Modern Road Developments in India

Jayakar Committee : British government Passed a resolution in 1927, in response to which Jayakar Committee was constituted in 1927. Jayakar committee proposed that an extra tax should be levied on petrol to develop a fund called "Central Road Fund".

Recommendations made by Jayakar Committee

1. The road development in the country should be considered as a national interest as this has become beyond the capacity of provincial government and local bodies.

2. An extra tax should be levied on petrol from the road user to develop a road development fund called Central Road Fund.

3. An semi official technical body should be formed to pool technical know how from various parts of the country and to act as an advisory body on various aspects of roads.

4. A research organization should be instituted to carry out research and development work and to be available fro consultations.

Steps taken by Government :

1. The Central Road Fund was formed on 1st March 1929.

2. A semi official technical body known as Indian Road Congress (IRC) was formed in 1934.

3. In 1939 Motor Vehicle Act was started and in 1950 Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) was started. Motor Vehicle Act has been revised in the year 1988. 

4. National Highway Act was brought in 1956.

5. Highway Research Board was setup in 1973, with view to give proper direction and guidance to road research activities in India.

6. National Transport Policy committee in 1978.

Central Road Research Institute :  In the year 1950, the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) was started at New Delhi for research in various aspect of highway engineering. The CRRI is one of the national laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research the institute is mainly engaged in applied research and offers technical advice to state governments and the industries on various problems concerning roads.

National Highway Act : In the 1956 the National Highway Act was passed. 

Features :

• The responsibility of development and maintenance of the National Highway to be provisionally taken by the Central Government.

• The central Government to be empowered to declare any other highway as National Highway or to omit any of the existing national highway from the lists.

Indian Road Congress (IRC) has played important role in the formation of the last three 20 years road development plans in India.

1. Nagpur Road Plan : In this first 20 years road development plan, also know as Nagpur Road Plan, all roads were classified into five categories and a twenty year development programme  for the period 1943 - 63 was finalized. A conference of the Chief Engineer of all the states and provinces was convened in 1943 by the Government of India at Nagpur, an initiative of the Indian Roads Congress to finalise the first road development plan for the country as a whole.

Features : 

(a)  The  Nagpur road plan formulae were prepared on the basis of "Star and Grid" pattern. 

(b) The total road length of 5,32,700 km with a density of 16 km of road length per 100 square km area would be available by 1963.

(c)  The roads are classified into 5 categories. 

• National Highway 

• State Highway

• Major District Roads

• Other District Roads

• Village Roads

(d) The length of the railway tracks in the area was considered within the road length. Hence net road length is calculated by subtracting length of railway track from the length of metalled road. 

• The total length of the first category or metalled roads for National and State Highway and Major District Roads in km is given by the formula.

A = Agricultural Area in square km
B = Non Agricultural Area in square km
N = Number of towns and villages with population range 2001 - 5000
T = Number of towns and villages with population over 5000
D = Development allowance of 15 percent of road length calculated to be provided for agricultural and industrial development during the next 20 years.
R = Existing length of railway track in km

The total length of second category roads for Other District Roads and Village Roads in km is given by the formula.

V = Number of villages with population 500 or less.

Q = Number of villages with population range 501 - 1000

P = Number of villages with population range 1001 - 2000

S = Number of villages with population range 2001 - 5000

D = Development allowance of 15 % for next 20 years.

2. Bombay Road Plan : As the earlier target was achieved before the planned year, so a need to set a new target arises  and another 20 years road plan was laid down at the meeting of the various authorities from different states at Bombay. The road density target was doubled this time.  

Features : 

(a) At the end of plan, the target road length aimed was 32 km per 100 square km area.

(b) Maximum distance of any place in a developed or agricultural area would be 6.4 km from a metalled road and 2.4 km from any category of roads.

(c) Every town with a population above 2000 in plains and above 1000 in semi hill areas and above 500 in hilly areas should be connected by metalled road. 

(d) 1600 km Express way have been considered in this plan within proposed target of National Highway.

(e) Length of railway track is considered independent of the road system and hence it is not subtracted to get the road length.

(f) A development factor of 5 % is provided for future developments.

It should be noted that allowance for development of agriculture and industry during the next 20 years was made in nagpur plan allowing 15 % increase in the calculated road length. This allowance according to the second plan is 5 % only.

Different formulae for to calculate the length of National Highway, State Highway, Major District Roads, Other District Roads and Village Roads.

National Highway

National Highway + State Highway

National Highway + State Highway + Major District Roads

National Highway + State Highway + Major District Roads + Other District Roads

National Highway + State Highway + Major District Roads + Other District Roads + Village Roads

A = Developed and Agricultural Area in square km

B = Semi Developed Area in square km

C = Undeveloped Area in square km

K = Number of towns with population over 1,00,000.

M = Number of towns with population range 1,00,000 - 50,000

N = Number of towns with population range 50,000 - 20,000

P = Number of towns with population range 20,000 - 10,000

Q = Number of towns with population range 10,000 - 5,000

R = Number of towns with population range 5,000 - 2,000

S = Number of towns with population range 2,000 - 1,000

T = Number of towns with population range 1,000 - 500

V = Number of towns with population below 500

D = Development allowance of 5 percent of road length calculated for further development and other unforeseen factors.

3. Lucknow Road Plan : In this plan, roads are classified into primary, secondary and tertiary road systems. all villages with over 500 population should be connected by all weather roads. The overall road density was targeted as 82 km per 100 square km area.

The National Highway network should be expanded to form square grids of 100 km sides so that no part of the country is more than 50 km away from a National Highway. Express way should be constructed along major traffic corridors to provide fast travels. There should be improvement in environmental quality and road safety.

To calculate the total length of National Highway the formula is given below. Lucknow Road plan includes express ways of total length 2000km, National Highway based on the concept of 100 km square grids i.e. 100 + 100 = 200 km of National Highway length are provided per 100 X 100 = 1000 square km area. This means 1 km per 50 square km area.

Total length of National Highway

= Area of country / 50
= 32,87,782 / 50 
= 66000km

To calculate the total length of State Highway and Major District Roads use the given formula given below

Length of State Highway = Area of State / 25  OR  62.5 x No. of towns in state - length of National Highway

Length of Major District Roads =  Area of state / 12.5   OR   90 x No. of towns in state

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Roads Development in the World

1. Roman Roads : Romans started Road construction in 312 BC and constructed Appian way of length over 580 km.  

Main Features:

(a) They were straight regardless of Gradients.
(b) Total thickness was as high as 0.75 to 1.2 meters.
(c) The wearing course consists of dressed large stone blocks set in lime mortar.
(d) Roads are built after soft soil was removed and a hard stratum was reached.

Method of Road Construction
 
First the two parallel trenches were built on either side of the planned road, with the resulting earthworks, stone, etc., being dumped and built up in the space between the two ditches. The Agger, as this was called, could be up to 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 50 ft. (15 m) wide. Alternatively it could be very slight or almost non-existent as was the case with most minor roads.

Next, the diggers would make a shallow 8 to 10 foot wide depression down the length of the agger, and line the edges with kerb stones to hold the entire construction in place. The bottom of this depression would then be lined with a series of stone fillers. 6 to 8 inch stones would form the foundation layer, with fist sized stones placed on top. In early roads the remaining gap would then be filled in with course sand to fill between the stones and to cover them by approximately 1 ft.

2. Tresaguet Construction : "Pierre tresaguet" developed roads in France during 1764 A.D.

Main Features :

(a) Thickness was of order of 30cm.
(b) Consideration was given to subgrade moisture and drainage of surface water.
(c) The top wearing surface was made up of smaller slope having a cross slope of 1 in 45 to the surface to provide surface drainage.
(d) Shoulder sloping was also provided of the order of 1 in 20.

Method of Road Construction 

First of all an earth foundation was excavated parallel with but about ten inches below the finished surface of the new road. This was convex in cross section to encourage water to drain off the finished surface.

Next, large stones were laid on edge and any protruding pieces on their upper edges broken off to leave an even surface. This stone foundation was covered with a second course of smaller rounded stones.

Finally a third layer of hard broken stone, (about the size of walnuts) was spread by a shovel to produce the surface layer.

3. Metcalf Construction : "John Metcalf" was working in England and he followed the instruction of Robert Philip. John Metcalf (1717–1810), also known as Blind Jack of Knaresborough or Blind Jack Metcalf. In the period 1765 to 1792 he built about 180 miles (290 km) of turnpike road, mainly in the north of England.

Main Features : 

( a) Roads should have good foundation.
(b) smooth convex surface to allow rainwater to drain quickly into ditches at the side.

4. Telford Construction : His work started in early 19th century in England. He was one of the first engineers to test his materials thoroughly before construction. 

Main Features :

(a) Telford provided level subgrade of width 9 meters.
(b) A binding layer of wearing course 4 cm thick was provided with cross slope of 1 in 45.
(c) Thickness of foundation stone varied from 17 cm at edges to 22 cm at the centre.

5.  Macadam Construction : Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820. He put forward an entirely new method of road construction as compared to all the previous methods. The first attempt to improve the road condition was made by him in 1815. This was the 1st method based on scientific thinking. The first macadam road built in the United States was constructed between Hagerstown and Boonsboro, Maryland and was named Boonsboro Turnpike Road.

Main Features : 

(a) Macadam was the first person who suggested that heavy foundation stones are not at all required to be placed at the bottom layer. He provided stones of size less than 5 mm to a uniform thickness of 10 cm.
(b) The size of broken stone for the top layers was decided on the basis of stability under animal drawn vehicles.
(c) The importance of subgrade drainage and compaction was given so the subgrade was compacted and prepared with cross slope of 1 in 36.
(d) The pavement surface was also given the cross slope of 1 in 36.
(e) Total thickness was kept uniform from edge to centre to a minimum value of 25 cm.

Method of Road construction 

Subgrade is compacted and prepared with a cross slope of 1 in 36 up to a desired width about 9 meters. Broken stones of strong variety, all passing through 5 cm size sieve were compacted to thickness of 10 cm. The second layer of strong broken stones of size 3.75 cm was compacted to thickness of 10 cm. The top layer consists of stones of size less than 2 cm compacted to a thickness of about 5 cm and finished so that the cross slope of pavement surface was also in 1 in 36.

6. Water Bound Macadam : Most of the driveways built today are those which are known as Telford roads . These are usually constructed of twelve inches of stone over all. An eight-inch foundation is provided of hard quarry stone, laid on edge, with the longest dimension placed at a right angle to the side line of the drive. Very often this large stone can be found on the property . After the stones are placed they should be gone over with napping hammers and made fairly even by breaking off the irregular edges; the pieces of stone so broken off should be used to fill in chinks.

Over this should be placed three inches of one and one-half inch stone. Then a light covering of three-quarter inch stone may be placed as a binder and finished with clean breaker dust. The drive should be rolled before and after placing the three-quarter inch stone, with a roller weighing not less than five tons. The three-quarter inch stone and the dust should never be mixed together; the dust will work through and the stone find the surface, making it rough and troublesome. When rolling the finished surface it should be wetted constantly until a wave of water appears in front of the roller.

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