Page 32 - Plastics News July 2018

FeAtures

and Chennai; last year, Hyderabad also micro-surfaced its prepared surface by means of a spreader box attached
Outer Ring Road ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship behind the machine.
Summit.
“It is an environment friendly cold mix application
treatment. It is applied over an existing
pavement surface which is structurally
sound but has developed cracks due to
wear and tear,” he added. Micro-surfacing
protects the surface and provides a high
degree of polishing (think of it as Teflon
coating for your brand new car).

“We have already issued work order
to the Ahmedabad-based company and
the work will start before July 15. The
company has given one-year guarantee,”
Lingaiah said.

Micro-surfacing Cubbon Road will cost the
Micro-surfacing involves coating the road with a 6-mm- BBMP Rs 1 crore for the 2-km stretch. It is slightly higher
thick slurry seal that reinforces the asphalting and keeps than what Hincol had offered; Rs 6 lakh per lane per km.
it from crumbling. It also keeps the road dry and makes Srinivas Alavilli, member, Citizens for Bengaluru, said,
the ride smoother. (It doesn’t, however, help with the “Investing such a huge amount of money just on pilot
potholes which Bengaluru has thousands of). basis is not a good idea. It should be done free of cost for
The 6-mm layer will give city roads added protection, a smaller stretch and then the BBMP should take the call
provide smooth ride for vehicles, claims Bruhat Bengaluru based on the success of the experiment. Also, the monsoon
Mahanagara Palike. BBMP has now tied up with an has already started; these things should have been done
Ahmedabad-based firm, Elsamex, which carried out the before the rains.” However, he added that any initiative
micro-surfacing in Hyderabad last year. The firm claims that helps Bengaluru is always welcome.
that roads will last at least five years with micro-surfacing Nidhi Sumeet Sali, a deputy manager at Elsamex, said: “We
as water does not seep into the bitumen and corrode it. have done the same work recently in Outer Ring Road of
And since roads become waterproof, vehicles do not skid Hyderabad and we had approached the BBMP in January
when it rains. but it got delayed due to the elections.”

Praveen Lingaiah, Executive Engineer, Traffic Engineering India’s road upgrade is long overdue. A recent road safety
Cell, BBMP said, “Micro-surfacing is a mixture of report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that
polymerized bitumen emulsion, specially graded fine 17% of the world’s traffic fatalities occur in India, with
aggregates, cement, water and necessary additives, crumbling roads partly responsible for the high death toll.
mixed homogeneously on site in a special micro-surfacing It’s high time, now we should use plastics or shall we say
machine, uniformly spread immediately over a properly
pave the way for Plastics recycling and bring about the change.

Plastics News July 2018 32