toappreciate the sectoralcharacteristics, demandlevels, trends of growth,traffic movement patternincluding proposals,constraints and potentials.

Module 4: C o n c e p t u a l i z a t i o n ,construction, calibration andvalidation of transportmodels.

Module 5: Conceptualization ofalternate scenarios ofdevelopment.

Module 6: Estimate of transportdemand levels underalternate scenarios.

Module 7: Conceptualization ofalternate Integrated Multi-modal Transport System

plans, their evaluation andselection based on a multi-criteria analysis.

Module 8: Broad assessment of socialand environmental issues,impacts and measures.

Module 9: Detailing the selectedTransport System Plan,costing, phasing andprioritization.

Module 10: Identification of broadstrategies for resourcemobilization andimplementation of projects.

Module 11: Identification of neededinstitutional restructuringcovering organizational,legal, monetary and fiscalaspects.

Module 12: Finalization and submissionof report and plans.

Module 13: Conduct of TrainingProgramme to officers andstaff of NCRPB.

Recommendations

••••• Road Network:

New Expressways of length 1245 kmwill be constructed for Horizon Year[2032]. Some of the State Highways,MDR, and ODR will be upgraded intoNational Highways. The Total lengthof NH in the Horizon Year will be1971 km which is about 870 km morethat of the Base Year (2007). The totallength of MDR in Horizon Year will bereduced to 841 km from the totallength of 1210 km in the Base Year.The length of ODR will also bereduced to 1725 km from the existinglength of 1984 km in the Base Year.


• Rail Network:

An extensive Regional Rail Networkhas been included along with theRegional Road Network as anintegrated network, for assignment ofintra-region passenger traffic by publictransport (road & rail). The modalshare of regional rail system has beenestimated to be 12.8 per cent. Thepassenger demand by HY is1.21 million passenger trips per day.Five other rail lines, within NCR, areproposed to strengthen theconnectivity of the rail system.


S.P Arora, Executive Director, CES (I) Pvt. Ltd,New Delhi.

3. Computation of Price Index for StageCarriage Operations (PISCO)



Present Status and Progress: Ongoing


The major objectives of the study are:

(i) To find out the operationalcharacteristics -the passenger load,passenger lead, daily collection andexpenditures (fixed and V.C) of stagecarriage operations in Kerala.

(ii) To prepare a PISCO for understandingthe periodical movement of prices ofvehicle operating cost, and otherinputs for different types of stagecarriage operations.

(iii) To determine the fare structure ofvarious category of services of stagecarriages and establish unit operatingcost of various types of services.

Methodology

National Transportation Planning and ResearchCentre (NATPAC) brought out a Price Index forStage Carriage Operations (PISCO) in KeralaState. The Index compares the movement ofprices of operating components for any base yearwith current year. The method has comparedentry-level conditions for two time periods and hasthe advantage that the movement of prices canbe assessed and the index revised in future also.The index presents a clear methodology fortaking decisions such as fare revisions.


The Passenger fare for ordinary bus services inKerala was fixed as 55 paise per kilometer as perthe last bus fare permission effected in July 2008.There were fall in fuel prices and certain othercost inputs such as tyre and tube etc. The PriceIndex for Stage Carriage Operations (PISCO) fellto 200.80 as on January 2009 prices as against210.46 during the last fare revision in July 2008.The movement of PISCO from July 2008 toFebruary 2009 justifies revision of ordinary faresdownward by 4.55 per cent.

Limitations of Interim Conclusions

Computation Periodical updating of Price Indexfor Stage Carriage Operations (PISCO) gives ascientific basis of fare revision of Stage CarriageOperation. The value of inputs compiled forPISCO refers to survey based on limited samplebasis conducted by NATPAC in 2005 andaccurate demand forecast have not been madefor any particular route. Frequent fluctuations infuel and other cost inputs and also the load andlead parameters could not be realisticallyestimated. The cost of components and weights


used for computing the values of these factorsremain unaltered.

Reports/Publications• Interim Report

Further Information can be obtained from


4. Computation of Price Index for Auto andTaxi Operations (PIATO)



Present Status & ProgressStatus: Ongoing

Year of last Report : August 2008


The major objectives of the study are:

(i) To find out the operationalcharacteristics, the passenger load,passenger lead, daily collection andexpenditures (fixed and V.C) of Auto& Taxi operations in Kerala.

(ii) To prepare a Price Indices for Auto andTaxi Operations (PIATO) forunderstanding the periodicalmovement of prices of operating cost,and other inputs for different types ofAuto & Taxi operations.

Methodology

National Transportation Planning and ResearchCentre (NATPAC), brought out a Price Indices forAuto and Taxi Operations (PIATO) for the first timein Kerala State. Cost table approach is adoptedto compute cost of operations of vehicles under

optimum utilization of capacity, which is derivedfrom detailed analysis of life cycle behavior ofalmost all important vehicle components. ThePrice Index compares the movement of prices ofoperating components for any base year withcurrent year. The method has compared entry -level conditions for two time periods and has theadvantage that the movement of prices can beassessed and the index revised in future also.The index presents a clear methodology for takingdecisions such as fare revisions.


The total cost of operation for autos is taken byadding all the variable and fixed cost components.As per the cost table worked out the total cost/kmfor autos in the state is Rs.4.47/km as on June2006 prices and Rs 5.24/km as on June 2008prices.

The total cost of operation for taxis is also takenby adding all the variable and fixed costcomponents. As per the cost table worked out fortaxis the total cost/km in the state is Rs.6.46/kmas on June 2006 prices and Rs 7.4/km as on June2008 prices.

The movement of Price Indices for Auto and TaxiOperations (PIATO) from 100 in June 2006 baseyear to 117.15 for Autos and 114.48 for taxis ason mid June 2008 prices justify revision of thesefare upward 17 per cent for Auto and 15 per centfor Taxis.


Computation of Periodical updating of PriceIndices for Auto and Taxi Operations (PIATO)gives a scientific basis of fare revision of StageCarriage Operation. The value of inputs compiledfor PIATO refers to survey based on limitedsample basis conducted by NATPAC in 2006 andaccurate demand forecast have not been made


for any particular route. Frequent fluctuations infuel and other cost inputs and also the load andlead parameters could not be realisticallyestimated. The cost of components and weightsused for computing the values of these factorsremain unaltered.


Interim Reports



5. Road Safety Aspects for VulnerableGroup (Children) including CwD(Children with Disabilities)

Date of Start : May 2007

Date of Completion : June 2008

Central Road Research Institute, NewDelhi(R)

Present Status and Progress: Completed

Conclusion/Supporting Data

In this observational study, opinion surveyquestionnaires on different road safetyparameters were developed to assess the desiredquality for services from the user perspective andaccess audit of the selected school areas werealso conducted by the CRRI team along withSamarathyam (National Centre for Barrier FreeEnvironment) to observe various commutingproblems of school children. The questionnaireswere distributed among school children of AADI(Action for Ability Development and Inclusion) ofvarious age groups who were with diversedisabilities. This sample consisted of 56 per centfemales and 54 per cent males with locomotorproblems, mentally challenged 24 per cent males

and 11 per cent females, 11 per cent deaf andblind females, 11 per cent were only blind and11 per cent were having any other type ofimpairment. They expressed during opinionsurvey that generally they found no access to thefootpaths due to various factors for example, theencroachment of parked vehicles, vendors, poordrainage system and level differences onfootpaths. These problems create lots ofdifficulties for pedestrians especially for wheelchair bound road users and children with otherdiverse disabilities. They expressed that theyrarely got any help from the other road users whilecommuting alone on road. This shows verypassive attitude of the able bodied road userstowards the persons with disabilities. They alsoexpressed during the survey that generally roadsare not equipped with proper street lights orproperly visible traffic signs, aided traffic signalsduring commuting at night time. They were alsofacing problems at bus stops as waiting areas ofthe bus stops were blocked by the vendors andparked vehicles. Due to the congestion createdby such encroachments the commuters are forcedto come down on the road to face traffic.

Recommendation for further work

• Implementation of Research Findings afterAudit.

• After audit suggestions, MCD has providedramps and accessible refuge area in thecrossing opposite the school building.Sidewalks also have a strip of tactile tiles(guiding and warning) for persons withvision impairment. This initiate wasundertaken by the research team to promoteaccessibility in the external environment.

Report/Publication

Paper Entitled "A Study of Awareness of RoadRules and Road Signs among Children in Delhi,India” published in ABACUS an InternationalJournal of Architecture, Conservation and Urban


Studies, Monsoon 2007, Vol 2, No. 2, page 77-88.


School Children were trained by the scientists ofthe Institute for different road safety aspects, MCDpeople were contacted by the team members forhighlighting different access problems withguidelines to minimise them.


Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, CentralRoad Research Institute, Mathura Road,New Delhi-110 020.

6. Mobile Combustion: GHG EmissionInventory for Transport Sector in India


Date of Completion (Targeted): December2009


Status: On going

Year of last report: 2007-08

Progress

India has an obligation to the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) as one of its signatory to submitnational inventories of Green House Gases(GHG). As part of the enabling activities for India'ssecond national communication to UNFCCC, theCentral Road Research Institute (CRRI), NewDelhi has been involved in the preparations ofnational GHG emission inventories from thetransportation sector.

Transport sector consisting of Rail, Road,Aviation and Navigation/Shipping is one of the

significant sources of GHG emissions in India.As a corollary to the inventory of GHG emissionsfor transport sector, efforts are intended to bedirected to address the uncertainties in activitydata, particularly relating to road transportation,so as to generate robust emission inventory tothe extent possible. The study has been taken upto fulfill the following objectives:

• Refine the GHG emission estimatesfrom road transport sector byapportioning fossil fuels used invarious types of road transportvehicles and

• Estimate the national greenhouse gasemission inventory for transport sectorfor the period 1995-2007.


The different fuel types used in roadtransportation sector include petrol, diesel, CNG,Auto LPG (road transport) and other minor fueltypes like LDO (light diesel oil) and FO (fuel oil).In addition, lubricants are also used for two-strokeengines. In railways, mostly diesel and coal havebeen used as fuel in locomotives besides theelectricity, which is generated elsewhere andaccounted for in electricity generation sector,hence not been accounted for here to avoiddouble counting. In aviation, Aviation Turbine Fuel(ATF) is used but for ground operations, dieseland other minor fuel types are used. Similarly formarine navigation, diesel, LDO and FO are used.The category-wise fuel consumption statistics(activity data) are being collected and collated forthis work. The fundamental methodologies forestimating greenhouse gas emissions are basedon the IPCC Guidelines (IPCC, 1996, 2006) andthe Good Practice Guidance (GPG) 2000prescribed by the IPCC (IPCC, 2000). Thenational emissions inventory of GHG emissions(CO2, CH4 and N2O) and ozone precursor gases(CO, Nox and NMVOC) for transport sector is


intended to be generated for the years 1995through 2007 using the equivalent energy valuesof fuel consumed for afore-mentioned sub-sectors. Apparent fuel consumption in roadtransportation is being estimated byapportionment of fuels to different vehiclecategories after addressing the uncertaintycomponent for the fuel sold through the networkof retail outlets. The final fuel consumptiondetails are to be arrived at by incorporating theinformation obtained through the recent all Indiasurveys. The information on total consumption ofCNG and Auto LPG use for road transportation isexpected to be used for the reporting period.Similarly, fuel types used for other modes oftransportation viz. Rail, Civil Aviation and

Navigation/Shipping are being apportionedappropriately. The national GHG emissioninventory time series will be generated for theperiod 1995-2007.

The present activity is part of India's SecondNational Communication (SNC) to UNFCCC.


Non-availability of activity data for 2007-08 atpresent.


Initial Status Report (June 2008) and InterimReport (January 2009).


VI. RESEARCH PROJECTS RELATED TO THESIS FOR POST-GRADUATION/Ph.D.

A. HIGHWAY PLANNING, DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, PERFORMANCEEVALUATION AND INSTRUMENTATION

1. Measuring Travel Time Reliability ofRoad Transportation System

Date of Start and Duration: October 2005(Three Years)

Date of Completion: September 2008

(i) Kobe University Kobe, Japan (R)

(ii) Central Road Research Institute,New Delhi (S)

Scope and Objective

• To study the necessity of travel timereliability for India and Japan roadnetwork and a detailed review onvarious travel time reliabilitymeasurements for measuringperformance of road transportnetwork.

• Examining the fundamentalcharacteristics travel time reliabilitymeasures for the study area ofHanshin Expressway road networkand to find the relation between traveltime reliability measures andcongestion measures for the studyarea.

• To identify the factors (Source ofUncertainties) that will affect on traveltime variation and development ofstructural relation between source ofuncertainties and travel time variation.

• Development of stochastic simulationmodel for modeling travel timedistribution under multiple causes in

travel time variability. In particular thestochastic continuous random variableeffect on travel time fluctuation has tobe investigated.

• To analyze travel time variation underthe influence of uncertainties as asystem of sources such as factorsfrom demand side, supply side andexternal effects; and investigation ofthe correlations across the multipleequations in the system and alsofinding correlation among the varioussections of the study area.


The methodology was designed to meet theobjectives discussed in the previous section.Methodology is reflected in a number of distinctstages discussed as follows:

• In the initial stage reviewed varioustravel time reliability measures basedon their method of approach such asmathematical and empirical basedreliability measures. Further variousempirical based travel time reliabilitystudies were reviewed in detail.Several organizations which primarilyadopted various travel time reliabilitymeasure are discussed. This stage willbe knowledge base for developmentof the remaining stages.

• In second stage, data collection andtravel time estimation was carried out.The key component in empirical traveltime reliability analysis is theestimation of travel time for real data.


Data was collected from Hanshinexpressway network of Osaka - Kobearea, Japan. Various indirect traveltime estimation modeling approachesare discussed briefly and more realisticoff-line travel time estimation methodsuch as time slice method is discussedin detail. The travel time estimationmethod which is adopted currently onHanshin express is discussed in detail.

• Travel Time reliability evaluation isdone in the stage three. Statisticalrange measures and various reliabilitymeasures are examined for differentroutes considered in this study.Further, relationship betweencongestion measure and travel timereliability measures was investigated.

• In the fourth stage, a stochasticsimulation model designed for traveltime distributions under varioussources of uncertainties. Forimplementation of this model peaktravel time data of one of the route inthe study area was considered. Thismodel was adopted for probabilitydistribution of travel time estimation inthe light of various sources travel timeuncertainties.

• In final stage, an appropriate structureof interdependency model for traveltime fluctuation was developed. Forimplementation of this modelseemingly unrelated regression modelwas adopted. This model wasdeveloped for analyzing travel timevariation under the effect ofvarious uncertainties such as trafficflow, intensity of rain fall and roadaccidents from supply side, demandside and as external factorrespectively. The model wasdeveloped for considering

contemporaneous error correlationsacross simultaneous equation for theappropriate structure ofinterdependency proposed in this andalso to study error correlation amongthe various sections in the roadcorridor.


• Various existing travel time reliabilitystudies emphasize, that travel timereliability is of utmost importance to thepublic and of even greater concernthan travel time itself.

• By introduce of new informationparameter such as travel timereliability performance measure is verymuch useful in policy assessment andBudget allocation than the traditionalcongestion measures.

• The share of road transport in Indiawhich was around 30 per cent and10 per cent in passenger and goodstransport has increased to 80 per centand 70 per cent from 1950 to 2005.Thus, the road transport has assumedgreat importance in providing reliabletransport in moving men and materialacross the country also it is expectedthat the methods and the results of thedeveloped country like Japan willproduce guidance in establishingtravel time reliability for Indian Roads.Travel Time Reliability measures arecapable of measuring the variability incongestion level.

• SRSM models are capable to analyzethe stochastic behavior of uncertainvariables and also these models arebetter than the deterministic models.Particularly these models are capablein making relation between thecontinuous random variable of


uncertainties and travel time.

• SRSM model well distributed betweentravel time 813 seconds to 2678seconds and also follows the actualtravel time distribution. These modelsare better than the deterministicmodels but the limitation of thesemodels is that these models considerthe continuous random variable inmodelling.

• Jointly estimated models such asSeemingly Unrelated Regression(SURE) models are more effectivethan the individual equation estimatedmodels such as multiple regressionmodels, because these models arecapable to model the indirectrelationship of rain fall and trafficaccident effect through traffic flow ontravel time variation.

• Error covariance matrix between themultiple equations emphasizes thatthe existence of indirect effect of rainfall and accident on travel time throughtraffic volume. From results it wasidentified that, if there is an trafficaccident, traffic flow will be effectedby 188 vehicles in that hour on Ikedaline but according to SURE modeltraffic flow will be reduced by 356vehicles.

• Relative reduction of standard error inSURE model is less than the MLRmodel. This further indicates thatcoefficients obtained by SURE modelare more appropriate than the MLRmodel coefficients.

Recommendations for Dissemination

• Further research work is required toevaluate the travel time variabilityunder the influence geometric feature

and condition of road geometry forHanshin road networks.

• In this study Stochastic based models(SRSM) have developed forcontinuous random variable effect ontravel time variability further thesemodels have to be extended forcombination continuous anddiscontinuous random variable impacton travel time variability for furtherincrease the performance of modelingthe travel time distribution.

• For system of sources of uncertaintymodel for multiple equations andmultiple sections was developed.These models are deterministicmodel. Further, by incorporating thestochastic nature of the variables theperformance model will be greatlyimproved.

• To further increase the performanceof travel time variability analysis otherdecision making tools such as ArtificialIntelligence (AI), Fuzzy logic and Multi-Agent System (MAS) modelingtechniques need to be applied.



2. Analysis of Road NetworkCharacteristics & its Influence onRoute-Choice using GPS-GIS Integration



College of Engineering, Trivandrum(R)


The main objective of the study is to provide aroute-guidance system to the users in the form of


Variable Message Signs (VMS) so that the userscan avoid taking the congested routes and plantheir trips wisely. In order to provide this, first theusers' response to VMS and the factors thataffect route choice decisions, such as, the effectsof mixed traffic characteristics, road geometricsand roadway related factors vis-à-vis roadsurface condition on route choice behaviour etc.were studied. The main objectives set out for thestudy are:

• To identify the significance of traffic &road-geometric factors on route-choice behaviour of different users.

• To conduct speed, journey time &delay surveys along selected O-DPairs on a selected case road network.

• To collect data pertaining to trafficcharacteristics using hand-held GPSfor analysis & to check the accuracyof GPS data with the conventionalmoving car observer data in order toestablish the authenticity of the GPSdata.

• To obtain the best route from amongvarious alternative routes, between theselected O-D pair in the network usingARC GIS 9.1.

• To validate the ARCGIS output with thedata collected from feed backinformation provided by commuters,using questionnaire survey.

• To develop the significance of trafficparameters using Multi NominalLogistic Regression model and todevelop a model for drivers'compliance using Artificial NeuralNetwork (ANN).

• To develop an algorithm to predict thecongestion along the forth-cominglinks and provide the commuters the

required information as VariableMessage Signs (VMS).

Methodology

(i) Collect the user's Route-choicebehaviour and the major factorsinfluencing their choice of routes forwork-trips, by doing a questionnairesurvey.

(ii) Identify the significance of variousroad-related and traffic-relatedfactors that influence the route-choice,as per the socio-demographiccharacteristics, by means ofMultinomial Logistic Regression.

(iii) Identify the users' requirements for theprovision of VMS (Variable MessageSigns) display along roads from thequestionnaire survey.

(iv) Collect the required traffic and roadrelated characteristics by theconventional moving-car observermethod and also by means of hand-held GPS device, in order to identifythe efficiency of GPS for datacollection.

(v) Calculate the congestion indices of allthe selected routes between aspecified origin and destination.

(vi) Identify the optimum path between theselected OD pair in terms of theinfluential factors, from ARCGISsoftware and validate the same withthe details collected by means ofquestionnaire survey.

(vii) Develop an algorithm in C++ to displaythe required VMS information, byfinding out the least congested route.

(viii) Obtain a driver compliance modelusing Artificial Neural Network (ANN)


for future simulation purpose for theprovision of VMS display boards.

Findings and Conclusions

• From the preliminary analysis, 60 percent of the respondents consideredRoad-condition as the most importantfactor for choosing the desired route.

• Distance between the origin anddestination was considered as themost important factor for route-choiceby 39 per cent of the respondents and62 per cent of the respondentsconsidered Traffic jam/delays as themajor difficulty while traversing alongthe routes.

• 79 per cent preferred congestioninformation to be provided as VariableMessage Sign (VMS). The studyshows that majority of respondents arewilling to follow the VMS, dependingon their installation patterns.

• Multinomial Logistic Regressionsuggests the significance of the majorselected factors like Road-conditionand Distance on route-choicebehaviour according to the socio-demographic characteristics.

• From the traffic survey, the averagerunning speed obtained using bothhand-held GPS and moving carobserver method and distancebetween the links were found to becomparable, which shows theeffectiveness of using GPS for trafficdata collection.

• From the present study, higher valuesof congestion indices were observedalong major city corridors. It was foundthat the congestion indices along LMS-Manacaud, which is a major corridor

in Trivandrum City network, were1.204 and 0.8211 along both thedirections respectively, whencompared with the other alternateroutes, where the values are muchless.

• ARCGIS gave best alternate routesbased on minimum congestion, traveltime, fuel consumption etc.

• C++ programs were developed todisplay the required delay andcongestion information to the users asVariable Message Signs (VMS), whichcould further be used as a form ofroute guidance to the users.

• The minimal values of RMSE havebeen obtained for the selected ANNoutputs.

• Finally the study establishes theeffectiveness of integrating GPS &GIS for effective route-choices amongcommuters.


Dr. M. Satyakumar, Civil Engineering Department,College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

3. Determination of Optimum Timing andMaintenance Strategies for Rural Roadsin Kerala

Date of Start: June 2008.


College of Engineering, Trivandrum (R)


The main purpose of the study is to arrive at theappropriate type and its timing of optionalmaintenance treatment for rural roads in Keralawith varying structural conditions, so that the


results can be useful guide to the practisingengineers in deciding optimal maintenance policy.Scope of the present study is limited to the 16rural road sections each of 0.5 km length in Kerala.The selected roads have a pavementscomposition of Water Bound Macadam basecourse of 150 mm and Premix Carpet surfacecourse of 20 mm thickness. The main objectivesset out for the study are:

• To arrive at optimal maintenance forrural roads by carrying out life cyclecost analysis using HDM-4 based onthe economic indicators like InternalRate of Return (IIR).

• To develop software for computing theoptimal timing for the preventivemaintenance treatments for ruralroads using the approach developedas a part of National CooperativeHighway Research Program(NCHRP).

• To predict the optimum maintenancestrategy and the optimum time for itsapplication simultaneously usingArtificial Neural Network based on theresults obtained from the analysisdone using HDM-4 and the softwaredeveloped.

Methodology

(i) Data collected for a period of 3 yearswas used for the present study andthe data collected for the test sectioninclude pavement history data,structural condition data and functionalcondition data.

(ii) Treatments consider for the analysiswas obtained from the preliminarystudy conduct on the pavementcondition data. Weighted average ofeach distress type was arrived at andthese were classified into differentranges and the typical treatments

needed were arrived at based onexpert opinion.

(iii) Optimum Maintenance strategy wasdetermined by conducting projectanalysis using HDM-4.

(iv) Different types of distresses observedon the study roads were classified intoranges and optimum maintenancetreatments were suggested for thestudy ranges.

(v) HDM-4 does not predict the optimaltiming for maintenance treatmenteffectively for low volume roads.Hence the methodology developed asa part of NCHRP was adopted forarriving at the optimum time.

(vi) In order to arrive at the optimal timingfor the application of the preventivetreatment, obtained by doing theanalysis using HDM-4, a softwareprogramme was developed inMicrosoft Access with a programminglanguage called 'Visual Basic forApplication' (VBA).

(vii) Prioritization of the rural road networkwould be complete, only when bothoptimum maintenance treatments andoptimum time for its application canbe predicted effectively. Hence in thepresent study, the outputs from theHDM-4 analysis and the softwaredeveloped based on the NCHRPmethod were analysed simultaneouslyusing Artificial Neural Network.


(i) From the analysis done with HDM-4and the program developed for ruralroads, it was found that

• When the IRI value is greaterthan 8.5, percentage ravelledarea between zero and 28 per


cent and percentage areaaffected by pothole is negligible,the optimal treatment suggestedwas resurfacing with premixcarpet and the optimal timeobtained was 5 years for IRI >10 m/km and 6 years for IRI upto 10 m/km.

• When the IRI values is greaterthan 8.5, percentage ravelledarea greater than 28 per centand percentage area affected bypothole is negligible, optimumtreatment suggested wasresurfacing (PMC) withpreliminary treatment forravelling and the optimal timeobtain was 5 years.

• When the IRI values is less than8.5, percentage ravelled arealess than 10 per cent andpercentage area affected bypothole is negligible, the optimaltreatment suggested was toensure proper drainage andregular intervals.

• When the IRI value is less than8.5, percentage ravelled areagreater than 10 per cent andpercentage area affected bypothole is negligible, the optimaltreatment suggested was to slurryand seal and the optimal time was5 year for ravelling greater than35 per cent and 6 years forravelling up to 35 per cent.

• When the IRI value is less than6, percentage ravelled area lessthan 10 per cent and percentagearea affected by pothole isbetween 2 per cent and 4 percent, the optimal treatmentsuggested was patching.

• When the IRI value is less than6, percentage ravelled area lessthan 10 per cent and 25 per centand percentage area affected bypothole is between 2 per centand 4 per cent, the optimaltreatment suggested waspatching and fog seal and theoptimal time obtained was 6years.

• When the IRI value is between6 and 8.5, percentage ravelledarea less than 20 per cent andpercentage area affected bypothole is between 2 per centand 4 per cent, the optimaltreatment suggested waspatching and fog seal and theoptimal time obtained was 6years.

• When the IRI value is between6 and 8.5, percentage ravelledarea greater than 20 per centand percentage area affected bypothole is between 2 per centand 4per cent, the optimaltreatment suggested was slurryseal and the optimal time was 5years for ravelling greater than35 per cent and 6 years forravelling up to 35 per cent.

(ii) The use of neural network to predictthe optimum maintenance strategyand the optimum time of applicationsimultaneously based on the resultsobtained from analysis done usingHDM-4 and software developed wasevaluated.

(iii) The simulated output from AMM wasevaluated using RMSE and RMSEvalues for prediction for optimummaintenance treatment and time ofapplication were found to be very low.


1. Studies on the Performance of HighVolume Fly Ash Concrete for RigidPavements


Date of Completion: Ongoing

(i) P.D.A.College of Engineering,Gulbarga (Karnataka State) (I)

(ii) All India Council for TechnicalEducation, New Delhi (S)


As a step towards making concrete constructionindustry sustainable and also to addressenvironmental concerns of unutilized fly ash, it isnecessary to do the confidence building by usinghigh volume of fly ash. It can be realised throughR&D works and demonstration works, on regionwise basis, especially at sites surrounding thesource of production. The proposed project workwill act as a mechanism for developingspecialized information regarding High Volume FlyAsh Concrete (HVFAC) namely understanding ofbasic phenomenon, technology, and productpossibility, skill in equipment operation orprocesses.etc. At the end of this project, it willopen up avenues for future research in sub-fieldssuch as studies on the long term performance ofHVFAC pavements, corrosion, abrasionresistance, environmental issues etc.. Theinfrastructure developed can be utilized forsimilar research in other types of rigid pavementssuch as Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC)pavements.

Following are the main objectives of theproposed project:

• Development of Pavement QualityHigh Volume Fly Ash Concrete(PQHVFAC).

B. PAVEMENT ENGINEERING AND PAVING MATERIALS

• To establish the flexural fatiguebehavior of PQHVFAC under nonreversed constant amplitude andcompound fatigue loading.

• To develop values of temperaturedifferentials across the thickness ofpavement slabs.

• To study the wheel load strains on teststretches.

• To study the serviceability parameterssuch as skid resistance andunevenness of the pavement surface.

• To develop mechanistic designmethodology for HVFAC pavements.

Methodology

In the first stage, mix proportions for PQHVFACwill be established using optimum cementreplacement level with low calcium fly ash. Thenflexural fatigue studies will be carried out on prismspecimens of size 75×100×500 mm for differentstress ratios varying from 0.50 to 0.80. Forflexural fatigue loading haversine wave loadingwill be utilized. Three types of fatigue loading i.e,constant amplitude, compound loading andvariable amplitude loading will be used. Besideslaboratory studies, field studies will also becarried out on two instrumented test sections (onewith conventional concrete and another one withPQHVFAC). Each test section will be 3.75 m wide,13.8 m in length and will be of designed thickness.The field studies include temperaturemeasurements at four depth of pavement slabusing thermocouples. Load respons to movingaxle loads will also be measured through straingages which will be embedded at two differentdepth.



Following are the salient findings and conclusionsdrawn from the studies carried out until now:

• Use of high range water reducingagent, especially poly carboxylicbased is essential in developing mixproportions for PQHVFAC.

• Accelerating agents are ineffective ingiving early strength gain that is morethan 170 kg/m3 for HVFAC, especiallyat higher water contents.

• Maximum compressive strength andflexural strength attained for HVFACwas 49.62 MPa and 5.02 MParespectively for cement replacementlevel of 40 per cent.

• Optimum percentage of cementreplacement to achieve pavementquality concrete (having flexuralstrength of 4.0 N/mm2) was 50 percent.

• The nature of failure in flexural fatigueand static flexural load was identical.

• The S-N curve exhibited a non lineartrend.

• In constant amplitude loading, thedistribution of various applied stresslevel indicated that the probabilisticdistribution of fatigue life of HVFAC isdifferent for different stress level. Itwas found that the estimated shapeparameter of Wiebull distributionranges from 0.67 to 1.08. Thisindicates that the shape of probabilisticfatigue life distribution of HVFACdepends on the level of applied stress.This effect, therefore, must be properlytaken into account in fatigue reliabilityanalysis to secure adequateresistance against fatigue failure.

• For the compound loading level,Miner's rule was not validated.


Dr. S. S. Awanti, Professor and Head, Departmentof Civil Engineering, P.D.A. College ofEngineering, GULBARGA (Karnataka State).

C. TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION

1. Capacity of Four Lane Divided UrbanArterial Roads

Date of Start & Duration: January 2009, 5 months


School of Planning & Architecture, NewDelhi (R)


The objectives are:

(i) To review past studies on capacity ofurban roads.

(ii) To study traffic flow characteristics onurban roads with varying road widths.

(iii) To develop appropriate urban trafficmodels using traffic flow parameters.

(iv) To determine PCU's of various typesof traffic under varying traffic condition.

(v) To develop capacity standards for fourlane divided urban roads.

Scope of the study was confined to four laneurban roads.


An in-depth literature review on capacity of urbanroads, both in India & abroad, was carried out.


Fields studies were conducted at four locationsin Delhi in peak hour namely Vasant Kunj Marg,Vandematram Marg, Shahjahan Road & Willingdon Crescent Road comprising of speed,headway & lateral clearance information collectedthrough video recording. The date collected wasanalysed to assess the stream traffic flow &composition, speed, headway of different typesof vehicles, lateral clearance & lateral distributionof vehicles in inner & outer lane. A model tocalculate dynamic PCU was developed & theimpact of various factors on road capacity wereassessed.

Salient Findings

(i) The capacity of urban road changeswith the varying width of carriageway.

(ii) The capacity based on dynamic PCUconcept for carriageway width of7.5 m is estimated as 3069 PCU/h.

Recommendations

(i) There is a need to undertake similarstudies incorporating effects of factorssuch as lateral distribution, directionalsplit, intersection capacity, lanechanging behaviour on capacity.

(ii) There is a need to evolve dynamicPCU values in context of Indiansituation.

2. Assessing Level of Service of Two LaneHighways Using User Perception and ItsComparison with Field Measurements





The main objectives set out for the study are:

• To identify the factors that areimportant to road users on two lanehighways users.

• To conduct a questionnaire surveydeveloped to test how road usersperceive the level of service of two lanehighways.

• To develop a methodology based onfuzzy set theory and fuzzy clusteringto define level of service on two lanehighways that explicitly accounts forroad user perception.

• To determine the level of service usingfield procedure recommended in HCM2000.

• To compare the Level of Serviceassessed using user perception withthat of field measurement based onHCM 2000.

Scope of the work is limited to the determinationof the level of service of the selected three roadstretches in Trivandrum city. Three stretches oftwo lane highways of Trivandrum city namelyKariyavattom-Chavadimukku, Chavadimukku-Pongamoodu and Pongamoodu- Ulloor roadstretches were selected to gauge road user'sperception of LOS.

Methodology

(i) A road opinion survey was conductedto determine the user's perception ofhighways. Four hundredquestionnaires were distributedamong the road users of variouscategories ranging from twowheelers, cars, auto and bus drivers.

(ii) Average speed, quality of the road anddelay experienced by the road userswere identified as the main importantattributes which contribute more.

(iii) In order to obtain level of service oftwo lane undivided highway, theidentified attributes were classified


based on the importance level ratingand performance level rating.

(iv) The membership functions for bothimportance and performance levelswere developed using MATLAB Fuzzylogic toolbox.

(v) The Level of Service of each roadstretches was obtained by using FuzzyWeighted Average (FWA) method.

(vi) LOS was also determined usingclustering technique. Fuzzy C meansclustering was done in MATLAB. Thedata obtained from the questionnairesurvey was used as input.Membership grades for the threeselected road stretches weredeveloped and corresponding LOSwas identified.

(vii) Level of service is assessed by themethod recommended in HighwayCapacity Manual 2000.


• Several attributes contributing to roaduser perceptions of LOS wereidentified using a questionnaire surveyand composite level of service wasobtained by combining all attributestogether using fuzzy weightedaverage and fuzzy C means clusteringtechniques.

• Using fuzzy set approach only theidentified attributes such as speed,delay and quality of the road sectioncan be considered. However, in fuzzyclustering technique, all the attributessuch as age, gender, educationallevel, purpose of trip etc can beconsidered. Hence fuzzy clusteringtechnique gave more accurateprediction.

• Using fuzzy set approach, level ofservice of Kariyavattom-Chavadimukku, Chavadimukku-Pongamoodu and Pongamoodu-Ulloor road stretches were obtained asLOS C.

• LOS for the selected road stretcheswere found out by fuzzy clusteringmethod and it was obtained as B, Cand C respectively.

• LOS was also determined using fieldprocedures recommended in HCM2000 and the values were obtained asB, C and C respectively.

• Level of service obtained from the userperception methods was found to belower level than that obtained from thefield measurement. The userperception attributes influences thedetermination of LOS of two lanehighways significantly. This may be thereason why the obtained LOS valuesare not in true match with that of HCMvalues.

• Level of service is a qualitativemeasure that needs to reflect userperception of quality of service,comfort and convenience.



3. Analysis of Road NetworkCharacteristics & Its Influence on Route-Choice Using GPS-GIS Integration






The main objective of the study is to provide aroute-guidance system to the users in the form ofVariable Message Signs (VMS) so that the userscan avoid taking the congested routes and plantheir trips wisely. In order to provide this, first theusers' response to VMS and the factors thataffect route choice decisions, such as, the effectsof mixed traffic characteristics, road geometricsand roadway related factors vis-à-vis roadsurface condition on route choice behaviour etc.were studied. The main objectives set out for thestudy are:

• To identify the significance of trafficand road-geometric factors on route-choice behaviour of different users.

• To conduct speed, journey time anddelay surveys along selected O-DPairs on a selected case road network.

• To collect data pertaining to trafficcharacteristics using hand-held GPSfor analysis & to check the accuracyof GPS data with the conventionalmoving car observer data in order toestablish the authenticity of the GPSdata.

• To obtain the best route from amongvarious alternative routes, between theselected O-D pair in the network usingARC GIS 9.1.

• To validate the ARCGIS output with thedata collected from feed backinformation provided by commuters,using questionnaire survey.

• To develop the significance of trafficparameters using Multi NominalLogistic Regression model and todevelop a model for drivers'compliance using Artificial NeuralNetwork (ANN).

• To develop an algorithm to predict thecongestion along the forth-cominglinks and provide the commuters therequired information as VariableMessage Signs (VMS).

Methodology

(i) Collect the user's Route-choicebehaviour and the major factorsinfluencing their choice of routes forwork-trips, by doing a questionnairesurvey.

(ii) Identify the significance of variousroad-related and traffic-related factorsthat influence the route-choice,as per the socio-demographiccharacteristics, by means ofMultinomial Logistic Regression.

(iii) Identify the users' requirements for theprovision of VMS (Variable MessageSigns) display along roads from thequestionnaire survey.

(iv) Collect the required traffic and roadrelated characteristics by theconventional moving-car observermethod and also by means of hand-held GPS device, in order to identifythe efficiency of GPS for datacollection.

(v) Calculate the congestion indices of allthe selected routes between aspecified origin & destination.

(vi) Identify the optimum path between theselected OD pair in terms of theinfluential factors, from ARCGISsoftware and validate the same withthe details collected by means ofquestionnaire survey.

(vii) Develop an algorithm in C++ to displaythe required VMS information, byfinding out the least congested route.


(xviii) Obtain a driver compliance modelusing Artificial Neural Network (ANN)for future simulation purpose for theprovision of VMS display boards.


• From the preliminary analysis, 60 percent of the respondents consideredRoad-condition as the most importantfactor for choosing the desired route.

• Distance between the origin anddestination was considered as themost important factor for route-choiceby 39 per cent of the respondents and62 per cent of the respondentsconsidered Traffic jam/delays as themajor difficulty while traversing alongthe routes.

• 79 per cent preferred congestioninformation to be provided as VariableMessage Sign (VMS). The studyshows that majority of respondents arewilling to follow the VMS, dependingon their installation patterns.

• Multinomial Logistic Regressionsuggests the significance of the majorselected factors like Road-conditionand Distance on route-choicebehaviour according to the socio-demographic characteristics.

• From the traffic survey, the averagerunning speed obtained using bothhand-held GPS and moving carobserver method and distancebetween the links were found to becomparable, which shows theeffectiveness of using GPS for trafficdata collection.

• From the present study, higher valuesof congestion indices were observedalong major city corridors. It was foundthat the congestion indices along LMS-

Manacaud, which is a major corridorin Trivandrum City network, were1.204 and 0.8211 along both thedirections respectively, whencompared with the other alternateroutes, where the values are muchless.

• ARCGIS gave best alternate routesbased on minimum congestion, traveltime, fuel consumption etc.

• C++ programs were developed todisplay the required delay andcongestion information to the users asVariable Message Signs (VMS), whichcould further be used as a form ofroute guidance to the users.

• The minimal values of RMSE havebeen obtained for the selected ANNoutputs.

• Finally the study establishes theeffectiveness of integrating GPS &GIS for effective route-choices amongcommuters.


Dr. M. Satyakumar, Civil EngineeringDepartment, College of Engineering,Trivandrum.

4. Short Term Traffic Volume Predictionunder Heterogeneous Conditions





Traffic volume is the basic information needed forall the transportation planning, traffic operationand control of existing facilities, design of new


facilities, etc. The efficient control of traffic onhighways can produce many benefits, includingquicker journey times, fewer pollutant emissions,and reduced driver stress. The traffic volumeprediction can be carried out to different timehorizons such as long term prediction, mediumterm prediction and short term prediction. Shortterm predictions are carried out mainly for ITSapplications such as ATMS, ATIS, AVCS, APTS,RGS, etc. The scope of the present study isrestricted to the traffic flow data collected over sixdays for a period of half hour during morning offpeak and half hour during morning peak periodfrom Monday to Friday and next week one day(for validation purposes). The study deals with theanalysis of traffic volume characteristics and shortterm prediction of traffic volume underheterogeneous condition. Data was also collectedfrom three other road stretches having differentroad characteristics to study the adaptability ofthe developed models. The present study wasundertaken with the following objectives:

• To predict short term traffic volumeusing statistical method like ARIMAmodel.

• To develop a neural network model forshort term traffic volume prediction.

• To develop a neuro-fuzzy model forshort term traffic volume prediction.

• To compare the prediction capabilitiesof the models.

• To examine the adaptability of themodels to varying site conditions.

Methodology

(i) Identify the major factors that influencetraffic volume prediction fromliterature. Collect traffic data for peakand off peak periods by videographicmethod.

(ii) Develop a Multiple Linear Regressionmodel to establish a relationship

between traffic volume and the trafficparameters.

(iii) Develop an ARIMA model to predictshort term traffic volume along theselected stretch.

(iv) Develop an Artificial Neural Networkmodel for short term traffic volumeprediction.

(v) Develop a neuro-fuzzy model topredict short term traffic volume.

(vi) Compare the prediction capabilities ofthe developed models.

(vii) Determine whether the developedmodels are adaptable to varying siteconditions.


• Multiple Linear Regression analysiswas carried out on the data collectedand models were developed with trafficvolume as the dependent variable andspeed and density as the independentvariables.

• ARIMA models were developed forpredicting short term traffic volume.The results show that the model is ableto predict the volume close toobserved values. RMSE values were0.454 and 0.826 for peak and offpeakperiods respectively.

• An Artificial Neural Network (ANN)model was developed for short termtraffic volume prediction. It was alsoseen that the error in predictionincreases with the predictioninterval.

• In comparing, ARIMA modelperformed better than the ANN modelin predicting short term traffic volume.This may be due to the reason that


the ANN technology is data reliant andrequires a sufficient quantity ofrepresentative data to effectivelycapture key variable relationships. Themain advantage of using ANN is thatit can generalize or successfullyinterpret data that they have notpreviously encountered and provide asensible result. Further more,artificial neural network applicationscan be developed and deployedquickly and easily with very littleprogramming owing to the existenceof a number of user-friendly ANNsoftware packages.

• A neuro-fuzzy model was developedfor short term traffic volume prediction.A triangular membership function wasselected. It was also seen that theerror in prediction increases with theprediction interval.

• The comparison of the resultsfurnished by the adaptive neuro-fuzzyinference system with the neuralnetwork and ARIMA model indicatethat neuro-fuzzy system hasexcellent prediction capabilities with alower RMSE value.

• Of the two artificial intelligencetechniques for predicting traffic volumethe neuro-fuzzy model was found tobe superior to the neural networkmodel. This is because the neuro-fuzzy model integrates the advantagesof both neural networks and fuzzylogic.

• The adaptability of ANN and neuro-fuzzy models were examined fordifferent road stretches. It can benoted that neuro-fuzzy modelmaintains a low prediction error andresults in a prediction output of highaccuracy.

• It was also found that the neuro-fuzzymodel can be adaptable andapplicable to various road stretchesregardless of the geometrics.



5. Carbon Rating For Indian Cities

Date of start & Duration: January 2009, 5 months



Objectives

(i) To understand the standard procedurefor estimating the GHG's.

(ii) To appreciate the factors thatinfluences the emissions of GHG's inIndian cities.

(iii) To identify the role of public transportin reduction of GHG's emission.

(iv) To suggest suitable measures to retardthe GHG's emission through planningand management of cities.

Methodology

Extensive literature review was carried out toreview GHG emissions on account of transportsector & its implication. Secondary data wascollected on selected cities with respect topopulation size, area, density, socio economic andtravel characteristics. GHG's emissions wereestimated for case cities and its variation acrossvarious city typologies were studied. Impact onvarious policy variables such as urban form,public transport supply vehicle ownership levels& travel characteristic on GHG's were assessed.



(i) The comparatives analysis of Indiancities with varying sizes on spatial andtemporal basis indicates a rapid ratein CO2 emissions during the period(1998-2008).

(ii) Smaller cities have lower CO2

emission in relation to large cities.

(iii) CO2 emissions are affected bytriplengths, public transport share etc.

Recommendations

Control of CO2 emissions in large cities is onlypossible with the provision of reliable publictransport facilities.

(i) Public transport operation includingthe intermediate public transportshould be considered for conversionto alternate fuel, namely, CNG.

(ii) It is recommended that urbanizationstrategies at national and state mustbe directed towards creation of largenumber of smaller towns rather thancreate bigger metropolitan cities.

(iii) It is recommended that Bharat stage-IV, Bharat stage-V emissions normsbe introduced earlier than stipulatedschedule to cut CO2 emissions in thecountry.

6. Social Cost and Benefit Analysis for BRT:Case Study - Delhi

Date of Start & Duration: January 2009, 5 months




(i) To study various aspects of social costand benefits and associated studiesfor different transport projects thoughliterature review.

(ii) To assess the views of various roadusers using the BRT corridor.

(iii) To quantify the social cost and benefitsfor all types of road users.

The Study is limited to existing BRT corridor fromAmbedkar Nagar to Moolchand (5.8 km) and isbased for essential trips (business, education).

Methodology

Literature review was carried out on BRT & costand benefit analysis of different transport projects.Secondary data relating to modal share, land useand land value, frequency and headway of Buses,pollution, road capacity and health related datawere collected. Primary data for private vehiclepassenger survey, classified volume surveys,speed and delay, Road inventory, Pedestriansurvey, signal, studies etc were carried out. Afteranalyzing the data different social cost & benefitanalysis of BRT was estimated.

Finding & Conclusion

(i) Among all BRT users, bus passenger,pedestrians and cyclist are derivingmaximum benefit from BRT whileprivate vehicle users are put todisadvantage.

(ii) It is estimated that total cost of buspassengers before BRT is Rs 8.10/h andduring BRT is Rs 5.73/h, for privatevehicle users before BRT cost per houris 34.75 and during BRT it is 67.14 forwhile cyclist, time cost before BRT is Rs0.48/h and during BRT it is Rs.0.91/h.

(iii) For bus passengers the benefit(Rs/h) increases with increase inincome. For pedestrian the averagebenefit is equal for all income group.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Highway Research Board (HRB) of the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) expresses thanks toDr. S. Gangopadhyay, Director, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi for thepreparation of the General Report on Road Research Work Done in India during 2008-2009. Thereport was prepared, compiled and edited by Shri R.C. Agarwal, Scientist, under the overallsupervision of Shri T.K. Amla, Head, Information, Liaison & Training Division, CRRI and was reviewedby the scientists of the various R&D Divisions of CRRI. The useful suggestions received from thescientists of R&D Divisions in compilation and editing of the report are gratefully acknowledged. TheBoard also expresses its gratitude to the various research organizations and Institutes for providingresearch progress reports.


LIST OF ORGANISATIONS

1. Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi.

2. College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

3. Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

4. Gujarat Engineering Research Institute, Vadodara.

5. Highways Research Station, Chennai.

6. Indian Oil Corporation, Faridabad.

7. Intercontinental Consultants & Technocrats Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

8. Karnataka Engineering Research Station, Karnataka.

9. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, New Delhi.

10. MS University, Baroda.

11. National Highways Authority of India, New Delhi.

12. National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology, Kolkata.

13. National Rural Roads Development Agency, New Delhi.

14. National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC), Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala.

15. N.S.S. College of Engineering, Palakkad.

16. PDA College of Engineering, Gulbarga.

17. Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai.

18. School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

19. Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.


IRC HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD

GENERAL REPORT ON ROAD RESEARCH IN INDIA

PROFORMA SHEET FOR REPORTING R&D WORK FOR THE GENERAL REPORT

1. Please furnish the report in the specified proformae (specimen copies enclosed), using separateproforma for each Project, appropriate to the Project Status, viz.:

Proforma A: Projects Reported for the First Time Annexure 1

Proforma B: On-going/Completed Projects Annexure 2

Proforma C: Research Projects Related to Thesis forPost Graduation/Ph.D. Annexure 3

2. Please furnish report, in Proforma A or B, only on those projects which have led to some significantconclusions, or are expected to make R&D contribution of overall general interest.

3. Precise and concise information may be provided for EACH ITEM of the Proformae, in NOTMORE THAN 100 WORDS. Additional important information, if any, may be appended separately.

4. The following codes may be used for indicating the Section and Sub-Section Codes on EachProject Proforma:

Section Section Sub-Section Sub-SectionCode Code

Highway Planning, Design,Management,Performance Evaluationand InstrumentationHighway Planning, 1100 Design 10Design and Management Road Transportation Management 20

Road Pavement Management 30Maintenance Management 31Construction Management 32Test Track Research 40Software Development 50

Pavement Evaluation 1200 Surface CharacteristicsRiding Quality 10Skid Resistance 20Structural Evaluation 30

Pavement Performance 1300 Pavement Performance 10Traffic Characteristics & Effects 20Material Characteristics 30

Instrumentation and Micro- 1400 Instrumentation Development 10Processor Applications Micro-Processor/Applications 20

Appendix - A


Section Section Sub-Section Sub-SectionCode Code

Pavement Engg. andPaving Materials

Soil Stabilisation, Low 2100 Soil Stabilisation 10Grade Materials and Low Grade Materials 20Low Volume Roads Low Volume Roads 30

Flexible Pavements 2200 Binders and Binder Improvement 10Materials and Mixes 20Pavement Design 30Construction Techniques 40Maintenance Aspects 50

Rigid Pavement 2300 As in case of Flexible Pavements Division

Geotechnical Engineering 3000 Landslides 10Ground Improvement Techniques 20Embankments and Slope Stability 30Roads and Embankments in Clay Areas 40

Bridge Engineering 4000 Structural Field Investigations 10Laboratory Investigations 20Foundation Investigations 30Structural Design 40

Traffic & Transportation

Planning & Management 5100 Traffic Management Studies 10Travel Demand Forecasting 20Transportation Planning 30Transportation Economics 40Public Transport Planning 50Intelligent Transport System 60

Safety & Environment 5200 Accidents and Safety 10Traffic Environment 20

5. PROJECT TITLE

(1) In case of Proformae A and B, please indicate the same title as reported earlier.

(2) In case of sponsored projects, please indicate the name of the sponsoring organisationand Research Scheme number (e.g., MORT&H Research Scheme R-19), immediatelyafter the project title.


6. DATE OF START/DATE OF COMPLETION: Please indicate month and year, e.g., May, 1988.In case of sponsored Research Scheme, only the Sponsoring Organisation should reportcompletion of the project, and not the implementing Organisation(s).

7. LAST REPORT : Indicate the year of the last General Report on Road Research in India (GRRRI)in which the project was reported, e.g., for GRRRI 1988-89, indicate 1988-89.

8. ORGANISATION (S) : Please indicate the name of all involved organizations, in the case ofmulti-organisation project, using the following code to indicate the status of the organization withregard to the project:

Reporting Organisation (R)Sponsoring Organisation (S)Coordinating Organisation (C)Implementing Organisation (I)If an organization has multiple status, the appropriate codes may be used together, e.g., (R,C),(R,S).

9. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE: Please give a concise statement. In case of multiple objective projects,indicate each objective separately.

10. PRESENT STATUS AND PROGRESS: For Proforma B, if the project is on-going, please includea brief report on progress since the last report, and if the project is complete, please provide briefprogress report for the project as a whole.

11. SUPPORTING DATA: Please indicate selected important supporting data or illustrations of specialinterest. Any correlations or charts developed may specifically be included. Please list the itemsenclosed.

12. CONCLUSIONS: Please indicate significant conclusions/interim conclusion.

13. SIGNIFICANCE / UTILISATION POTENTIAL: Please highlight only special aspects. Under"Utilisation Potential", also specifically indicate whenever the development(s) / conclusion(s) areregarded appropriate for consideration by the IRC.

14. LIMITATIONS OF CONCLUSIONS / RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK / FURTHERPROPOSED WORK: The limitations, if any, may be specifically indicated. Other aspects maybe indicated wherever applicable.

15. REPORTS/PUBLICATIONS: Only reports/publications since last reporting may be included,alongwith bibliographical details, in the following order:

Author(s) (Surname, followed by initial, in all capitals). Title of Paper/Article/Report/Book, Natureof Report (e.g., M.E./Ph.D. Dissertation, Interim/Final Report), Journal or Periodical (alongwith


Vol. and No.) / Conference or Seminar Proceedings (alongwith the place where held) / PublishingOrganisation, Month and Year of Publication.

16. Copies of publications, if published through a source other than IRC, may please be enclosed.

17. Wherever more than one sub-items are to be reported (e.g., in case of items No. 8, 9, 13, 15,etc. above, please number the sub-items 1, 2, 3, …… and list them one below the other.

18. In addition to 3 typed/computer print out copies, the report may also be supplied on floppy/CD toenable expeditious editing and compiling. Cooperation in this regard will be specially appreciated.The Window MS Word Software may please be used for the purpose.

______


Annexure 1

I R C H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H B O A R D

PROFORMA - A

P R O J E C T S R E P O R T E D F O R T H E F I R S T T I M E

Section Code

REPORTING ORGANISATION:

1. Project Title Sub-Section Code

1.1. Date of Start

1.2. Date of Completion (Targeted/Actual)

2. Organisation(s)*

3. Scope and Objectives

4. Methodology

5. Interim Conclusions/Conclusions/Supporting Data

5.1. Significance/Utilisation Potential

5.2. Limitations of Conclusions/Recommendations forfurther work/further proposed work

6. Reports/Publications

7. Further information/Copy of reportcan be obtained from:

* Please indicate the appropriate organization code - (R), (S), (C), (I), (R,S), (R,C), etc. after eachorganization.


Annexure 2


PROFORMA - B

O N - G O I N G / C O M P L E T E D P R O J E C T S

Section Code



1.1. Date of Start

1.2. Date of Completion (Targeted/Actual)

2. Present Status and Progress

2.1 Status: Ongoing/Completed

2.2 Year of Last Report

2.3 Progress

3. Further Findings/Conclusions/Supporting Data

4. Limitations of Conclusions or Interim Conclusions

5. Recommendations for further Work (if completed)

6. Reports / Publications

7. Recommendations for Dissemination/Revision of Codes/Specifications (if completed)

8. Further information/Copy of reportcan be obtained from

(Presentation Material may be e-mailed to [email protected] / [email protected] )


Annexure 3


PROFORMA - C

R E S E A R C H P R O J E C T S R E L A T E D T O T H E S I S

F O R P O S T - G R A D U A T I O N / Ph. D.

Section Code



1.1. Date of Start and Duration

1.2. Date of Completion

2. Institution*

3. Scope and Objectives

4. Proposed Methodology (Type of Study, Laboratory/Field)

5. Salient-Findings and Conclusion(s)

6. Recommendations for Dissemination/Revision of Codes/Specifications (if completed)

7. Further information/Copy of the reportcan be obtained from

(Presentation Material may be e-mailed to [email protected] / [email protected] )* Please indicate the appropriate organization code - (R), (S), (C), (I), (R,S), (R,C), etc.

after each organization.


Highway Record Final

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