J&K Macadamisation Manual Must Be Followed in Toto   

The harsh winters followed by rains in March and April damage our road surfaces every year and people always wait for the summer to come so that Govt agencies especially PWD R&B would macadamise their damaged road surfaces. The blacktopping or macadamisation of roads is a common practice in J&K. The bitumen reinforced blacktopping is done in every nook and corner of J&K as we are yet to replace this with cement concrete roads. The bitumen usually gets damaged in sub zero temperatures, plus the waterlogging on roads in J&K especially in congested towns and villages causes massive damage to blacktopped roads. For the last few years now, the Jal Jeevan Mission programme of the Govt has also caused large scale damages to our roads especially in rural areas as huge water supply pipelines were laid by damaging the bitumen layers. I know many areas in Srinagar , Pulwama and Budgam especially where macadamisation on roads was done in 2021 or 2022 and the same roads were destroyed by the contractors of Public Health Engineering -PHE, Jal Shakti Department to lay the water pipelines. Infact, I have written already about this multiple times but there is a lack of coordination between PWD R&B and PHE. It is also not clear whether the contractors of PHE Jal Shakti pay for the road cuts or not. If this is done, is that money spent on the ground or not? These details need to be made public by both PHE Jla Shakti and PWD for the benefit of people. As the blacktopping season has started in Kashmir, I thought of writing about this issue so that both the Govt as well as the citizens get to know about various aspects of macadamisation and how this can be made better.  

Infact in the year 2021, as per media reports, J&K government exceeded targets of macadamisation. Against the set target of 1454.02 kms, the department has macadamized 1657.58 kms in the Valley by the end of October 2021. In 2022 and 2023 as well, the targets were achieved but the work quality is being questioned in many places especially in rural areas. There are two Govt agencies in rural areas which work on macadamisation of roads , PWD ( R&B) Department and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna-  PMGSY. These agencies are supposed to follow several guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways-MoRTH and J&K Govt as well.  

J&K Macadamisation Manual  

The J&K Administrative Council (AC) headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in its decision dated January 9^th 2022 adopted the J & K Macadamisation (Execution and Quality Control and DLP Enforcement) Manual. This is part of the engineering manual 2021.  After the AC’s meeting, the Principal Secretary Public Works department issued a Govt order No: 42 PW (R&B) 3.02.2022 wherein sanction was given for the adoption of the Macadamisation (Execution and Quality Control and DLP Enforcement) Manual. The Department of Public Works J&K Govt has compiled these manuals by incorporating the best practices in the field in accordance with the latest standards and endeavours to bring about uniformity in practices, promote transparency and ensure engineering perfection. 

Categorization of Roads 

To improve the quality of J&K’s road network, the J&K Macadamisation Manual 2022 categorizes the roads across J&K into Inter-District Roads, Major Roads, District Roads, Rural Roads, Local roads, link roads etc. 

The Macadamisation Manual further establishes a Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) protocol that is supposed to be strictly adhered to during laying of bitumen on the roads also known as block-topping or macadamisation. The manual says that in case of any breach in quality, the executing agency/contractor is supposed to be made equally responsible for technical divergences or executing poor quality works.

All the works divisions in J&K have been mandated to review the performance of each and every blacktopping work post-winter/monsoon season. This enables them to assess the work as per specifications and map the same for further action under the Defect Liability Period (DLP) wherein the contractor has to carry on the repairs for 5 years post road construction.

The J&K Administrative Council in its meeting held in February 2022 noted that the J&K PWD Bridge Manual 2022 standardizes the engineering practices in bridge construction which is supposed to bring uniformity, transparency, and accountability in project execution. The Administrative Council impressed upon the PWD R&B to uniformly undertake project preparation, feasibility study, preliminary project preparation, detailed project preparation, project scheduling and monitoring of works, bridge inspection and maintenance etc.

During the said meeting, the Lt Governor was informed that the PWD (R&B) Department  was following the Standard Operating Procedures-SOP’s for optimal maintenance of roads during snow clearance activities. The SoP lays down the short-term measures to be taken by the PWD in snow clearance operations which include snow clearance with conventional attachments to be provided to all R&B Divisions, Municipal Institutions under Directorate of Urban Local bodies J&K plus Srinagar Municipal Corporation-SMC.

For long-term intervention, the SoPs require the Department of Disaster Management to procure technically approved machinery as is being used in several developed countries for scientific clearance of snow causing minimal damage to the road surface.

Snow clearance protocol 

The snow clearance protocol recommends commencement of clearance operations only after 100mm of snowfall by 50mm vehicle blades to avoid damage to the road surface, besides sprinkling of salt over frosted surfaces to improve surface friction. But in many places cranes and JCB’s were being used by the PWD R&B contractors which violates the Govt guidelines as the same damages road surfaces as well. However, if the road damage after a snowfall is attributed to poor macadamisation work rather than snow clearance operation, the contract DLP clause will be enforced, and contracting agencies will be made responsible to rectify reported damages due to their negligence. The SoP further allows for the empanelment of private players with appropriate machines for snow clearance operations through incentives like a long-term contract for 10-15 years.

The rates for the snow clearance items are decided on the basis of analysis of rates as per Ministry of Road Transport and Highways -MoRTH and Border Roads Organisation- BRO. Besides, the contracting agencies/ unemployed youth will also be incentivized under credit-linked schemes of the Industries & Commerce Department, Labour and Employment Department, and Tourism Department for procurement of suitable machinery under the technical supervision of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

The Administrative Council headed by LG Manoj Sinha had directed the Public Works Department to regularly update the manuals and guidelines and ensure optimal quality and cost efficiency. 

Scarifying road surface 

It has now become a trend to blacktop roads without even scarifying the surface. This increases the height of the roads every year and isn’t technically feasible as well. The boundary walls around residential houses located on main roads look short and shabby now as continuous bitumen layers have elevated most of the road surfaces. 

Scarifying is breaking up hard or compacted materials to create enough space for material to settle down. Just placing Bitumen filling material on a damaged road surface to fill the ruts and potholes is a temporary fix. The bitumen material does not bind in the ruts and potholes. This only increases the height of the road and makes the surrounding landscape shabby. The proper way to reshape the damaged road is to scarify the surface to the depth of the depressions. This breaks up all the compacted surrounding surface materials. After scarifying the material, the Bitumen can settle down properly. 

Cement concrete roads

Instead of Bitumen reinforced macadamised roads, the cement concrete roads have a long service life which can last between 35 to 40 years. On the other hand, roads made up of Bitumen last for around 10 years in areas with no snowfall , but in a place like Kashmir or Ladakh where the temperature drops down to sub-zero and there is heavy snowfall as well, these roads get damaged within 2 to 3 years only. During the service life, concrete roads do not require frequent repairs or patching work like macadamized roads. The vehicles that run over a concrete road, consume 15-20 per cent less fuel as compared to roads made of asphalt –bitumen. This is because of the fact that a concrete road does not get deflected under the wheels of loaded heavy vehicles. During the processing of bitumen, lots of toxic gases are emitted from these plants and subsequent less fuel consumption by the vehicle operating on a concrete road leads to little pollution as well. 

Conclusion 

The macadamisation work has been started in Kashmir and this will be done on a large scale in the upcoming months especially when the Model Code of Conduct -MCC ends. The J & K Macadamisation Manual should be the guiding principle for all the engineers, and work Supervisors of PWD (R&B) , PMGSY and other Govt institutions.  There should be proper coordination between PWD and PHE Departments and road cuts should be minimised. The incumbent Chief Engineer PWD (R&B) Central Kashmir Mr Sajad Naqeeb is very much proactive in addressing grievances of people and I would appeal to him and his counterparts in South and North Kashmir to ensure adherence to J&K Macadamisation Manual and also start making cement concrete roads in rural areas on pilot basis. On a pilot basis, cement concrete road stretches have been constructed in Srinagar city but we need to take up similar works in other districts as well. 

• Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer 

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