Whitetopping and Short Paneled

Concrete Pavement- a smarter

solution towards sustainability

Rajib Chattaraj
Superintending Engineer,
Public Works Directorate.
Ultratech Seminar, Kolkata,
22th. November,2019,RC
Govt. Of West Bengal
 The need for Road Infrastructure

• “American roads are good not because

America is rich, but America is rich
because American roads are good.”
- John F. Kennedy
This one sentence is enough to understand the need of
the road infrastructures in a country.
The issues with the road infrastructure
• Amongst the various modes, road transport is more
popular because of its last mile connectivity.
• But, with increasing demand for passenger and freight
transport as well as the need to protect the
environment, the challenges pertaining to road way
construction have increased manifold.
• On one side, there is a need to create robust and
durable pavements that can cater to newer
configuration of multi-axle heavy commercial vehicles.
• On the other side, the environment must be protected
whose characteristics include low carbon footprint,
conservation of natural resources, and use of greener
and sustainable technologies.
 Types of pavement and their applicability
• Conventionally, there are two
major types of pavement
systems: flexible, in which the
top surface is bituminous
(asphaltic) and rigid where the
top surface is made of cement
concrete.
• It is interesting that never-
ending debate exists that
discusses which of the two is
better encompassing initial
construction cost, maintenance,
riding comfort, safety, lifecycle
cost, durability, aesthetics, noise
pollution, and environmental
burden.
 Problems faced with the flexible Pavements
• The main problem with
flexible pavement is – it is
maintenance prone,
specially in rainy season.
• Though the property of
bitumen is being
enhanced with different
types of modifiers, the
issue of water damage of
the bituminous pavement
remains one of the main
concerns .
• The environmental issue
is also there with hot mix
asphalt.
Problems faced with conventional rigid pavement, JPCP
• Cost of initial construction of
CC pavement is high.
• A lot of high end equipments
as well as skilful execution is
required for CC pavement.
• Conventional CC pavement
consumes a substantial
amount of aggregate, sand,
water and the very energy
intensive construction
material--- Cement.
• The frequent transverse joint
have the reinforcement steel
in form of dowel bars.
 The new trend- Composite pavement
• Both conventional flexible and rigid pavement have
issues.
• Besides, environmental issues are the major concern.
• Conservation of the natural resources has also to be
taken into account because mother earth has not only
limited reserve of crude petroleum oil and lime stone but
also limited reserve of aggregates, the major constituents
of pavement.
• On the other hand, traffic load and volume are increasing
day by day.
• To cater all the problems, the present trend is towards
construction of composite pavement which gives
advantages of both types of conventional pavements.
Composite pavement with cement concrete topping
• This is also of two types:
• Whitetopping: the concrete
overlay done essentially on
bituminous bases.
• Short Paneled Concrete
Pavement (SPCP) : Concrete
overlay done on any type
on bases : DLC, CTB, WMM,
Porous Base, depending on
the traffic.
• NB: Speciality of both the
variety is thickness of PQC
is almost half of CC
pavement, saw cut panel is
done around 1mt*1mt size,
dowel bars required only in
construction joint at the
end of day’s work.
Application wise - two categories
Short Slab

DLC Base HMA Base

New Construction Rehabilitation
SPCP- Alternative Whitetopping
To JPCP, the Enhancing pavement
Conventional rigid life by 20-25 years
Pavement
 What is short paneled concrete pavement?
• A course of pavement quality concrete (PQC) of low to
medium thickness (100 – 200 mm) laid over non-
erodible treated bases (like WMM) for low to medium
traffic or bound base course (like Cement treated base,
DLC or lean concrete) for medium to high traffic with
small sizes of panels (from 0.75 m x 0.75 mt to 1.2 mt.
x 1.2 mt) made by 1/3 or 1/4 depth of saw cutting (3
mm- 5mm wide) without any type of reinforcements or
dowel bars (except for construction/expansion joint) is
called short paneled concrete pavement or simply
short slab concrete pavement.
• While some white topping projects have been done in
Cities like, Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi,
SPCP with more flexibility of options of bases has not
been explored that much in India.
 The interesting story of the beginning of SPCP
• For this problematic
stretch of road, there
was a lot of hue and cry
and remained in the
news for poor condition
in every rainy season
over the years. It was
during post monsoon
period of 2011.

• Thus, it was a challenge

to repair this stretch of
road with a long term
solution, at the same
time in a cost effective
manner .
 Details of the existing road
• A 650 mt long stretch of
road was there near
Mankar as a part of
Bolgona – Guskara –
Mankar Road in Burdwan
District.
• The stretch was narrow,
very congested with
continuous road side
structures blocking the
drainage.
• The obvious
consequence was a
dilapidated, heavily
damaged road top.
 Possible options with pros and cons:
• Repairing the ditches with WBM at WMM, then putting a layer
of bituminous Macadam or DBM of 100 mm to 125 mm and over
that laying 25 mm Mastic Asphalt as an impervious wearing
course.

• Because of poor drainage on both the sides of the road, even

mastic asphalt at the top probably could not resist the ingress of
water to the lower bituminous layer from the sides. So, the
durability of this solution was doubtful.

• The other alternative would have been total removal of the

existing stone-set pavements and developing the road from sub-
grade to the top, as a conventional rigid pavement.

• Initial cost of conventional rigid pavement would have been very

high. Time of construction was also an issue. Even bituminous
layer of 75 mm DBM and 30 mm BC over re-built sub-grade and
sub-base was also no less costly.
 Durable and cost-effective solution
• So some innovative solution which is durable on
such a problematic road but at the same time
cost-effective, was needed.
• The problem was discussed with Late Prof. B.B.
Pandey, Former Professor of IIT, Kharagpur and
the idea of an innovative solution just matching
the requirement of this critical problem came up.
• The challenge of execution of “short paneled
concrete pavement” as the first instance in West
Bengal probably in India was taken up on this
problematic stretch of the road.
 Construction details
• The big depressions of the
stone-set pavement was
first repaired and leveled
with WBM.
• Because of the doubt of
the stability of the stone
set pavements and also for
leveling the undulations
and camber correction, a
100 mm thick M-10 grade
lean concrete was laid.
• The other alternatives of
the base layer were
putting Dry Lean Concrete
(DLC) or Cement Treated
Base (CTB) or even WMM
treated with emulsion.
 Construction details
• As M-10 grade of
concrete was done by
Ready Mix Concrete
where assurance of
quality control was
expected to be much
higher, lean concrete
option was adopted.
• Due quality assurance
measures were taken
both in RMC Plant site
and the construction
site.
 Construction details
• All possible measures
were taken to lay the PQC
(M-40) grade of concrete
over M-10 grade lean
concrete on the very next
day of casting of M-10.
• The thickness of PQC
grade concrete was 150
mm and average 28 days
cube-strength of PQC
came around 48 MPa.
• Texturing was managed
with the markings left by
the ramming plank.
 The most important and delicate part of the
construction
• After continuous casting of
PQC, the paneling by saw
cutting has to be done in
proper time.
• Within 8 to 9 hrs. of
construction of the PQC, 1
mt x 1 mt paneling was
done by saw cutting 3 mm
wide groove upto 1/3rd
depth of PQC i.e. upto 50
mm.
• The timing of saw cutting
on PQC is very important. It
should neither be early nor
late so that the cut grooves
are not blared, but have a
sharp and defined cut.
 Making grooves by saw cutting
• For cutting grooves on
such a small scale
work, diamond cutters
fitted in hand hold
small machines with
which marble slabs are
cut, were used. But the
cutters should be
concrete grade
(tougher), simple
marble stonecutters
will not do.
• For large scale work,
suitable machines are
to be adopted
Saw cutting and the expected outcome
Construction joint and Longitudinal joint
• Construction joint is provided at the end of
day’s work, which is done with dowel bars as
it is done in case of JPCP in every transverse
joint as per IRC 15.
• Longitudinal joints may be needed if the width
of the road is high and the paver width is less
than the road width. In that case, longitudinal
joints are provided with tie bars as per details
given in IRC 15.
 Curing
• Soon after grooving
was done on PQC in
appropriate panel
size, Curing was
started and
maintained for 28
days.
• As such, there was
no reinforcement
or dowel bar
anywhere in this
short paneled
concrete pavement.
 Design Philosophy
• If a pavement is made of small
concrete blocks, there is only
compressive stress at the bottom.
Small concrete blocks
• If the size of the slab is increased,
flexural stresses are caused in the
slab due to bending moment from
the overhanging lever-arm of the
slab beyond the wheel contact area,
multiplied by the reaction from Bigger size concrete slabs
foundation.
• Here the reactive pressure is not
constant unlike stationary Civil
Engineering structures like,
foundation of a wall or column.
Thus, for that kind of problem,
analysis can only be possible by 3D
Finite element method. ANSY’s
software was used for the analysis.
 Design Philosophy
• A 4 mt. x 4 mt. concrete
pavement can be made to
16 panels of 1 mt x 1 mt.
size by saw cutting upto
1/3rd depth.
• Stress was analyzed by
placing a dual wheel
carrying a load of 50 KN
(half of 10.2 MT) at a tyre
pressure of 0.8 MPa.
• The other dual wheel
assembly of the same axle
would be about 2.00 mt. 4.0mx 4.0 m concrete slab was formed
away from the centre of the into 1.0 mx1.0 m short panels by saw
dual wheel (shown in the cutting to one third depth of the slab
fig) causing little
interference in stress to the
loaded panel.
 It is very
important
to plan the
saw cutting
of
SPCP/White
topping in
such a way
that the line
of saw
cutting are
not coming
directly
under
wheel path.
Placement of vehicle wheels in a SPCP
Courtesy: Mr. K. Sridhar Reddy, Doctoral Scholar, IIT, Kharagpur
 Design Philosophy
• Load transfer at the
joints and bond with
foundation add to the
safety of the pavements
because of reduction of
flexural stresses as
found in the analysis.
• But long term bonding
with the founding layer
or load transfer across
the saw cut joints are
doubtful. Thus, analysis
was done without
considering load
transfer and bonding
with founding layer.
 Design Calculation data
• The sub-grade has a soaked CBR value of 5%
and the corresponding K-value (modulus of
Sub-grade reaction) is 42 MPa/m as per
Table-2 of IRC:58/2011.

• As per table – 3 & table – 4 of IRC:58 (2011),

the effective K value over 100 mm lean
concrete base is about 230 MPa/m.
However, to be on safer side a value of 200
MPa/m is used in the analysis.
 Design Calculation data
• Considering two wheels coming on a single panel
and no load transfer across the joints and no
bonding of PQC layer with the base lean concrete
layer, the computed flexural stress for the dual
wheel load of 50 KN corresponding to the legal
axle load limit of 100 KN/10.2T) having a tyre
pressure of 0.8 MPa is found as 1.70 MPa.

• The allowable flexural stress (Modulus of rupture)

for M-40 grade concrete is:
Fcr = 0.7√fck = 4.4 MPa, which is much greater than
1.7 MPa.
 Design Calculation data
• Even due to overloading, if the
axle load is 200 KN, the
computed stress is 3.4 MPa
<4.4MPa, so the pavement is
safe.
• If instead of short paneled
pavement, conventional 3.75 Even with 20 MT. overloaded axle, the
mt width of concrete pavement computed flexural stress on short paneled
was considered with transverse pavement is 3.4 Mpa<4.4MPa, so safe
joint spacing @ 4.5 mt, the
flexural stress due to load and
temperature differential is
found to be 4.66 MPa which is
more than 4.4 MPa. Thus, not
safe.
• For short-paneled pavement,
temperature stress is ignored For the conventional size of concrete
because they are negligible. pavement @3.75mt.*4.50mt, computed
flexural stress is 4.66MPa>4.4MPa, so unsafe
 Analytical Model

Winkler Foundation

The consideration of the

foundation, when SPCP
was executed in 2012
The present consideration for the
base

Courtesy : K Sridhar Reddy , Doctoral scholar, IIT Kharagpur

 Cost Comparison
• As per costing during construction, i.e. March, 2012, 150 mm
M-40 grade PQC along with 100 mm lean concrete with allied
items came about Rs. 1500/- per sq. meter.
• Costing could have been curtailed, had a bit safer option was
not adopted.
• The second alternative of 50 mm bituminous macadam and
25 mm Mastic Asphalt was estimated to be Rs. 1000/- per sq.
meter. But, there is serious doubt of the durability of this
alternative by more than one or two rainy season.
• The third alternative i.e. the conventional rigid pavement of
250 mm PQC and allied items, dowel bars, tie bars etc. was
estimated to be Rs. 3300/- per sq. meter. In this case, the
construction time also would be more.
 Advantages and utility of short-paneled
concrete pavement
• Initial price of short
paneled pavement is a bit
higher than conventional
bituminous pavement.
But if life cycle cost is
seen, short-paneled
concrete pavement is
much economical and
with lesser consumption
of material.
• Durability of this
pavement is expected to
be not less than 20 years. What it is
 Advantages and utility of SPCP
• SPCP has been found to be very useful and
cost effective maintenance free solution
which may be applied as new construction
in village road, municipal roads, bus bays,
parking bays, terminals, toll plaza and urban
roads and even in high volume roads.

• SPCP has the potential to replace JPCP in

future.
 Some reservations
• The stretch of the road needs a block
period of construction time and curing
time.
• If the road is a wide road, SPCP can be
constructed on half width with a longitudinal
joint and tie bars .
• Aligning of underground utilities needs to be
planned through a channel specially in case of
urban roads.
 Pavement Performance

The stretch of SPCP carried the usual

traffic of a State Highway with CVPD
not less than 750 consisting of a good
number of truck traffic and has given
an excellent service since April,2012
except one or two locations where a
bit of crack was observed.
 Some salient points of SPCP
• Short slabs must be designed with a proper subsurface drainage
system to prevent erosion/mud pumping when laid on
WBM/WMM for low-medium volume roads.
• DLC have to be used as base for high volume roads, CTB may be
used for medium traffic volume, treated WMM can be used for
low volume roads.
• Joint cutting must be within the proper time frame. Late or too
early or shallow saw cuts would lead to joint spalling.
• No line of saw cut should be there directly under wheelpath.
• No Dowel bars are required except at construction/expansion
joints. i.e. cost saving.
• Saw cutting should preferably be 3-4 mm wide.
• No joint sealing is required except for the construction joint
where dowel bars are there. i.e. cost saving.
• Longitudinal joints, if needed may be provided with tie bars.
 Further works of SPCP

NH 33, Jharkhand
August 2017

Courtesy: Mr. K. Sridhar Reddy,

Doctoral Scholar, IIT, Kharagpur
who is currently doing the
research on SPCP
NH 02, Panagarh By Pass
July-August 2016
 The Pilot project of Whitetopping in
West Bengal
On one KM of Kharagpur By-
Pass, 10 meter width
bituminous road, the pilot
project has been undertaken
by Public Works Department,
Govt of West bengal with
technical advice from IIT
Kharagpur in association with
Ultrtech Cement.
The contractor is S K
Construction, Howrah.
Some photographs of the project
 Special feature of this pilot project

Strain and temperature gauges are being fitted for monitoring the parameters over a long
period by Prof. Swati Moitra, IIT Kharagpur, Instrumentation done by Amile.
Incorporation of Whitetopping & SPCP in the
SOR of NH, West Bengal- will soon be done
Incorporation in The SOR
Incorporation in The SOR
Incorporation in The SOR
Rate of Concrete sawing - Seperate
 References
• Whitetopping - Indian specifications and international
experiences , a presentation by Prof. A. Veeraraghavan, IIT
Madras
• Analytical design of Short Paneled concrete pavements by
M.V. Arun Chand & Prof. B. B. Pandey, IIT, Kharagpur, Paper no.
605, vol.74-3, October-December,2013, IRC.
• Short panelled Concrete pavement in Built-Up Area by Rajib
Chattaraj & Prof. B.B. Pandey, Indian Highways(IRC), Annual
number, January,2014
• IRC-58 (2011)
• IRC SP 62 (2004)
• IRC SP 76(2008)
 Acknowledge :

1. Late Prof. B B Pandey, Former Professor of Civil Engg. IIT,

Kharagpur

2. Mr. K. Sridhar Reddy, Doctoral Scholar, IIT, Kharagpur

Thank You All