A Cost-Effective Approach Towards Road Construction—Kondave a Case Study

The planning, design, and construction of roads in India are depended on the local traffic requirements and the recommended design traffic in terms of a cumulative number of standard axles. The roads are getting deteriorated in the form of potholes, fatigue cracking, rutting deformation as a number of heavy, overloaded, high tyre pressure vehicles are using the ordinary/village roads which are affecting the riding comfort of vehicles resulting into fatal injuries to road users. Investigations in India and abroad have revealed that the abundantly available waste materials like fly ash, rubber, waste plastic, e-waste, etc. which are creating disposal problem can be effectively used in road construction. A small village Kondave on the State Highway 141 joining the Satara district to the world famous hill station Mahabaleshwar on Sahyadri ranges was considered as a case study. The tremendously increasing visitors using this route are throwing used plastic carry bags, bottles, etc. on a large scale creating its disposal problem in front of local people. The present work deals with the assessment of the generation of plastic waste in the village along with to check its suitability in road construction. In the initial stage, the available plastic waste from the village was collected, segregated, recycled and grinded. To check its suitability in road construction a thorough experimental investigation was carried out using a Marshall Stability procedure. The mix were prepared as per SP-98-2013 for a dry process wherein the poor locally available aggregates are coated with waste plastic and as per SP-53-2010 for a wet process wherein the bitumen is modified with its partial replacement. The results reveal that the Marshall Stability value of poor conventional materials can be improved by the application of 7% optimum waste plastic. The application of waste plastic in the road not only mitigates the disposal problem but shown positive improvements in strength and other governing parameters including viscosity. So, instead of using a higher bituminous mix in the top layer for limiting the top-down cracking and bottom-up cracking modified bitumen is a cost-effective alternative. Check on construction cost is achieved, as the poor locally available materials are made in use due to the application of waste plastic. Hence, such type of cost-effective approach for the construction of roads along with eco-friendly disposal of plastic waste can be used to mitigate the early deterioration of roads.