Pavements

Sustainable Pavements in India

The Time To Start Is Now

Prof. Rajib Basu Mallick, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA
Prof. A. Veeraragavan, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

Pavements A Costly
Necessity
The quality of roads dictate the
economy of a country and hence
the quality of our lives. In India,
road transport handles more than
60% of the freight and more than
80% of the passenger traffic. Roads
are vital for the transport of goods
and passengers. Village roads are
critical for the basic minimum
connectivity for the upliftment of the
social and economical condition of
the rural people. Such roads
provide access to employment,
means of transporting agricultural
produce and access to health care
and social services.
Realizing the need for good
road infrastructure, the Indian
government has embarked on a
vigorous road building effort and
investing `1,20,000 crore per
annum. In the next five years, $60
billion will be invested to build
35,000 km of roads. The roads that

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are being built now will be ready

for maintenance and rehabilitation
in the next five to ten years. Some
lessons can be learnt from the US
highway system, which is a mature
system, and most of the work in
the recent past and at present is
on maintenance and rehabilitation,
rather than on new construction.
Because of soaring material costs
and budget shortfalls, there is a
huge backlog in maintenance and
rehabilitation of pavements, leading
to the issue of sustainability of the
maintenance of road assets that
have been created by huge
investments. It should be noted that
in addition to the ongoing new
construction, in the next five years,
a significant amount of work will
also be needed for the maintenance
and rehabilitation of the new
pavements. The combined work will
need (in addition to money) a
massive amount of materials and
energy.

Where will all these materials

and energy come from? This article
tries to present a clear picture of
the future the challenges and the
solutions.

Impact of
Infrastructure
Improvement on
the Environment
It is an accepted fact that because
of human activities and resultant
global warming. Global mean
temperature and average sea level
have risen, whereas
the snow
cover both in Northern Hemisphere
and the Himalayas have been
reduced. The loss of glaciers in the
Himalayas is of great relevance,
because of the dependence of
crores of people on water from the
rivers that are fed by these glaciers.
Overall, in the world transportation
represents 10% of the worlds gross
domestc product, and has been

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reported to be responsible for 22%

of the global energy consumption,
25% of fossil fuel burning across
the world and 30% of global air
pollution and greenhouse gasses.
On top of this, consider the
amount of natural aggregates
(mostly from quarries) that are being
used - 1,300 million tons of virgin
aggregates are used in the US
every
year
for
pavement
construction. In India, about 15,000
tonnes of aggregates are required
per kilometer of highway. A typical
project of National Highway
Development Project (NHDP) of 60
km road improvement requires 20
lakh ton of material. In India, in
most cases, old pavement materials
are dumped into landfills. Note that
landfills have been identified as the
largest source of methane caused
by humans .
The production of pavement
mixes such as hot mix asphalt
(HMA) requires a significant amount
of energy, such as those needed
for production of bituminous binder
from crude petroleum and drying
aggregates.
For
example,
approximately 1.5 gallons of fuel is
used for drying and heating one
ton of aggregates consider that
figure in terms of lakhs of tons of
aggregates that is used. The
heating of bituminous binder and
HMA releases a significant amount
of green house gases such as
carbon dioxide, and harmful
pollutants such as sulphur and
nitrogen oxides. Construction
people are exposed to such gases
on a regular basis. The amount of
emission doubles for every 10oC
increase in production temperature,
and increasingly, higher temperature
is actually being used for the
production of HMA with modified
binders.
The scarcity of aggregates now
forces truck delivery of materials
from great distance the use of
diesel for running these trucks leads
to emission of pollutants such as

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particulate matter, nitrogen oxides

and sulfur dioxides. Many of the
diesel engine emissions have been
identified as carcinogenic, and
harmful to the human health, even
at occupational and environmental
levels of exposure. The problem of
availability of aggregate is acute in
the Northern Part of the country. For
a lead of 200 km (which is
common in north India) it will
require 180 lakh liter of diesel in
transportation alone. We need to
initiate applied research on large
scale to find alternate crust
composition so that material
consumption in road construction
gets reduced and we are able to
save diesel also. A serious attempt
has to be made to improve
engineering properties of traditional
construction material by suitable
additives so that they are able to
effectively distribute load and
thereby reduce consumption.
Pavement materials have very
low thermal conductivity but relatively
high heat capacity. As a result, roads
and parking lots retain a huge
amount of heat, which is released
back into the air, and which leads
to the rise in temperature, especially
in urban areas. This phenomenon
is known as urban heat island
effect. This high temperature leads
to a greater use of polluting
equipment such as air conditioning,
and
increases
the
ozone
concentration and air pollution. The
net effect is more pollution and
adverse health effect of the
inhabitants of the urban areas.
Finally, the effect of paving on
the recharge of groundwater is
disastrous. A paved surface
significantly reduces the amount of
water that infiltrates into the ground
most of the water flows away as
storm water. This lowers the
groundwater level, leading to
scarcity of water, pollution of water
(the water now comes from levels
which have harmful minerals), and
storm flooding.

To summarize, the total effect

of paving for roads and airports
include depletion of natural
resources and energy, rise in
temperature and air pollution and
lowering of groundwater and
scarcity of drinking water. This
essentially means that we will be
leaving a much less greener
environment, much less natural
resources and a much less
comfortable earth for our next
generation than what we began
with. Since the success or failure
of a generation is not to be judged
by the people of that generation,
but by future generations, are we
not failing magnimously? This
observation is tied to the very basic
idea of sustainable development
development that meets the needs
of
the
present
without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own
needs.
One important point should be
remembered: pavements are for the
infrastructure and improving the
quality of life, and hence the quality
of life should not be sacrificed for
the sake of pavements. Therefore,
at the beginning of this Herculean
task of building a massive
transportation system in India, it is
imperative that we acknowledge the
fact that even though roads are
needed for developing the economy
and improving the quality of our
lives, they adversely affect our
environment. The next step is to
embrace, wholeheartedly, every
available green technology for
pavement design and construction.
The
following
paragraphs
summarize
a
few
such
technologies.

Recycling
Pavement recycling, particularly, HMA
pavement recycling (HMA is the
most widely used pavement
material in India) is a well
established proven technology. A
host of different techniques exist

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for different situations hot mix

recycling, hot in-place recycling, cold
mix and cold in-place recycling and
full depth reclamation. The past few
decades have seen tremendous
growth
in
equipment
and
techniques in recycling, from milling
machines to mixing plants and inplace trains. Plants capable of
recycling in high percentages, and
materials that are capable of
restoring correct asphaltenesmaltene proportions in aged asphalt
are available. The literature is
replete with good practices and
manuals
for
effective
and
successful recycling operations and
guidelines
(Table
1
gives
applications and considerations for
the different methods).

Hot Mix Recycling

Hot mix recycling is accomplished
by incorporating milled and
processed reclaimed asphalt
pavement material (RAP) in new

mixes in the hot mix plant. RAP can

be added at different percentages,
and depending on the percentage,
a specific grade of asphalt binder
or recycling agent could be used.
The milled RAP needs to be
regraded before combining with the
new
aggregates
to
ensure
conformity to the specified gradation.
Mix design using the Marshall
method or the Superpave method
can be done. Various forms of drum
and batch plant modifications exist,
which allow the use of RAP in HMA
production on a regular basis. The
primary benefit of hot mix recycling
is the control of the quality of the
finished product, and the ability to
process the milled RAP. In drum
plants, the RAP is introduced in
that part which is not exposed to
the burner flame it is critical that
the RAP is not overheated, and is
heated by the superheated
aggregates.

Hot In-place Recycling

Hot in-place recycling (HIR) involves
the use of a single or more
commonly, a train of equipment that
heat the existing pavement and mill/
scarify it, mix the softened RAP inplace with rejuvenating agent,
compacts it in one single pass.
Sometimes remixing with new
materials and/or repaving with new

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layer are also done. The selection

of the type and amount of the
rejuvenating agent could be done
using mix design principles, and
the new aggregates could be
selected to obtain the desired
gradation when combined with the
existing scarified mix aggregates.
The benefit of this process includes
those that are related to in-place
recycling avoiding transportation
and
related
fuel
use
and
emissions. The end product is also
similar to HMA, and hence of good
quality. However, the depth to which
HIR could be conducted effectively
is limited to about 38 mm, and the
use of large trains is only possible
in long and straight stretches of
roads.

Cold Mix Recycling and

Full Depth Reclamation
Cold mix recycling could be done
both in-place (cold in-place
recycling, CIR) or in the plant. In
CIR, either a specialized single
equipment or a train of equipment
is utilized. The primary steps are
milling of part or all of the HMA
layer, and/or processing (for
example, to get rid of plus 50 mm
particles), mixing with emulsion
and/or other additive such as
cement, and compaction, and
curing. It is important to make sure
that the mix is cured before the
next layer is put down, to avoid
entrapment of moisture and
subsequent deterioration. CIR is
generally used to obtain good
quality base course, with the
utilization of the existing (aged and
with distresses, such as with
cracks). In cold central plant
recycling, the milled RAP is mixed

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with emulsion or foamed asphalt,

and transported back to the site
and laid down with a paver and
compacted. In this case, it is
possible to have a better control
over the finished product, and fines
could be added to ensure the
conformity to a specific gradation,
such as that needed for the
successful use of foamed asphalt.
Full depth reclamation (FDR) is
similar to CIR, except that in this
case, milling is extended below the
depth of the HMA layer to include
part of the granular layer. Obtaining
a good base course is the objective
in this case.
Cold recycling, as discussed
above, ensures economy and
benefit to the environment by
avoiding heat and energy, and
emissions. In-place recycling allows
further economy and other benefits
by avoiding transportation. While
CIR allows the reuse of old and
aged asphalt pavements as base
course in new pavements, FDR
allows the modification to solve the
base related problems.

Low Energy Mixes

Use of huge amount of energy and
emissions have led to the
development of many types of cold
and warm mix asphalt (WMA)
technologies in the last decade.
Cold mixes have been used for a
long time for various applications
such as full depth reclamation of
cold in-place recycling for obtaining
base courses. WMA, in various
forms, have been tried successfully
in Europe as well as in the US
(See tables 2, 3 and 4 for different
methods). The main principle
behind WMA is the use of a material

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Porous Pavements
Pavements with high porosity have
been developed, that can allow a
significant amount of infiltration of
water. Such pavements are well
suited for parking as well a slow
speed areas. In principle, such a
pavement consists of an open
graded HMA course over an

and/or technique to lower the

viscosity of the asphalt to the range
of that required for mixing and
compaction,
at
lower
than
conventional temperature. The
benefits of WMA include reduced
Emissions (Table 5) and fuel
usage, sufficient workability at long
haul
distances,
improved
compaction as well as the ability to
use
more
recycled
asphalt
pavement material.
There are four competing WMA
processes that are widely used: A
two-component binder system
called WAM-Foam (Warm Asphalt

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Mix Foam) that introduces

a soft and hard foamed
binder at different stages
during plant production; The
addition of a synthetic
zeolite called Aspha-Min
during mixing at the plant
to create a foaming effect
in the binder; The use of
thixotropic additives such
as Sasobit , a FischerTropsch paraffin wax and
Asphaltan B , a low molecular
weight esterified wax; Evotherm is
a non-proprietary product that
includes additives to improve
coating and workability.
There are several benefits of
the WMA in comparison to HMA.
They include reduced emissions
and worker exposure due to a
lowering of temperature, reduced
fuel use, ability to allow longer haul
distances without losing workability
and extension of paving seasons
in cooler climate areas.

uniformly graded crushed aggregate

source with approximately 40%
voids over the subgrade (Figure 1).
A 25 to 50 mm thick aggregate
12.5 mm down size aggregate layer
is used between the open graded
and the aggregate courses, and a
geotextile is used between the
aggregate and the subgrade layer.
Test sections have proven the
success of such pavements, and
research studies have shown that
most of the pollutants are removed
by filtration through the layers.

Cool Pavements
Although different techniques could
be adopted for reducing the surface
temperature of pavements, the use
of materials with a higher albedo
has been so far the most common.
Albedo, the ratio of reflected to the
incident power, is different for
different colored materials it is
much higher for concrete (0.5) and
asphalt pavement with a white
painted surface (0.25) compared to
conventional new HMA (0.05).
Specialized pavement colors are
available for obtaining pavements
with relatively high albedo, to reduce
the amount of absorbed heat, and
thus to reduce the urban heat island
effect. A good summary of the
problem as well as the different

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Figure 1: Porous pavement

Source: Soderlund, Martina. Sustainable Roadway Design- A Model For An Environmental
Rating System. Master of Science in Civil Engineering Thesis. University of Washington,
2007.

approaches is given by the EPA

(EPA, 2005). Table 6 shows a
comparison of costs of cool
pavements
constructed
with
different techniques. Another
approach is the use of an energy
harvesting system installed within
a pavement to extract heat energy
for useful purposes and reduce the
surface temperature of pavements.

Critical Need
As the above paragraphs indicate,
sufficient number of green
technologies exists for immediate
adoption in India. Since every
technology has its own niche place,
sufficient opportunities exist for

practical research that could

prepare pavement designers in
India to specify the right technology
for the right case, that is, to answer
the question, which sustainable
technology is best suited for every
pavement construction? Such
research can easily be conducted
by the premier institutions in India,
such as the IITs, which have
excellent facilities and brainpower.
Centers
of
excellence
for
sustainable pavement construction
must be set up to facilitate such
activity. In addition, such centers will
become hubs for training and
technology transfer in future.
It is of critical importance that

investment should be made now

on equipment and training to adopt
field-ready sustainable practices for
pavement
construction,
and
equipment and software for
research for developing guidelines
to adopt such techniques for Indian
conditions,
and
developing
indigenous techniques. The results
of this research must be ready
within five-ten years, when the huge
roadway network that is being built
now, will be due for maintenance
and rehabilitation.
India cannot be, and should not
be termed as a poor country any
more as the latest computers and
cell phones are available here. India
launches its own spaceships with
satellites. It is hoped that the
leaders of this great country would
acknowledge
the
great
environmental
challenges
of
pavement construction, and invest
wisely in technologies that would
make road building sustainable.
The time to start this is NOW.

References
International

Road Federation.
Innovative Practices for Greener
Roads.www.irfnet.org
Soderlund, Martina. Sustainable
Roadway Design- A Model For An
Environmental Rating System.
Master of Science in Civil
Engineering Thesis. University of
Washington, 2007.

Sources:
Moen,

. Warm-Mix Asphalt
(WMA) International Scanning
Tour. Norwegian Public Roads
Administration,
Norway,
Presentation to WMA Scan Team,
May 2007.
Brosseaud, Y. Warm AsphaltOverview in France. LCPC,
France, Presentation to WMA Scan
Team, May 2007.
Andersen, E.O. WAM-Foam-An
Environmentally-Friendly Alternative
to Hot-Mix Asphalt. Norwegian
Public Roads Administration,
Oslo, Norway, Presentation to
WMA Scan Team, May 2007.

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