A road surface that cracks, is abused by bad weather, frost, car traffic, and lack of maintenance and it’s a guaranteed pothole. A real scourge for motorists and for two-wheelers who risk falling or losing control.
India has two passions: brunches and potholes. When winter comes, large cracks appear in the roadway. Much to the chagrin of motorists. If we look at the state level, Karnataka spends no less than Rs 20000 crore in 5 years on the repair. Now let’s understand what is white topping.
What are white-topping roads?
White Topping is a Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) topping that is built over an existing bituminous road. This overlap acts as a long-term alternative for the rehabilitation or structural strengthening of roads. The PCC overlay may or may not be attached to the bottom layer. Whitetopping consists of placing a layer of concrete on a deteriorated bituminous pavement.
The white coating of roads is the laying of cement concrete instead of bituminous concrete when the roads are concreted. Whitetopping is the coating of existing asphalt pavement with a layer of Portland cement concrete. Whitetopping is divided into types based on the thickness of the concrete layer and whether the layer is attached to the asphalt substrate.
Advantages of whitetopping
- Long life, low maintenance, low life cycle cost, improved safety and environmental benefits.
- Bituminous overlays exhibit a more rapid loss of serviceability compared to white concrete finish in some critical locations.
- Deformation such as rutting and cracking predominant in the case of bituminous pavements is normally absent with white coat concrete surfaces. This is particularly true in a hot climate like India.
- Conventional white topping improves the structural capacity of existing bituminous pavement, if built on a solid foundation, and prevents structural failure.
- Whitetopping requires much less maintenance and, as such, means much less frequent lane closures on the highway, compared to bituminous surfaces.
- Whitetopping is quite cost-effective to cope with annual budget constraints and high levels of traffic. It is therefore very relevant to Indian conditions.
- It has been found that fuel consumption on concrete roads is lower than on bituminous roads.
- Reduces pavement deflection, resulting in lower vehicular fuel consumption (10-15%) and therefore reduced emissions.
- Reduces the stopping distance of the vehicle, making it safer in both dry and wet surface conditions.
- White Topped flooring is 100% recyclable and can be crushed and reused at the end of its useful life.
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