CSIR’s new technology answer to challenges posed by rugged terrain in constructing border roads-OxBig News Network

Road construction technology developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) could be the answer for construction of roads in remote, high-altitude areas where inclement weather and rugged terrain pose a huge challenge.

“The indigenous road construction technology, called REJUPAVE, developed by CSIR’s Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), to construct high altitude bituminous roads at low and sub-zero temperature conditions was successfully utilised by the Border Road Organization (BRO) for high-altitude bituminous roads construction on China Border in state of Arunachal Pradesh,” the Ministry of Science and Technology stated in its year-end review issued on December 27.

“The technology has also been used by the BRO’s project Vijayak in Kargil to construct high-altitude bituminous roads on the Drass-Umbala-Sankoo axis in Drass region of Ladakh,” the year-ender added.

The bio-oil-based REJUPAVE, an acronym for ‘Rejuvenator for Recycling of Asphalt Pavement Material for Hot in Plant and Hot in Situ Recycling of Bituminous Pavement’, was introduced by CRRI earlier this year.

In a report tabled by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence earlier this month, the Director General Border Roads (DGBR) was quoted as saying that REJUPAVE is a technology where a mixture is added to the hot mix called bitumen.

“The major challenge for us is that from the hot mix plant, by the time the hot mix reaches the road, the temperature is so low that hot mix cannot be laid, and it cracks. So, this allows us to construct in very cold temperatures. We are able to use this in very cold temperatures,” he had said while deposing before the Committee.

In addition, BRO has also started using steel slag, a waste product of the steel industry, as an aggregate in road construction, which combined with bitumen is used as the top surface. “It is extremely interesting that this is better than the stone aggregate that we use. It has better anti-corrosive properties. It does not absorb moisture,” the DGBR had further stated.

REJUPAVE is the first indigenously manufactured asphalt rejuvenator. It eliminates the problem of increasing road levels due to overlay of hot mix asphalt and significantly reduces the energy usage, thus conserving the energy required for production of the hot mix asphalt.

Since it is totally composed of bio-oil, it doesn’t harm the environment in any way and enables the conservation of natural resources by recycling the aggregates and bitumen which would have otherwise been wasted.

The BRO, which is engaged in the construction and maintenance of thousands of kilometers of roads along the Himalayan frontier, has a limited working season of just about six months in a year. Roads remain closed during winters because of heavy snow and work also gets disrupted during the monsoons. Low temperatures and the soil composition in certain areas also adversely affects the laying of roads.