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Keep Right please… Potholes ahead

Potholes claimed 3597 lives in 2017, almost 10 every day, a rise of more than 50% of the casualties recorded in 2016. Maharashtra recorded 726, deaths doubling year on year. Road safety itself has become a casualty in an almost matter of fact way. With a far lesser number, about 800, killed due to terrorism, and naxalism, indeed potholes are a greater concern. No death can be justified for any reason whatsoever, but there seems to be an almost resigned slant, in both the State and the people on the inevitability of such deaths, come rains. The disdain that is being shown by people who matter is most bizarre. When families suddenly find their bread earners gone, to such reasons as potholes waylaying the vehicles that they are travelling in, a whole generation feels cheated by the State. At a time when the government is actively pursuing a path of National health insurance scheme for half of its population, can we condone healthy being cheated out of their lives for no fault of theirs, when they have also been the most faithful in paying taxes, for precisely supporting the same health schemes of the government?

What can the State do to retrieve the lost ground on account of poor infrastructure? A little background of pothole narrative will not be out of place. A pothole is a structural failure in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, pothole formation requires two factors to be present at the same time. Water and traffic. Water weakens the soil beneath the pavement while traffic applies the loads that stress the pavement past the breaking point. Potholes form progressively from fatigue of the road surface which can lead to a precursor failure pattern known as crocodile or alligator cracking. Eventually, chunks of pavement between the fatigue cracks gradually work loose, and may then be plucked or forced out of the surface by continued wheel loads to create a pothole. Potholes may also result from insufficient surface thickness to support traffic during freeze/thaw periods without localized failures, insufficient drainage, failures at utility trenches and castings like the manhole and drain casings and road surface defects and cracks left unmaintained and unsealed so as to admit moisture and compromise the structural integrity of the road surface.

Nuisances of epic proportion, potholes are a global problem. About $3 billion is wasted annually in the U.S. repairing pothole damage to vehicles. Great Britain estimates the cost to repair all potholes in the country would exceed $20 billion. But what really bothers is the criminal negligence in our country, where not even the entire budget assigned is fully utilised for repairs. Hindustan Times reports that the civic body in Mumbai, had a budgetary provision of Rs. 14500 Cr for repair and reconstruction of roads, from 2011 to 2016 of which it spent Rs. 11,000 Cr. Further a sum of Rs. 5183 Cr were allocated in 2017. So what has happened to the money spent? Probably spent for poor workmanship, poor quality of material and extremely poor oversee. Additionally blown tires and broken axles add to the pain and the loss of resources and time. The grave danger that potholes present to bicyclists and other two wheelers can be costly to municipalities that fail to fix hazardous potholes and can face messy lawsuits as well. One cannot forget the manner in which five lives were lost in June to potholes.

Lives lost to human negligence apart from all the money washed away in the rains is certainly not good governance. It also is breach of trust that is wafer thin in the current times, between citizens and its governors.

Despite the painful annoyance, gigantic costs, and even loss of life, pothole repair technology has been about as frustrating as the potholes themselves. Road crews toil away, pouring asphalt into broken concrete, which is an expensive and a temporary solution at best. We need to explore all avenues to fix the menace. Fitting potholes with paver blocks, which the civic bodies had done away with two years ago, is not a done thing, anywhere in the World. But we seem to make an extensive use. Paver blocks tend to get dislocated from their slots making roads and footpaths uneven, becoming dangerous to both pedestrians and vehicles. Asphalt patches are made of a mix of limestone, quartz, a petroleum solvent and a petroleum asphalt base. Together, these ingredients create a fast-drying, long-lasting product that holds up against heavy traffic. These are used on Concrete, asphalt, blacktop, stone, brick roads, parking areas, playgrounds and even driveways.

An architecture and technology firm in Istanbul, Turkey, named Dahir Insaat has a far more innovative approach. Their invention is a fully contained pothole-crushing powerhouse. The large truck uses artificial intelligence, Internet-enabled sensors, machine learning and advanced robotics to stamp out potholes like garden flies. Lost lives are worth trying out all avenues. Instead of filling in the hole, this monster equipment precision-cuts out the pothole and an area around it, as if it were extracting a cancerous tumour. The machine vacuums up excess materials, leaving a clean hole of exact size. Next, its robotic arm grabs a pre-made concrete “plug” from on-board, and inserts the plug with the accuracy of a surgeon. The plug materials expand once in place, to create a form-fitting bond, as if the pothole never existed. The machine can repair potholes in less than two minutes at a cost savings of 500% versus traditional repairs. The precision plugs will outlast typical poured asphalt solutions by years, and also provide a smooth ride for motorists compared to the uneven patchwork of today. With the new speed, precision, and quality, potholes could be diminished to the point of urban legend instead of major headache.

There are commercial patchers available which can do everything including cleaning the surface to be patched, spraying tack coat on to the surface, combining aggregate and hot asphalt to fill and repair and finishing the job with a final dust coat of aggregate. A very innovative method is patented by Larry Zanco, a renowned scientist, who uses a method that uses microwaves to heat potholes and surrounding pavement before filling them with a mix of magnetite and recycled asphalt and follows it up with nuking the patch to create a seal. The method that first pre-heats the ground and then microwaves the magnetite-infused patch makes for a stronger repair.

Another solution that can fix the plastic waste and also fix potholes is worth implementing. McCartney and MacRebur’s solution involves turning waste plastic into small pellets which are then added into an asphalt mix in place of Bitumen, the substance that is in part derived from oil and is used to help bind asphalt together. Between 3 kg to 10 kg plastics are used in every ton of asphalt, depending on the road design. As fossil fuels are constantly being consumed, alternatives to bitumen must be considered to improve sustainability. This plastic road mix is up to 60% stronger and lasts 10 times longer than standard asphalt, increasing a road’s lifespan and preventing potholes as well as repairing already damaged roads. Innovation and proactive methods are called for, if precious lives are to be saved.

Let’s stop wasting time patching our own potholes in the same, old-school manner. Instead, we must invest the time to reimagine our approach. Redoing the way we work will ultimately make the work better, faster, and more effective. Above all it is very necessary that the first road made, must use the set principles of road building like adequate surface treatment before a top is created. Passion, commitment and love for life of others and motherland are cardinal for such steps to succeed.

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