The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,

New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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Towards Green Pavements in India
Sireesh Saride
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India,
sireesh@iith.ac.in

Umashankar Balunaini
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India,
buma@iith.ac.in

Introduction

The socio-economic development of any community depends on how well the community is
connected with the other communities around it. Without a proper road network, the government
agencies such as schools, hospitals, and public service organizations cannot provide adequate
services to the local communities; markets will remain limited; and agricultural growth will
stagnate. In India, more than 80% of passenger traffic moves via roads. The Government of India
(GoI) invests around 1,20,000 crores (approximately $26 billion) annually to build road network
across the country. The GoI is envisioning building road networks of about 35,000 km long
within the next 5 years by investments worth $60 billion (Mallick and Veeraragavan, 2010).
Apart from the investment in developing new roads, state transportation agencies spend
thousands of crores of rupees annually to maintain and rehabilitate the existing pavements. For
example, in the United States, transportation agencies across the nation spend about $155 million
annually for maintenance and rehabilitation of roads alone (Saride et al., 2010). These figures
clearly demonstrate that the roads are an important component of the worlds transportation
infrastructure and economy, thus calling for sustainable designs and construction methodologies
to ensure optimized pavement construction.
To note, about 15,000 tons of natural aggregates are required to build every one kilometer stretch
of a highway in India. In the US, annually about 1,300 million tons of natural aggregates are
being used in the pavement construction (Mallick and Veeraragavan, 2010). The pavement
industry is not only consuming humongous amounts of natural resources worldwide but also is
responsible for 22% of the global energy consumption, 25% of fossil fuel burning across the
world and 30% of global air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHG) production. If these adverse
effects are not taken into account during design and construction phases of pavements, the future
mankind will be in danger. One of the alternatives available is to recycle the pavement materials
and use them in the pavement construction. In India, the concept of recycling the existing
The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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pavements has not gained much popularity. The demolished older pavement materials are usually
dumped in landfills posing serious environmental disposal problems.
Current state-of-the-art and Current state-of-the-practice Recycling of Waste Materials
Numerous waste materials are produced across the world every year, it is estimated that over
1000 million tons, which include but not limited to huge amounts of construction and demolition
waste, quarry by-products and municipal waste, are produced annually. If these materials are not
reused properly, these materials will be stockpiled near the source of production or in landfills
leading to environmental disposal problems. The use of recycled or secondary materials in
pavement construction is gaining popularity for their added advantages over conventional
materials including conservation of natural resources, conservation of energy, preservation of the
environment, reduction in life-cycle costs, and also reducing the use of oil-based hydrocarbon
binders.

In the United States alone, the total recycling process stream is estimated to be around 800
million tons per annum. More than 50 million tons of asphalt paving material is milled annually
(Taha et al. 1999). The recycled materials market, comprised of reclaimed asphalt pavements,
light weight aggregates, fly ash, and quarry by-products, is estimated to be between 352 and 859
million tons per year. The annual production of quarry by-products alone amounts to 175
million tons and these by-products are used in many geotechnical applications such as flowable
fills and embankment fills (Collins and Ciesielski, 1994). Utilisation of alternate materials in
place of conventional materials, recycling, and energy efficiencies are main applications of
sustainability in geotechnical engineering (Abreu et al., 2008).

In the United Kingdom, a recent study by waste and resources action program (WRAP) estimates
that construction, demolition, and excavation waste production alone accounts for 120 million
tons per annum. This program also estimates that at least 20% of the unused waste is landfilled
every year. At least 41 million tons of quarry by-products are produced annually (Manning,
2004). The construction and demolition waste alone deposited about 70 million tons every year
in landfills, out of which around 15% of the recycled/secondary materials are being used by the
highway agencies in road construction (Lambert et al., 2006).

Reid and Chandler (2001) summarized the production rates, availability of alternate materials
and their potential use in pavement construction applications in UK. Chesner et al. (2003) have
summarized a list of by-products that has a significant application in road construction. Table 1
shows the list of recycled materials that may be used in pavement construction. To increase
recycling efforts and to address sustainability in pavement construction sector, it is extremely
crucial to identify potential recycled/secondary materials and investigate their properties to find
promising applications in Civil Engineering construction.




The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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Table 1 Recycled Materials/Byproducts and their Application in Pavement Construction
(modified after Chesner, 2003)

Applications




Materials
A
s
p
h
a
l
t

C
o
n
c
r
e
t
e

P
o
r
t
l
a
n
d

C
e
m
e
n
t


C
o
n
c
r
e
t
e

S
t
a
b
i
l
i
z
e
d

B
a
s
e
s

G
r
a
n
u
l
a
r

B
a
s
e

E
m
b
a
n
k
m
e
n
t

F
i
l
l

Baghouse Fines
Blast Furnace Slag
Coal Bottom Ash/Slag
Coal Fly Ash
Flue Gas Scrubber Material
Foundry Sands
Kiln Dusts
Mineral Processing Wastes
Municipal Combustor Ash
Nonferrous Slags
Quarry By-products
Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement
Reclaimed Concrete Pavement
Roofing Shingle Scrap
Scrap Tires
Sewage Sludge Ash
Steel Slag
Waste Glass

To improve the sustainability, design procedures should be developed based upon the
performance instead of demanding for a standard material use. However, the recycled/secondary
materials reclaimed from standard materials may have several issues related to either
environmental issues or socio-economic concerns and hence, before adopting these
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New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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recycled/secondary materials in any construction industry must be addressed through a simple
sustainability indicators (J efferson et al., 2007; J efferis, 2008). The main indicator for the
sustainable geotechnical work is the awareness of the amount of waste generated in civil
engineering works. Another tool like life-cycle assessment is helpful in the material and
processes selection phase at design office, whereas, different indicators are needed for use in the
site (Saride et al 2010). Alkins et al. (2008) highlighted that the adoption of coal in place
recycling of existing pavements can reduce construction related greenhouse gases (GHG)
emission as high as 50% when compared to conventional pavement rehabilitation techniques
such as milling and asphalt overlay of distressed pavements.

Out of the several secondary materials listed in Table 1, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP)
aggregates and quarry products have been most significantly used in the pavement industry.
Extensive research has been carried out on only these two recycled materials. These materials are
directly adopted either in their raw form or when modified with calcium based stabilizers to
improve their mechanical properties.
Overall, limited information is available on various other potential recycled materials to utilize
them in the pavement industry. Surely there is a research need to characterize the whole range of
recycled materials available for their mechanical performance.
Emerging global geoenvironmental challenges and opportunities

As discussed in the previous sections, the production/generation rate of waste is alarming and its
optimal utilization is vital. Developed nations such as US and UK, have standardized the
procedures to utilize some of the recycled and secondary materials in pavement construction to
reduce the carbon foot print and to promote sustainability in the pavement construction. Though
the list of available recycled/secondary materials is long, in practice, not all the materials are
being utilized in pavement industry to their fullest extent. Currently, extensive research has been
carried out in US on full-depth reclamation of asphalt pavements, utilization of reclaimed asphalt
pavements and quarry by-products. However, there is a research need to explore the vast list of
recycled materials to make them suitable for utilization in pavement construction in huge
volumes. Coming to the Indian scenario, more than 90% of the pavements are asphalt concrete
pavements. During rehabilitation and maintenance operations, either the old pavement materials
are removed and dumped in a landfill or a new layer is paved on top of the existing pavement.
Both the methods are not sustainable as in the first case, there is an acute problem associated
with landfilling and in the latter case, the thickness of the pavements are unnecessarily being
increased with respect to the existing natural ground level. The latter case eventually produces
the same environmental disposal problems since at one point the lower layers may not
structurally strong enough to support the surface layers. Then the whole pavement must be
removed and disposed off to lay a new pavement.

Hence, there is a need to improve the pavement design and construction methodologies in India.
What is that we can do about it? I feel that we should bring awareness of recycling processes to
Indian pavement industry. To achieve this, I propose the following:
The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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1. Organize workshops to transfer the knowledge from research to the industry. Invite
participants from the industry especially from the local transportation agencies
2. Involve collaborative research between Indian and the US counterparts on various
recyclable/secondary materials
3. Perform extensive laboratory testing to evaluate various available recyclable materials as
a pavement construction material
4. Develop performance based design methodologies for the recycled/secondary materials
considered in this study
5. Demonstrate the beneficial uses of recyclable materials in highway construction through
field performance monitoring of sections built with recyclable materials
6. Develop a database of all the recyclable materials that can potentially be used in
pavements, along with their properties relevant for pavement design


Potential US-India collaborative projects and partnerships
Lessons can be learned from matured pavement design methodologies which were developed
and followed over years in the US. US-India workshops may be organised to transfer such
knowledge from academia to the practitioners. Collaborative research may be pursued to explore
more recycled materials such as flyash and bottom ash to utilize them in pavement construction.
Since the disposal of fly ash is an issue and common interest of India as well as US.
Expertise, research interests and organizations facilities

Current research interests of the group include pavement geotechnics, sustainable pavement
designs, life-cycle cost analysis, soil-structure interaction problems, recycled waste management.
Being a young Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Hyderabad is setting up state-of-the-art
geotechnical engineering laboratory which includes cyclic triaxial systems, dynamic actuator
with loading rig facility, conventional test equipment to characterize soils and aggregates,
resonant column, SASW, GPR, fatigue testing facility, XRD, SEM, etc. IITH has also access to
the geotechnical and general FEM and FED software packages such as FLAC 2D/3D, PLAXIS
2D/3D, GeoStudio Professional, ABAQUS, ANSYS. Apart from the laboratory equipment, IITH
is also planning to procure field instrumentation such as inclinometers, extensometers, and
moisture and pressure sensors, etc. for field monitoring studies.

References
Abreu, D. G., J efferson, I., Braithwaite, P. A. and Chapman, D.N. (2008) Why is Sustainability
is Important in Geotechnical Engineering. Geosustainability and Geohazard Mitigation, Geo
Congress 2008, ASCE, GSP 178, pp. 821-828.
Chesner, W.H., Simon, M.J . and Eighmy, T. T. (2001) Recent Federal Initiatives for Recycled
Materials use in Highway construction in the United States. Beneficial use of Recycled
Materials in Transportation Applications, November 13-15, 2001, pp. 3-10.
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New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

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Collins, R. J . and Ciesilski, S. K. (1994). Recycling and Use of Waste Materials and By-Products
in Highway Construction. Synthesis of Highway Practice 199, National Academy Press,
Washington, D.C., 177.
Lambert, P, Fleming, P. R, and Frost, M. W. (2006) Material testing for Sustainable Pavement
Foundation Design. In the Proceedings of Civil Engineers, Construction Materials, 2006,
CM 4, Vol. 159, pp. 139-146.
Mallick, R. B., Veeraragavan, A. (2010). Sustainable Pavements in India-The time to start is
now. New Building Materials and Construction World (NBM&CW) Magazine, Vol. 16, No.
3, pp. 128-140.
Manning, D. (2004). Exploration and Use of Quarry Fines. Mineral Solutions, Report No.
087/MIST2/DACM/01, MIST project reference: MA/2/4/003, Manchester, Published in
2004.
Reid, M. J ., and Chandler, J . W. E. (2001) Recycling in transportation infrastructure. TRL
Limited, Crowthorne, 2001.
Saride, S., Puppala, A. J ., and Williammee, R. (2010) Assessing Recycled/Secondary Materials
as Pavement Bases, Special issue on Sustainability in Ground Improvement Projects,
Proceedings of ICE, Ground Improvement, February 2010, Vol. GI 163, Issue GI1, pp. 3-12.
Taha, R. Ali, G. Basma, A. and Al-Turk, O. (1999). Evaluation of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement
Aggregate in Road Bases and Subbases. Transportation Research Record 1652, 1, 7th Int.
Conf. on Low-Volume Roads, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 264269.