Engineer gives formula for pothole-free roads………Vikas Hotwani and Sudhir Suryawanshi
BMC hoping that Thombare’s research project will be the answer to Mumbai’s annual monsoon woes
BMC hoping that Thombare’s research project will be the answer to Mumbai’s annual monsoon woes
Of the bijli, sadak, paani issues that lie at the heart of any modern civic cluster, the most difficult to address for Mumbai’s municipal corporation – despite this summer’s water crisis – is the city’s pothole-ridden roads.
Every year, the talk of the town in the monsoon months is bumpy rides on streets that remain crevassed despite crores of rupees allocated to repair them.
With quick-fix solutions not working – partly because of the weather, party because our roads are simply not strong enough to withstand the enormous traffic load – the BMC is now exploring a new paving method that could offer a long-term solution.
Two stretches of road in Mulund are being closely watched for the last couple of years to see the results of the radical Ultra-Thin White Topping (UTWT) system that the corporation hopes will be a cost-effective answer to its annual woes.
Based on research done by BMC engineer Vishal Thombare, who is doing a PhD at IIT Mumbai in road construction, the BMC used UTWT on a total of two kilometres over Ganesh Gawde road and Vithal Bhai road in June 2009. “We took the existing UTWT technology and conducted certain laboratory work to make it suitable for Mumbai.
For example, a concrete mix was designed that could be used for fast-track construction, and also meet the strength criterion prescribed by the government,” Thombare explained. Till date, the researcher claims, his road is a pleasure to drive on, with not a single pothole despite two monsoons.
Quick repair
What is even more impressive, considering potholes randomly spring up all over the city in the rainy months, is that while normally it takes about 15 days for a repaired road to be functional, roads repaired using UTWT can be opened to traffic within 72 hours.
When civic authorities in Bangalore heard of Thombare’s success, they invited him to the city to start a test project there.
In December, the 39-year-old engineer will travel to Patna to share his research papers. “There’s further research plausible, and required, in this field so that we get the various permutations and combinations required for various traffic conditions,” Thombare said.
An engineer with the BMC for 13 years, Thombare decided to opt for a PhD to “upgrade himself”. He learned of the UTWT technology during his Masters with VJTI in 2003 and was researching on it since then.
The lack of literature on the subject in India didn’t help. “Plus, most of the research and projects that are submitted by the students at that stage are never implemented and they just lie as laboratory reports,” he said.
What is UTWT?
The basic technology is not novel and has been used abroad from as early as 1918. In it’s more advanced form, almost 200 projects have been initiated in the United States over the last decade.
“My purpose was to tailor this for Mumbai’s roads, which I knew would not be easy,” Thombare said. “The fact that it’s not an all-new technology works in its favour because we have the due experience required to make it work. The main problem, however, is to modify it to suit our needs,” he added.
So what exactly is UTWT? “The method involves layering the existing hot-mix asphalt used in road-paving with a high-performance concrete layer of about 100 mm in thickness,” explains Thombare.
“It is less porous than normal concrete and develops a high strength in just 48 hours.” As against normal bituminous roads that require repeated repairs and have a shorter lifespan, this technology is long-lasting, and as a result, cost-effective.
The UTWT, Thombare says, has many advantages – “a durable surface, reduced thickness, less maintenance, safer in terms of increased reflection of lights and lower absorption of solar energy.”
As far as Thombare is concerned, UTWT is almost good to go in Mumbai, but “watching it for another Monsoon may be advisable”. As for when it will actually be implemented, however, he has no idea. “That is an administrative decision.”
When contacted, Anand Kulkarni, deputy chief engineer in the Roads department, described the technology as “cheaper” and “faster”.
“We appreciate this new method that has been in the testing phase for a while now. The BMC is seriously considering using it on a larger scale across the city.”
* Vishal Thombare,39, at the Vithalbhai Road in Mulund where he and his team prototyped the UTWT technology. After two monsoons, the road has no potholes