Higher Percentage of RAP – Is it Challenging?
Sridhar Raju, Associate Professor and Bhanuprasad Katla, Research Scholar Department of Civil Engineering, BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus
India has the second largest road network in the world, spanning a total of 5.89 million km, transporting 64.5% of all goods in the country. Nearly 90% of India's total passenger traffic uses the road network to commute. The road transportation in India has gradually increased over the years with improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages (www.ibef.org). Due to these massive construction activity, there is an increased demand for aggregates and bitumen. The bituminous pavements which were constructed during late 90's and early 2000 requires an overlay or a resurfacing as a part of maintenance activity. The upgradation or the maintenance activities requires a huge quantity of aggregates and bitumen. It is necessary to adopt the process of reusing the existing bituminous material for maintenance activity and/or for new construction, as this is an environmental-friendly technology. Also, providing an overlay as a maintenance measure results in rise in the road level with respect to the adjoining area, especially in the city roads. To avoid such rise in the road level and to save our natural resources, there is a need for reusing the existing road materials. The bituminous material obtained from the distressed pavement is called as Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP).
India has the second largest road network in the world, spanning a total of 5.89 million km, transporting 64.5% of all goods in the country. Nearly 90% of India's total passenger traffic uses the road network to commute. The road transportation in India has gradually increased over the years with improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages (www.ibef.org). Due to these massive construction activity, there is an increased demand for aggregates and bitumen. The bituminous pavements which were constructed during late 90's and early 2000 requires an overlay or a resurfacing as a part of maintenance activity. The upgradation or the maintenance activities requires a huge quantity of aggregates and bitumen. It is necessary to adopt the process of reusing the existing bituminous material for maintenance activity and/or for new construction, as this is an environmental-friendly technology. Also, providing an overlay as a maintenance measure results in rise in the road level with respect to the adjoining area, especially in the city roads. To avoid such rise in the road level and to save our natural resources, there is a need for reusing the existing road materials. The bituminous material obtained from the distressed pavement is called as Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP).
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NBM&CW March 2021
