An Open Letter To Honourable Shri Kamal Nath 31 May 2009

An Open Letter to Honourable Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India 31 May 2009 Honourable Shri Kamal Nath Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Transport Bhawan, 1, Parliament Street New Delhi-110 001 Subject: A 100-day Roadmap for Building Durable Roads and Promptly Filling Potholes in India Honourable Minister: I understand you are preparing a 100-day roadmap for delivering good, transparent, accountable and effective governance for the road sector in India. I sincerely hope you can spare a few minutes of your valuable time to read this letter personally because it is of immense importance to road building in our nation. I am sure you will agree with me that the public is fed up and it wants durable, pothole-free roads and if potholes do develop it wants their prompt and effective filling. Also, the public would like to end unnecessary wastage of taxpayers’ money on items which are not needed or are ineffective. As an experienced highway engineer, I strongly believe the following three items should be included at the top of your 100-day agenda: • • •

Moratorium on the use of some water-trapping bituminous mixes in India, which are contributing to premature potholing of our roads Adoption of an idiot-proof cold patching mix, which can be used promptly and effectively to fill potholes even during the monsoons Moratorium on the use of CRMB (crumb rubber modified bitumen), which is largely a sheer waste of taxpayers’ money.

Before I elaborate on the preceding items, let me introduce myself. I am an NRI who has returned to the motherland after serving as Bitumen (Asphalt) Road Engineer in the United States for 35 years. In the interest of establishing my credibility I am sorry I have to sacrifice my modesty in stating that my peers in all continents of the world consider me as an authority in the bitumen road technology. I have had the privilege of leading national and international bitumen road related organizations while in the US. I still have the privilege of being called as an expert to investigate complex premature road failures throughout the world including the US. If a specific technically flawed mix or specification is involved in the failure, the concerned road authorities promptly revise their specification based on my recommendations. (My brief resume at the end) •

Moratorium on the use of some water-trapping bituminous mixes in 1

India, which are contributing to premature potholing of our roads. In most countries of the world (including those with heavy rainfall and extreme hot and cold temperatures), the average life of road surface is 8-10 years. However, in India we have a dismal record, our bituminous road surfaces generally last from 3 to 5 years, sometimes failing within a year. I know the road technology being used in India really well and I also know the factors, which are leading to premature road failures of our roads. Although we do lack quality control, some factors are based on ignorance. For example, we have some outdated, technically flawed, open asphalt mixes such as BM and SDBC specified by the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH), which are prone to trapping water and causing havoc to our roads. [Water is the worst enemy of bitumen.] We must immediately put a moratorium on the use of such mixes when better, long lasting dense mixes are available in the IRC and MORTH specifications. Although the MORTH specifications are being revised now, I seriously doubt that these mixes will be deleted because some engineers in MORTH, NHAI, and CRRI (Central Road Research Institute) have an old mindset and are sentimentally attached to these technically-flawed mixes. Unfortunately, engineering principles and not sentiments dictate the performance of our roads. We also need to include a new 9.5 mm nominal size dense mix. •

Adoption of an idiot-proof cold patching mix, which can be used promptly and effectively to fill potholes even during the monsoons. Concerning the pothole repairs, we are filling the potholes with dirt or bare stone, which is simply unacceptable. During my tenure of 17 years as the Chief Asphalt Road Engineer of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in the US, I had developed a generic pothole repair mix, which was highly successful nationally. This cold asphalt mix can be prepared and stockpiled before the monsoon. When potholes develop during rainy season, this cold mix can be easily shovelled from the stockpile, transported in truck, and placed in the pothole. Even a little water in the pothole will not generally affect its survival. I tried this mix successfully on Jaipur roads and Jaipur-Agra Road last year with the help of students from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur. I have prepared a detailed specification for this mix so we can call tenders tomorrow. I can assist on a voluntary basis the government engineers and contractors in producing such a mix. Monsoon will be here pretty soon. What is needed is strong will and initiative to try this mix.

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Moratorium on the use of CRMB (crumb rubber modified bitumen), which is largely a sheer waste of taxpayers’ money. The crumb rubber in CRMB is obtained from discarded tyres. The crumb rubber is mixed with hot bitumen under controlled conditions and is supposed to impart some elasticity to the bitumen mix. In the late 1980s, CRMB was tried by all 50 states in the US and hundreds of experimental projects were constructed. However, most states had mixed performance results and did not find CRMB cost effective. CRMB is about 15-20 percent costlier than the plain bitumen. Most states in the US do not want to use CRMB routinely because of the following stringent quality requirements: 1. Crumb rubber must be added and mixed at the contractor’s hot mix asphalt plant. If transported from refinery or terminal, the CRMB should generally 2

reach the asphalt plant within 6 hours after mixing otherwise the rubber can degrade and lose its elasticity. This is simply not possible in India and, therefore, not being followed. Tankers travel with CRMB for as much as 1824 hours or more. 2. Since the rubber can separate and settle down, the CRMB must be mechanically agitated continuously after production until its use in the hot mix by the contractor. That is, all transport vehicles and the contractors’ tanks should be equipped with mechanical agitators, which is not the case in India. Because of the settlement and degradation problem, it is essential to test the CRMB when it is delivered. However, such testing is hardly done in India. Therefore, the CRMB as supplied is potentially of a dubious quality. Its use is being promoted by some engineers in CRRI, MORTH, NHAI, and PWDs due to ignorance and/or vested interest. They will tell you that the CRMB in India is “chemically treated” to ward off these two problems. However, nobody seems to know which “chemicals” are being used and/or whether they are effective. Unless the CRMB is tested at the point of delivery, we cannot take its quality for granted. I know the CRMB technology very well. I urge you, Mr. Minister, to put a moratorium on the use of CRMB otherwise we will continue to waste hundreds of crores of rupees every year without any significant improvement in the road quality or its service life. In my humble opinion, the continued use of CRMB will be a sheer wastage of public money. Sir, if you are going to send this letter to the bureaucrats and technocrats in the MORTH and CRRI for report on the preceding three items recommended for your 100-day agenda, you will get a rosy report: “Everything is fine, we will look into it, we are revising the specifications, etc.” In that case, this letter is just an exercise in futility because I know from past experience nothing will be done. Many engineers have old mindset and/or vested interest in status quo. This is despite the fact that I have published comprehensive technical papers on the preceding three topics in the Journals of the Indian Roads Congress after I returned from the US. I am a retired NRI, who has come home to make a difference with my expertise on a voluntary basis. I do not represent any company or organization nor do I aspire for any type of position in government or any other organization or committee. We NRIs receive appeals to help our country with our expertise. I will be disappointed if there are no takers of my international as well as Indian technical expertise offered on a voluntary basis. I will be highly privileged to see you in Delhi and explain the details in case you so desire. I am looking forward to a personal response from you. This open letter is being sent to over 600 engineers, consultants, contractors, academia, and media in India for their information. Yours faithfully, Prof. Prithvi Singh Kandhal Karanpura House, 50 Raj Bhawan Rd. Civil Lines, Jaipur 302 006 Phone: 0141-2223074 Mobile 94140 54804 ABOUT THE WRITER

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Prof. Prithvi Singh Kandhal is associate director emeritus of the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) based at Auburn University, Alabama, U.S.A. NCAT is the largest asphalt (bitumen) road technology center in the world. Prior to joining NCAT in 1988, Kandhal served as chief asphalt engineer of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for 17 years. He is the first person born outside North America, who has held the following three very prestigious positions in the asphalt technology area:  President, Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (with members from all continents in the world)  Chairman, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Committee on Road Paving Standards (responsible for over 200 standards used worldwide)  Chairman, Transportation Research Board Committee on Asphalt Roads, U.S. National Academy of Sciences Prof. Kandhal has published over 120 technical papers and has co-authored the first ever textbook on asphalt road technology, which is used by more than 25 universities in the U.S. He has travelled to various countries in South America, Middle East, China, Vietnam, Japan, and Australia to provide training and consulting services in asphalt (bitumen) technology. He has been to China three times to train their highway engineers in building world-class roads.

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