R&D in Road Transportation Sector CSIR-CRRI Contributions

Dr. S. Gangopadhyay, Director, U.K.Guru Vittal, Sr. Principal Scientist, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

Introduction

A good road transport system is one of the best indicators of the economic and industrial development of a country and its growth. The road network in India has grown from 400,000 km in 1951 to about 3.5 million km at present; India has the second largest road network in the world, next to USA. Today, road transport is by far the most prevalent mode of transport, because of its flexibility, accessibility to remote areas and adaptability to changes for achieving the desired objective of connectivity. Providing road accessibility in under developed areas is an important means of achieving inclusive growth in a developing country like India. The recent improvement in road condition in India is indeed synonymous with the upward trend in our economy. However, still most of National Highway network in India is single or intermediate-laned. Many stretches of existing National Highways are in need of urgent maintenance. Despite these constraints, roadways is gaining market share both in freight and passenger traffic, albeit, at the expense of the railways. Since independence, the market share of road transport has gone up from 12% to 65% in freight and from 32% to 90% in passenger traffic. The trends in vehicle ownership are fast changing in urban as well as rural India thereby ensuring greater degree of mobility and necessitating enhanced levels of road safety.


Development of road network in this scenario is posing many challenges. Putting behind the economic downturn, the Government is now keen to give a big push for mega road projects. The objective is to ensure that total investment in infrastructure projects reaches a level of 9 percent of the country's GDP by 2014 from the current level of 4 percent. But to achieve this objective, there is a dire need to take a fresh look at our Codes of Practices, Guidelines and Specifications, matched by a massive Research and Development effort suiting to our country's need.

Central Road Research Institute New Delhi, a constituent laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is the pioneering organisation in India providing high quality and globally acceptable R&D and consultancy services in the area of roads and transportation sector. Established in 1952, the major activities of the Institute encompass road pavement design and performance, road condition monitoring, pavement deterioration modelling, landslide management and hazard mitigation, improved transportation planning for emerging urban needs, road safety and environment issues, bridges and culverts, etc. Presently celebrating 'Diamond Jubilee' year of its inception, R&D work of CSIR-CRRI over all these years has helped immensely to overcome many a problems of the road transportation sector in India.

Genesis and R&D Activities During Early Years of CSIR-CRRI

The need for the Central Road Research Institute, for the first time, was felt at the conference of Chief Engineers at Nagpur in 1943. In 1945, the Industrial Research Committee recommended the establishment of the Central Road Research Institute. The Road Research Planning and Advisory Committee constituted by the governing body of CSIR drew up plans for setting up of this Institute. Thanks to great visionaries like Sir Kenneth Mitchell, Sir S.S.Bhatnagar, Mr.G.M.McKelvie, Dr.R.K.N.Iyengar and many others, the Government of India set up 'Central Road Research Institute' at New Delhi, sixty years ago to serve the highway engineering profession. The Foundation Stone was laid on 6th September 1950 by Shri N. Gopalaswami Iyengar, then Minister of Transport, Govt of India and the Institute was formally opened by the First Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru on 16th July 1952.

When the Institute was started, the attention was towards studies pertaining to road making materials – soils, bitumen and concrete. One of the earliest R&D works carried out at CSIR-CRRI was to establish viability of low grade soft material usage. An all India study was completed to characterise and map the marginal materials available in the country. Construction of roads in soft marine clay sub-soil of Mumbai area was studied and for the first time in the country, vertical sand drains were used below the road embankment. CRRI provided the design, in-situ quality control, instrumentation and monitoring of embankment built on soft marine clay (Eastern expressway of Mumbai). Bullock cart – the rural vehicle of transport too had its share in Institute's work. Over the years, the Institute developed a number of improved bullock carts with innovative designs and released the designs for commercial manufacture.

In the field of concrete pavements, an important study on 'Temperature Differential' was initiated. Daily variations in air temperature, coupled with the exposure of the top surface of the road to the heat of the sun during the day, cause the top of the concrete pavement to become hotter than the bottom during the day and cooler during the night, setting up a temperature differential. Such temperature differential induces temperature stresses in concrete pavement. To enable rationalised design of concrete pavements, an all India study was conducted at a number of master stations in the country on specially constructed concrete slabs of different thicknesses. The recommendations of the study were adopted by the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) for design of concrete pavements. An all India serviceability rating study for highway pavements was taken up in 1968. This study covered over 1140 km length of National Highways in different states.


CSIR-CRRI was the pioneer Institute in the country to conduct Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Studies in India way back in 1968-69 for Delhi and Bangalore cities. The objectives of the study were to assess the adequacy of existing traffic and transportation facilities and to plan better traffic circulation. Till now, such Traffic and Transportation studies have been conducted for about 20 Indian cities like Simla, Bombay Metropolitan Region, Surat, Jamshedpur, Aizawl, Moradabad, Mohali, Nagpur, Amravati, Shillong, Lucknow, etc by CSIR-CRRI. In order to determine suitable grades of binder for different climatic conditions, the Institute in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation constructed test tracks at Delhi, Trivandrum, Sikar, Simla and Cherrapunjee representing different climatic zones in the country. At each location, test sections of black top pavement with different grades of bitumen were laid. Based on performance evaluation of these sections, grades of bitumen best suited for different climatic zones in the country were identified.

The extent of surface unevenness of the road governs the level of its riding comfort. The Institute developed different equipment for monitoring the road pavement surface unevenness. Such equipment are still being widely used. An assessment of the load carrying capacity of existing bridges either in distress or requiring upgradation has been the need of the country. The Institute made substantial contributions in this field and was associated with investigation and testing of several bridges across the country, based on which the IRC issued its Guidelines for load testing of bridges. The Institute has developed several techniques for monitoring deflections and strains, and to apply test loads on bridges for performance evaluation. This includes underside pulling technique to apply incremental loads on bridge decks and the suspension wire technique for monitoring deflections without having to use staging.

Recent R&D Achievements of CSIR-CRRI

The first Road User Cost Study (RUCS) was conducted by CSIR-CRRI in 1980s. The objective was to establish accurate relationships between various components of vehicle operating cost, value of travel time and accident cost with the geometry of the road, surface characteristics and environmental conditions. An updation of RUCS was carried out in 2001. Pavement Performance Study was a sequel to the Road User Cost Study, undertaken to develop pavement performance data and pavement deterioration models under Indian conditions. The study was conducted on both Existing Pavement Sections and New Pavement Sections and this yielded valuable data on pavement performance. The Institute has developed different compositions of Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) using Elastomeric and Plastomeric polymers. These compositions have better resistance for ageing, stripping and also offer significantly higher fatigue resistance.

The Institute took up the R&D work on Industrial Wastes like fly ash, different types of slags, Kimberlite tailings, Jarofix, etc. Novel designs and methodologies for usage of such materials in road embankment and pavement construction were devised and successfully implemented at many locations in the country. CSIR-CRRI R&D contributions in this area have been amply recognised through many awards received from various agencies. The R&D output from such studies has been synthesised in the form of IRC codes and today many of these waste materials have been accepted as very good construction materials by the Highway engineering profession. To realistically assess, travel demands and expected air pollution from automobile exhaust emission, a study was taken up by CSIR-CRRI in 2001-02 in eight metropolitan cities. On the basis of classified traffic volumes, the quantity of pollutants like CO, NOx, HC and SPM were estimated for both intercity and intra-city travel. This data generated helped in understanding the quantum of emission from different types of vehicles, vehicular pollution scenario in different Indian cities and provided inputs for auto fuel policy formulation. Recent exercise for updation of this data in Delhi has also been carried out. Besides these, some of the major R&D studies carried out in recent years include:

• Inputs towards formulation of 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY)' scheme, Preparation of Rural Roads Manual and MoRD Guidelines for Rural Road Planning at District level, carrying out many training programmes for rural works engineers, etc
• GIS based Highway Information System to build a unique data bank of our National Highways covering about 50,000 km of our National Highway Network. The system is capable of storing and providing data pertaining to location reference, pavement construction and maintenance history, pavement condition data, road geometry, pavement crust and strength details, traffic information and integration of these data with HDM-4 software
• Use of Waste Plastic in Bituminous Roads – Laboratory evaluation and Field Demonstrations
• Novel Techniques for Rigid pavement Construction – Ultra Thin White Topping, Roller Compacted Concrete, High Performance Concrete, Interlocking Concrete Block Pavement (ICBP) for desert and snow bound areas, High Volume Fly ash Concrete, etc
• Introduction of new technologies like Reinforced earth construction using fly ash as fill material, Usage of Geotextiles (polymeric as well as agro based) for Road Construction
• Carrying out Road Safety Audit exercise for several segments of our National Highway network leading to preparation of 'Road Safety Audit Manual'. Preparation of 'Manual for Safety in Road Design' in collaboration with TRL, U.K
• Ground improvement solutions for soft sub-soils at several locations like Mumbai, Kandla, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Chennai, Rann of Kutch, etc.
• Landslide Investigation and Disaster Mitigation Techniques for Hill Roads in various locations in Himalaya, North-East India, Bhutan, Eastern and Western Ghats, Providing best examples of landslide mapping, investigation and instrumented monitoring of few critical and recurring landslides, leading to design of mitigation measures
• Carrying out Airfield pavement evaluation studies for several airfields across the country, determination of their ACN/PCN values, designing of overlay requirements for future operation of bigger aircrafts, evolving and refining methodology for emergency repairs of concrete pavements in the runways and taxi-tracks
• Instrumentation and Performance Monitoring/ Health Assessment of many Road Bridges as well as a number of Railway Bridges, Load testing for several bridges
• Actively supporting Delhi Metro for construction of Metro Rail Network through various studies relating to EIA, Passenger load estimation, etc.
• Green House Gas Emission Inventory for Transport Sector in India – Comprehensive greenhouse gas emission data base creation for different modes of transportation viz. roads, railways, aviation and marine navigation.

CSIR-CRRI presently carries out R&D activities covering all aspects of Roads and Transportation sector. The Institute maintains an active liaison with various research organisations both in India and abroad for exchange of information and technical expertise. CSIR-CRRI works in close coordination with all major stakeholders in India like MoRTH, NHAI, NRRDA, BRO, MoEF, DST, DMRC, CPWD, various State Public Works Departments/ SRRDAs, different city development agencies and municipal bodies, National Airports Authority, several Public Sector Undertakings, Harbour and Port Trusts and numerous private companies and consultants engaged in road construction/ maintenance activities. More than 10,000 in-service engineers (several hundreds of them from abroad) have been trained so far at CSIR-CRRI. The international training programme on HDM-4 being offered every year by CSIR-CRRI, is unique and only one of its kind in this part of the world and attracts engineers from all over the world.

Present R&D Challenges in Road Transportation Sector

Road transportation scenario in the country is fast changing. This situation has thrown up newer challenges to highway engineers. Some of the major R&D challenges in the road transportation sector are listed below:

1. The quantities of road construction materials being used are reaching gigantic proportions. There is a wide spread consensus on need to recycle pavement materials and utilise waste materials and marginal/soft aggregates. However performance of such materials would be different from conventional materials. R&D work using equipment like Accelerated Pavement Test facility (APTF) is needed for understanding their performance and standardising their usage.
2. After every monsoon season we see the unfortunate spectacle of our city roads being reduced to rubble by vagaries of rains. Hence there is an urgent need to evolve technologies to address the issue of aggregate stripping and developing materials/techniques to overcome the problem of aggregate stripping.
3. Composite pavements comprising different layers of stabilised (semi-rigid) as well as granular pavements have the potential to reduce the pavement thickness requirement. However their behaviour, design methodology and potential problems associated with their usage have not yet been fully understood.
4. The existing maintenance policies of the road agencies need to be reviewed with focus on road management system and service to road users. Timely preventive maintenance which costs much less than rehabilitation can be effectively used for preserving costly road infrastructure. Assessing and promoting benefits through well conceived maintenance programme is required.
5. The mitigation of green house gas emissions and reducing the consumption of fossil natural resources are now on the agenda of all countries throughout the world and in all sectors of human activity. Road construction is no exception. The bitumen industry has traditionally restricted its method of carbon footprint calculation to the embodied energy approach, while the concrete industry has taken a more comprehensive life cycle assessment approach. R&D work on these aspects and thereby reducing carbon footprint in road construction is therefore, a very topical issue which in turn is promoting changes and innovations in the design and construction of road infrastructure.
6. Many new materials have emerged recently which hold much promise for adoption in our country. There are several situations where new materials can be used with advantage in highway construction. Their adoption needs to be encouraged. Changes in existing codes and specifications and introduction of new clauses are needed to facilitate adoption of new techniques and materials.
7. Traffic congestion in urban areas has become a daily feature in most of our cities. The growing nature of the problem and its tremendous socio-economic impacts have attracted the researchers and policy makers to find out tools and techniques for congestion mitigation. A suitable combination of improved infrastructure, control systems and demand management have been highlighted as efficient tools to achieve the objective of congestion mitigation. There is also an acute need to integrate different modes of transportation so as to promote public transport and provide door to door transportation solutions to commuters. Also, there is an acute need to evolve highway capacity norms under Indian conditions.
8. Accidents and fatalities on roads are the result of interplay of a number of factors. India has one of the highest numbers of road accident related fatalities in the world. Road users are heterogeneous in nature, starting from pedestrians to multi-axle trucks and include stray animals. The vehicle population in our country is increasing by leaps and bounds. Pedestrians and two wheelers form the most vulnerable group of road users. A multi pronged approach involving Engineering, Enforcement and Education measures are required to improve road safety.

The Road Ahead

The R&D output of CSIR-CRRI in the roads and transportation sector are many and varied. As a premier national laboratory, CSIR-CRRI plays a unique role in the preparation of standards, specifications, and codes of practice relating to road materials, structural and geometric design of roads, road construction and maintenance management, traffic engineering, road safety etc. Apart from consultancy services on all aspects of roads and transportation, CSIR-CRRI provides a wide range of testing and calibration services. Many of the technologies developed and patented by the Institute have been taken up by the industry for marketing (or commercial production) and for wider use by the profession. Many state of the art R&D facilities like Accelerated Pavement Test Facility (APTF), Network Survey Vehicle, Photometry Laboratory, etc have been recently commissioned at the Institute.

The globalisation of Indian economy, about 10-12 years back, has very clearly demonstrated that nothing happens without infrastructure and road system is the backbone of all infrastructures. The future R&D programmes in transportation sector would have to focus on evolving safe, speedy and efficient transportation system solutions which minimise the input and maintenance cost. Sustainable development, recycling of construction materials, minimising vehicular pollution, reducing urban congestion are but some of the challenges awaiting civil engineers. To tackle such issues, the road construction industry must become more innovative and move faster towards redesigning existing concepts. This will, however, require significant efforts in the field of research and development. CSIR-CRRI with its experience of carrying out R&D activities over six decades, is fully equipped and determined to meet this challenge.

Dr. Subhamay Gangopadhyay graduated in Civil Engineering from University of Calcutta and M.Tech in Transportation System Engineering from IIT, Kanpur. He then obtained M.Sc. & Ph.D from University of New Brunswick, Canada under Commonwealth Scholarship Plan. He joined as Scientist B at CSIR-CRRI in 1979 and rose to become Director in May 2009 while holding the position of the Head of Traffic Engineering & Transportation Planning Division. He has more than 29 years experience in the area of Traffic Engineering & Transportation Planning, Regional and Urban Travel Demand Modeling Traffic Flow Theory and Capacity Analysis, Road Traffic Safety, Urban Traffic Congestion and Environment Impact of Road Transport. He has coordinated wide range of traffic and transportation studies covering many cities in India. Dr. Gangopadhyay has published more than 55 research papers and about 50 technical reports. He has also guided many Ph.D and M.E students.

Shri U.K.Guru Vittal obtained B.E (Civil) in 1985 and post graduation in Highway Engineering in 1987 from Bangalore University. Since 1987 he has been working in Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi in different R&D Divisions. His R&D interests include Use of waste materials like fly ash in embankment/ RE wall/ pavement construction, Geosynthetics, Ground improvement techniques, Instrumentation, Quality audit of road works, etc. He has published over 50 R&D papers and has received CSIR Technology Prize in 1999 and Best Paper award in Fly ash International Congress held in Delhi in 2005.