Advantage of Concrete Roads
- Nilkanth Engineering Work
- Sep 22, 2021
- 2 min read
Till few years ago, asphalt road was in great demand. Asphalt roads demanded high maintenance cost and regular repair works was taking toll on contractors. Especially with high demand of rapid transportation closing a single lane for maintenance would pile up huge queue of vehicles on the highway. Hence some solution had to be thought.
Then came the solution to construct concrete roads. Initially the idea was scrapped due to heavy initial cost. But research proves that initial heavy cost can cover up maintenance cost and can even be cheaper than maintenance cost of asphalt roads.
Slowly and Gently people started believing, resulting in new constructions of highways using mostly concrete roads. Concrete has many advantages over asphalt. They are as follows: –
Durability: – Concrete Roads can withstand nearly no repair works for 30-40 years whereas asphalt roads has nearly 10-12 years. Clearly concrete roads have upper hand due to high strength. Water is enemy of asphalt and there are waterlogs in rainy season which scratches out asphalt layer on the road.
Surfacing: – Unlike Asphalt roads, concrete roads are beneficial towards skidding sliding and overturning.
Ease of driving: – Ease of driving is more in concrete roads than compared with asphalt roads. Provided the concrete road level shall be accurately matched with highway geometric design.
Ease of construction: – Concrete roads are easy to construct and can be constructed in almost any weather whereas in asphalt roads one needs to maintain temperature of asphalt during laying of wearing coarse.
Efficiency: – Efficiency of vehicle increases while driving on concrete roads when compared to asphalt roads because it is smoother than asphalt. Indirectly, fuel consumption can be tapped in long run.
Visibility: – Concrete being lighter in color can be seen with low light when compared to asphalt roads which is poor in visibility during low light conditions.
Deformation: – Asphalt roads have higher chances of deformation as it is made up of coal tar and other minerals which deform under high pressure or high temperature.
Repair works: – For concrete roads, one can remove the panel of road which needs to be repaired and reconstruct the panel. One does not need to close the entire lane for repair works.
Recent advancement in concrete roads, which includes use of fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace has made concrete cheaper. With future advancement under sight, we believe that concrete roads will outperform the asphalt roads.
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