INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ROADS AND BRIDGES

Satander Kumar Scientist (Retd.) CRRI, New Delhi

Satander50@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

New technologies are completely changing the design and construction worlds. Many new
technologies are changing the way we build and what we build with concrete. Many new
technologies viz. Shotcrete, vacuum process (dewatering) concrete, pumpable concrete,
recycled pavement, use of waste plastic in flexible pavements, cold mix technologies, jute/coir
geo textile, delayed compacted concrete, roller compacted concrete, high performance
concrete, ultra high performance concrete, smart concrete, high volume fly ash concrete, fibre
reinforced concrete, early opening to traffic concrete, geo-composites, concrete cloth, joint-less
rigid pavement, pushing segment technology, trenchless technology, use of construction and
demolition (C&D) waste, fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) plate, pressure grouting technology for
repair of distressed/honey combed concrete roads and structures are gaining momentum these
days. Currently pre cast box culverts, precast piers, pre cast piles and other pre cast pre-
stressed bridge component are being manufactured and used involving use minimum material.

SCC (widely being used in Japan) minimize the need of mechanical consolidation and electrical
energy and yields a smooth surface finish without segregation. Advancement in equipment like
digital/laser thermometer, distansometer, relative humidity meter, wind speed meter, small kits
for rapid testing of water, liquids, soil aggregates etc. automatic steel bar cutting and bending
machine are much advanced technologies being used in India. Evaluation of concrete road
technologies viz, pullout test, Winder Probe test on hardened concrete etc., are also in use
now. The paper thus describes need based new cost effective technologies for roads and
bridges saving time, energy and cost.

These technologies have significant advantages and little or no disadvantages when compared
to standard conventional material in use today. After completion of satisfactory trials and field
study with new materials and technology, codes are being drafted and discussed in the
respective technical committees of IRC and BIS. Like there is a latest code on Ordinary Portland
Cement involving use of mineral admixtures fly ash etc upto 5 %. There are now two 43 grade
and two 53 grade OPC (IS: 269-2015); one for highway, building and general civil structures
and other for railway concrete sleepers. IS: 383-2016 has been revised after 46 years involving
use of recycled and waste material in concrete meeting certain specification.

latest National and International Codes in concrete technology and allied activities are given in
Table 1.

1. REQUIREMENTS OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The main issue in present day time is to control greenhouse (GHG) emissions. Since Portland
cement production alone is so GHG-intensive, that the challenge is to produce concrete
structures with the same quality and strength using less Portland cement, but more
supplementary cementing materials, but greener and cheaper product. Similar is the case
during production of bitumen and related construction activities of both the cement concrete
and flexible pavements. Use of waste plastic, geo cell fibres, jute geo fibres, recycled asphalt

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pavement (RAP) and recycled concrete as aggregates are also being initiated in road works to
minimize GHG emission.

Table 1: Currently Available National and International Codes on Concrete

Code No Title
IRC:SP: 46-2013 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Fibre Reinforce Concrete
Pavement
IRC:SP:62-2014 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Cement Concrete
Pavements for Low Volume Roads
IRC:SP:65-2005 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Segmental Bridges
IRC:SP:71-2006 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Precast Pre-tensioned
Girders for Bridges.
IRC:SP76-2008 Tentative Guidelines for Conventional, Thin and Ultra-Thin White
toping
IRC: 85 -2014 Recommended Practice for Accelerated Strength Testing and
Evaluation of Concrete for Road and Airfield Pavements
IRC:SP-86-2010 Guidelines for Selection, Operation and Maintenance of Paver
Finishers
IRCSP:89-2010 Guidelines for Soil and Granular Material Stabilization using, Cement,
Lime and Fly ash
IRC:SP-96-2012 Guidelines for Selection, Operation and Maintenance of Concrete
Batching and Mixing Plants
IRC:SP:98-2013 Guidelines for the Use of Waste Plastics in Hot Bituminous Mixes in
Wearing Course
IRC:SP-100-2014 Use of Cold Mix Technology in Construction and Maintenance of
Roads Using Bitumen Emulsion
IRC: 107-2013 Specification for Bituminous Mastic Wearing Courses
IRC: 112-2011 Code of Practice for Concrete Road Bridges ( with pre-stressed and
RCC using fly ash, slag and silica fume)
IRC:SP 113 -2013 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Geo-synthetic Reinforced
Embankments on Soft Sub Soils
IRC:114-2013 Guidelines for Use of Silica Fume in Rigid Pavement
IRC:115-2014 Guidelines for Structural Evaluation and Strengthening of Flexible
Road Pavements Using Falling Weigh Deflectometer (FWD)
Technique
IRC:75-2014 Guidelines for the Design of High Embankments (Draft)
ASTM C457/ C457M - Standard Test Method for Microscopical Determination of Parameters
12 of the Air-Void System in Hardened Concrete
IS: 3812 (part 1) :2013 Pulverized fuel ash — Specification part 1 for use as Pozzolana in
Cement, Cement Mortar and Concrete
IS: 8112-2013 43 Grade Ordinary Portland Cement Specification ( Maximum strength
58 MPa)
IS: 10262-2013 Cement Concrete Mix Design
IS: 13311-1999 Non Destructive Testing of Concrete
MORTH -2013 SPECIFICATIONS FOR ROAD AND BRIDGE WORKS (Fifth
Revision)Published by Indian Roads Congress, NEW DELHI
FHWA-IF-03-007-02 Technical Brief Ultra Thin Whitetopping

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As, production of cement is one of the largest industrial sources of CO 2 emissions and in
context of, very rare availability of good quality aggregates, the speed and buildability,
adequate pre-planning, precasting of elements, precast mastic and the use of innovative
materials and technologies in construction can make environment friendly roads and bridges.

The new technical innovations in equipment provide less operating costs considering higher
pricing spirals in cement, bitumen and other raw materials coupled with rising labor costs,
amidst shrinking job volumes besides faster construction with less pilferage of the materials and
saving in energy. In case of bituminous mixes, insulated tippers are required for carrying hot
bituminous mixes from long distances and also to do the work smoothly.

2. NEW INNOVATIONS

A brief of some of the main technologies, materials and construction equipment is given as
under:

1. HIGH PERFORMANCE CONCRETE (HPC): Efforts have been made to use high
performance concrete in concrete girders, segments, hydro power projects, nuclear thermal
power reactors etc in India. It is commonly observed that by the use of 5-10 percent silica fume
by weight of cement, concrete flexural/compressive strength up to 40 percent is increased and
consequently abrasion/corrosion resistance is also improved. (IRC:SP 70)

HPC is also being used in White Topping which is a solution for rutting asphalt. This is an
acceptable pavement restoration practice since 1977. Much of the white topping technology and
also very thin white topping has been used in USA, India and other countries. Recently thin rigid
pavement as whitetopping has been used in expressway and heavy traffic roads in Karnataka
and Maharastra; Joints are at closer spacing without dowel and tie bars at each contraction
and longitudinal joints respectively because of less thickness and strong base of the existing
base and sub base.

2. Self Compacted Concrete (SCC): Conventional concrete has its own limitation- it can
not, on its own weight, flow into nooks and corner of the form work. Though compaction, often
using vibration is essential for achieving strength and durability of concrete, but has its own
limitation depending on the types of structures, its dimensions, and types of reinforcement,
location of structures etc. SCC may provide remedies to these problems. Developed by Prof.
Okamura and his team in Japan in 1986, SCC has evolved as new innovative technology,
capable of achieving status of being an out-standing advancement in the sphere of concrete
technology.

Addition of fly ash and other siliceous materials such as silica fume and granulated slag make
‘Sustainable SCC’. However, there are guidelines published by IRC:SP 62 and Hampshire, UK
(EFNARC-2002)/contract documents on use of SCC in Nuclear Structures.

3. High Volume Flyash Concrete (HVFC): Work has been carried for making roller compacted
concrete pavement using HVFC in China in 1998, USA, UK etc. There may be early strength
decrease, but strength will get sharp development later and high-grade cement benefit the early
strength. First use was reported in Ropar by Ambuja Cement in 2003-2004. The processed fly
ash may also be used in making HVFC like in Pune Satara concrete road.

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4. Soil stabilization is extensively used in Japan, China, European and African countries to
optimize and conserve natural resources. The preliminary estimate revealed that we require
more than 175 million cubic meter of aggregate per annum. Such exploitation of natural
resources would create serious environment issue. There is therefore need to develop and
popularize alternate methods of road construction and thereby make the optimum use of natural
material. There is drastically reduction in aggregate consumption about 50% if design is carried
out as per IRC: 37. Lime is used to stabilize clayey soil and cement is used for stabilization of
sand soils. Now in the market, commercial stabilizers are available (such as RBI-Grade 81 and
liquid polymer etc) which can be used both for soil stabilization for sub base and base course.

5. Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) and Cell Fill Pavement: IRC:SP-68 covers
construction of concrete pavement made with the RCC. In India and USA, RCC is being used
in construction of low volume roads with about saving of 16% (Apprx.) as compared to
conventional concrete roads or Inter Connected concrete block pavement. Cell fill pavement
developed by IIT Khargpur is also being used in rural roads in India.

6 Perpetual Pavement: If the pavements which are designed and constructed for very
longer period than conventional life period, these are normally called perpetual pavements. This
may be possible with the use of new admixtures in the mixes, thicker wearing course as
compared to sub base and base course, soil stabilization in base and sub base etc. (IRC:37)

7: Portable Scanning Device and Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) : These scanning
devices uses the pulse radar technology to detect multiple layers of rebar, tandem, metal
conduits, plastic conduits, post tensioned cables, glass fiber cables, voids at depths up to 300
mm. Figure 1 shows Potable Auto Scanner. Similarly, before the start of any major work, it
would be better to use GPR to find any structure beneth the road or structures or any water
bodies. Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and National Council for Cement and Building
Materials, Ballabgarh have such facility.

Figure 1.a Auto Scanner Figure 1 b: Scanner is being use to locate Rebars

8. Equipment for Construction of Concrete Roads using Mechanized method: Currently

equipment being for construction of heavy traffic concrete roads) such as pavers, texturing and
curing machine, automatic dowel bar inserter, tie bar inserter, joint cutting and sealing machine
etc for National Highways, Expressway, State Highways and rural roads are given as under
(Figure 2 – Figure 22).

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 Figure 2 : Slip Form Machines , Figure 3: Slip Form Paver Figure 4: Curing Compound
Spreading

Figure 5 Laying Polythene sheet Figure 6 Steel Frame for Tent Figure 7. Mobile Tent

Figure 8 Placing of PQC Figure 9 Tie Bar Inserter (TBI) Figure 10:Dowel Bar Inserter

Figure 11 Auto-trowel Figure 12 PQC Finished Surface Figure13 Texturing & Curing
Machine (TCM)

Figure 14 Steel Working Bridge Figure 15 Broom Texturing Figure 16 Broomed Surface

Figure 17 Concrete Saw Figure 18 Hand saw cut tool Figure 19 Sealing Joints

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Figure 20 Stirrer for Sealant Figure 21 Sealant Gun Figure 22 Sealed Joint

9. Equipment for Construction of Concrete Roads using Semi- Mechanized method:

Figure 23 to 63 depicts some of the equipments for semi mechanized method.

Figure 23 Needle Vibrator Figure 24 Screed Vibrator Figure 25 Vibrators in Use

Figure 26 Plate Compactor Figure 27 Compaction & Finishing Figure 28 Finishing of PQC
In Fixed Form Paver

Figure 29 Fixed Form Pavers Figure 30 Fixed Form Paver Figure 31 Fixed Form Paver

Figure 32: Fixed Form Paver Figure 33 Wooden Hand Tamper Figure: 34Finishing: Canvas
Belt Cloth

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Figure 35 Float Figure 36 : Power Trowel Figure 37 Power Floater

Figure 38 Fixed Form Paver Figure39 Finishing with Floater Figure 40; Steel Floater- long
handle

Figure 41 : Straight Edge with Wedge Figure 42 Straight strip Figure 43 Coir or Nylon
Fiber Brush

Figure 44 Tine brush Figure 45 Tinning in progress Figure 46 : Edging Tool

Figure 47 Edges Being arised Figure 48: Double Edging Tool Figure 49: Master Straight
Edge

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Figure 50: MS Section for Joint Figure 51: Joint Cutter Figure 52 Curing Compound
Cutting Spreading Machine

Figure 53 Small Sizes Joint Cutting Figure 54 Curing Machine Figure 55: Iron Raker for
Joints

Figure 56 Transferring Pot Figure 57 Wooden/Plastic Tool Figure 58 Backer Rods

Figure 59 Sealing - Cold Sealant Figure 60Scraper Figure 61: Potable Electrical
Grinder

Figure 62 Boxes for volumetric work Figure 63 : Mobile Batching Plant

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 10. Device for Rapid Chloride Penetrability Test: It is a measurement of the electrical
resistance of concrete against the penetration of chloride (RCPT) according to the standard
methods such as ASTM C1202, AASHTO T277 and ASTM C1760. (Figure 64).

11. Device for measurement of surface electrical resistivity of concrete: This device
automatically measures resistivity around the concrete specimen. (Figure 65)

Figure 64: Rapid Chloride Test Device Figure 65: Device for Measurement of Surface
Electrical Resistivity

12. Engineered Cementitious Composites: The brittleness poses potential danger and
limitation of high strength, So there is a need to use cost effective, high ductile cementitious
material for such applications. University of Michigan has been working on Engineered
Cementitious Composite (ECC) Materials (which has medium to high strength). ECC is a
mixture of water, cement, sand, special fibres and some common chemical additives. A
typical composition employs W/C ratio and sand/cement ratio of 0.5 or lower. Amount of
fibres used in it is lesser than used in high performance fibre reinforced concrete.

a) Microcement/Microcrete:

Microconcrete is a dry ready mix of cementitious based composition formulated for use in
repairs of areas where the concrete is damaged & the area is restricted in movement
making the placement of conventional concrete difficult, It is supplied as a ready to use dry
powder which requires only addition of clean water at site to produce a free flowing non
shrink repair micro concrete.

b) Carbon Fibres. Addition of small amount (1% by wt.) of carbon fibres can improve the
mechanical properties consisting of the main Portland cement phase and water. Carbon
fibres are the strongest and most flexible molecular material with Young’s modulus of over
1 TPa.

c) Nano Cement Composites: It consists of Nano size of cement, silica fume, glass particles,
aggregates, fibres and admixtures. Grinding of the ingredients is carried out under controlled
environment low humidity to avoid agglomeration of particles. Short carbon fibers of size
7 microns, Titanium oxide and Zinc oxide are also added as per the requirement.

13. Advancements in Concrete Equipment for Construction of Structures: The new

advancements being carried out by the concrete equipment manufacturing industry are quite
significant, keeping the major innovations in view done in the past; and whenever there was a
need of higher job volumes, the mobile crushers are in use now. (Figure 4-7)

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 Figure 66 Mobile Impact Crusher Figure 67. Mobile Cone Crusher

Figures 68 Mobile Jaw Crusher Figure 69. Mobile VSI Crusher

The manufacturer has recently launched different types of Boom Placers/boom pump are
shown in Figure 70.

Figure 70: New Types of Boom Pumps are shown in Working Position

Further, a company in India, recently entered into Guinness Book of World Records by
launching 86 meters Truck mounted Boom Pump. (Figure 71)

Figure 71: Truck Mounted Boom Pump of Height 86 m

14. Use of Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste: Use of Construction and Demolition
(C&D) waste aggregates in road works is a widely accepted practice in many countries like,
Denmark, USA, UK, France, Japan, etc. Delhi city produces about 3000 tonnes of construction
and demolition waste every day. To evolve more avenues for utilisation of C&D waste in the
area of road construction, many organisations in India like CSIR – Central Road Research
Institute (CRRI), New Delhi carried out a ‘Feasibility study on use of Construction & Demolition
(C&D) waste in Road Works’. Similarly National Council for Cement and Building Materials,

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ILFS, DDA, Ministry of Environment etc have carried out similar studies. Internationally different
codes on use of C&D waste are published which are listed below:

European (CEN) Practice – EN 12620 was expanded to include recycled aggregate in the EN
Standard for aggregate for concrete. According to it, the aggregate can be of the following
types;

 Natural aggregates from mineral resources,

 Manufactured aggregates of mineral origin, involving thermal or other modification, and
 Recycled aggregate, resulting from processing of inorganic material previously used in
construction.

UK - BS 8500-2:200628, which is the complementary British Standard to BS EN 206-1:200051,

refers to two types of recycled aggregate; Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), and Recycled
aggregate (RA). Such aggregate can be used in structural concrete having cube strength of
concrete 50 MPa.

Germany –Germany has elaborated several regulations and indications determining standards
for recycling materials in order to utilize them and make them an alternative to new materials.
Most of them are used in road construction. Some guidelines for the use of recycled mineral
materials in Germany are given in DIN 4226 – Aggregates for Concrete and DIN 4226-100 –
Recycled aggregates for concrete and mortar.

DIN 1045 permits up to 25 percent RCA in structural concrete of cube strength 37.5 MPa in dry
or low humidity environments.

4.CONCLUDING REMARKS

When compared to conventional concrete technology, the many new types of concrete have
better corrosion resistance, equal or higher compressive and tensile strengths, higher fire and
seismic resistance, and rapid curing and strength gain. In addition, the production and life cycle
of these new concretes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90%.
Researchers in the laboratory using special material (processed sand etc) have achieved
“concretes” with compressive strengths in excess of 689 MPa.

New equipment is on the rise for getting good concrete product comfortably faster with
maximum accuracy. New technology reduces consumption of cement, aggregates, steel, and
formwork, minimum wastage or pilferage, protection and saving in good agricultural land.

Mobile cone crusher/vertical shaft impactor/ aggregate washing plant are available in producing
aggregate from natural rocks and demolished hardened concrete in the field and 240 cubic/hr
capacity batching plant with inbuilt ice plant and hot mix mastic plants, insulated tippers are
available.

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