From the Editor’s Desk
Bituminous Road Construction : The Imperatives
Most of the paved roads in our country have granular sub-
base and base; bituminous base and wearing courses. The
past practice of providing thin wearing coat of 20 mm
premix carpet with seal coat was to allow deformation in
granular layers to take place once road is opened to traffic.
After the layers get compacted then thick bituminous
wearing course was provided. Overlay with bituminous
material over thin bituminous wearing coat is as per the
saying “Don’t mix and marry material of different nature”.
Bituminous layers and wearing coat are easy to construct
and are amenable to stage construction. Experienced labour
and machinery for handling the work of bituminous layers
is available in plenty in our country. In general bituminous
layers and wearing coat have performed very well over
the period. These pavements during summer get heated up
and compacted under-tyres of commercial vehicles which
we call self healing property of bituminous pavements.
For design of pavements, as far as practicable, the axle
load spectrum should be for the traffic plying on the road,
CBR should be of the soil available at site or likely to
be used in subgrade and properties of the stone aggregate
which are to be used in pavement. Instead of carrying
out fresh axle load survey and testing of both soil and
construction material we make assumptions which go
wrong and pavements do not perform as designed.
Unfortunately, cost of bitumen has increased significantly
in recent years; VG-30 (bulk) is priced as Rs.42152.33
per metric tonne after 16th June, 2012 to which the cost
of carriage from refinery to site of work has to be added.
This in turn has increased the cost of bituminous road
construction significantly.
As roads constitutes the basic infrastructure of the
country, and as all other consequent developments
would be using the same, we are duty bound to build
long lasting roads, which require the least maintenance
and have a long life. Some suggestions for building
long-lasting roads are given below:
Use of Dense Graded Bituminous Mixes: To build long
lasting bituminous pavements on both low-trafficked and
heavy-trafficked roads only dense graded bituminous
mixes should be used. We have unnecessary proliferation
of bituminous mixes in India; more than ten mixes are
included in the specifications. Many of the open graded,
lean mixes are cheaper than dense graded mixes and hence
there is a tendency to use combinations such as BM with
layer of SDBC and BM with layer of MSS. Only three
dense graded bituminous mixes (one each for base course,
binder course, and wearing course) are usually used in
most developed countries both for low-trafficked as well as
heavy-trafficked roads. Use of such mixes has given 8-10
years life to bituminous pavement surfacing in developed
2 INDIAN HIGHWAYS, July 2012
countries despite climatic conditions (excessive rains,
temperature extremes, snow and freezing) being much
worse than the monsoon rains in India. Our corresponding
dense graded bituminous mixes in India are as follows:
DBM Grading 2 for base course, Bituminous Concrete
(BC) Grading 1 for binder course, and Bituminous
Concrete (BC) Grading 2 for wearing course.
Obviously, dense graded bituminous mixes cost more
than the open graded, lean, permeable mixes but they are
economical based on life-cycle cost basis. They do not
require too frequent renewals/resurfacing. It’s time to
move on from cheap, lean, open graded mixes to dense
graded bituminous mixes.
Stone Matrix Asphalt: For very heavy-trafficked
roads with overloading, it is recommended to use Stone
Matrix Asphalt (SMA) mix both in binder course as
well as wearing course. SMA mix has stone-on-stone
skeleton, which carries the traffic load and has a very high
resistance to rutting. It has already been used on national
highways in India. Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has
adopted IRC:SP:79-2008, “Specification for Stone Matrix
Asphalt” to facilitate its implementation. Although it is a
gap graded mix it is highly impermeable to water because
it has less than four percent air voids resulting from about
10% material passing 0.075 mm sieve and at least 6%
bitumen (preferably elastomeric PMB).
Selection of Bituminous Binder: Bitumen VG–30 and
VG–10 are commonly used because they are easy to
transport and suffer least degradation on storage. Roads
constructed with ordinary bitumen have performed very
well and should be used on low trafficked roads. For high
traffic roads, use of modified bitumen is advantageous.
IRC:SP:53:2002 “Guidelines on use of Polymer and
Rubber Modified Bitumen in Road Construction” and
ISI:15462:2004 “Indian Standards for Polymer and
Rubber Modified Bitumen” specify four types of modified
Bitumen:- (i) Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) –
Elastomeric Thermoplastic Based, (ii) Polymer Modified
Bitumen (PMB) – Plastomeric Thermoplastic Based, (iii)
Natural Rubber Modified Bitumen (NRMB)& (iv) Crumb
Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB).
There is a need to monitor the performance and economics
of pavements constructed with these materials so that
a judicious selection of binder can be made by the
Engineer.
Whereas VG-30 Bitumen is used for most roads, and with
a view to improve its elasticity it is recommended that
elastomeric polymer modified bitumen (PMB) be used
for heavy- trafficked roads. The elastomeric PMB must
have at least 75% elastic recovery and should conform
to IRC:SP:53-2002. The elastomeric PMB having elastic
 EDITORIAL
recovery more than 75% is about 25% costlier than
bitumen VG–30, but it extends the pavement life by more
than 50%. Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB) can
be used for medium-trafficked roads only. A fully equipped
testing laboratory staffed with qualified technicians must
be available at the blending site. Table 4 of IRC:111-2009
lays down the selection criteria for grade of modified
bitumen as a function of maximum and minimum ambient
air temperature. However, performance of each type of
modified bitumen, having the same softening point is
different. CRMB and Plastomeric PMB have good rut
resistance but their performance at low and very high
temperature is questionable. However elastomeric PMB
performs well at low as well as high temperature. CRMB
not be used on low-trafficked roads such as under PMGSY
where ordinary bitumen would be adequate.
Use of Anti-Stripping Agent: Anti-stripping agents
are used for bituminous materials and mixes to ensure
adhesion between aggregates (hydrophilic in nature) and
bitumen, even under submergence in water. Ministry’s
Specification for Road and Bridge Works specifies in
detail, anti-stripping agent for bituminous materials and
mixes. Bituminous pavement can rut, crack or develop
potholes if the bituminous mix experiences stripping
when subjected to moisture especially during monsoon.
As specified in IRC: 111-2009, “Specifications for Dense
Graded Bituminous Mixes” the complete mix should be
tested using AASHTO T 283, “Resistance of Compacted
Asphalt Mixtures to Moisture-Induced Damage”. If the
mix fails this test, liquid anti-stripping agent or hydrated
lime should be used.
Bituminous Mat Density: Bituminous pavements can
fail prematurely if the compacted mat has low density
as compared with laboratory density. The density of the
finished mat should not be less than 92% nor more than
97% of the theoretical maximum specific gravity. Cores
of 150 mm in diameter should be obtained to check mat
density at the time of construction.
Quality Control/Assurance and Acceptance: Present
specifications and field practices do not adequately
address the quality control/quality assurance (QC/
QA) aspect of the bituminous mixes, which is a very
important element of a specification. Quality control is
the responsibility of the Contractor who is expected to
keep a control on the materials going into the mix and
on process of mixing, laying, compacting and curing.
Quality assurance or acceptance is the responsibility of
the specifying agency. For quality control, the agency
specifies the types and minimum frequency of the tests
to be conducted by the contractor during construction
including those in the presence of supervising staff.
Whereas current specifications have addressed the
quality control aspect, it need to be specific about quality
Comments on this Editorial are invited and may be sent by E-mail: secretarygen@irc.org.in
INDIAN HIGHWAYS, July 2012 3
assurance and acceptance.
There is no question that quality acceptance should be
based on statistical principles. A bituminous paving
project should be divided into lots and payment factors
should be applied on a lot by lot basis. For example, a lot
can be defined as one day’s bituminous mix production
or a maximum tonnage of bituminous mix such as 400 or
500 tonnes. A lot is further divided into 3 to 5 sub-lots,
which are sampled and tested at random. Tests for bitumen
content, stability, flow value, density and void content
should be conducted for each sub-lot. The test values of
the sub-lots are analyzed statistically to assess the quality
of the lot and its pay factor.
Asphalt Recycling: Hot mix asphalt is 100% recyclable.
Unfortunately, we either bury the existing bituminous
pavement when building overpasses or underpasses
thereby wasting bitumen and aggregate. Recycling
technology is fully developed for the last over 30 years.
We must recycle existing bituminous pavement by milling
and using the Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement in recycled
mix. The Flexible Pavement Committee of the Indian
Roads Congress is currently reviewing two draft standards
on cold milling and hot mix recycling; these standards
are expected to be adopted soon. In the meantime, some
highway authorities are allowing hot mix recycling on a
case by case basis.
The current imperatives on bituminous road constructions
are as follows: (a) Use only dense graded bituminous
mixes for both heavy and light trafficked roads to
obtain long lasting bituminous pavements; (b) use
only elastomeric PMB only with at least 75% elastic
recovery requirement for heavy-trafficked roads;
(c) all designed mixes should be tested for
moisture susceptibility using AASHTO T 283
as per IRC:111-2009 failing which liquid anti-
stripping agent or hydrated lime must be used; and
(d) no existing bituminous pavement should be buried or
discarded, it should be reclaimed and recycled in all cases.
(e) In most of tender documents, the modified bitumen
without specifying the type and requirement is written, with
the result, the contractor uses the cheapest one. Our tender
documents should clearly specify the type of modified
bitumen with complete specifications and requirements so
that the Contractor uses the proper modified bitumen and
get paid for the same.
(Arun Kumar Sharma)
Secretary General