Cost Comparison of Flexible Pavement Designed with Cement Treated Base and Granular Base

Abstract

More than 90% of roads in India are constructed with bituminous mix as a wearing course. In majority of these roads, the granular layer is provided as a base layer. However due to low strength of granular layer, the higher thickness of the wearing course is required to avoid the failure of roads due to cracking and rutting. There is a significant difference in cost of construction of wearing course and other layers of flexible pavement. So selection of technology for construction of road which will reduce the thickness of different layers of road will be helpful in reducing the cost of construction of road. Cement treated base is better alternative to conventional granular base. Due to higher modulus of Cement Treated Base (CTB), the thickness of CTB is significantly less than Granular Base (GSB) layer for same traffic count. Therefore, in a present study an attempt has been made to investigate the cost of construction of flexible pavement designed with CTB and GSB as a base layer for 646 msa traffic estimated for Pune Ring road project. IRC:37 (2012) was followed to estimate the thickness of different layers of flexible pavement having CTB and GSB as base layer. The result of cost estimated for flexible pavement designed with CTB and GSB indicates that per kilometer construction cost of single lane road having a flexible pavement designed with CTB base layer was reduced by 52% as compared to road with GSB as base layer.