International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)

Cell-Filled Concrete Roads an Alternative to Rural Roads

A Case Study in Karnataka
Hariprasad. M1, H. S. Prakash Kumar2, Purushothama Das Heggade3, Dr. B. V. Kiran Kumar4
1
Post Graduate Student, 2Ph.D Research Scholar, 3M.Sc.(Engg.) Research Scholar, 4Assistant Professor, Department of Civil
Engineering, Government Sri Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute, K.R. Circle, Bengaluru-560 001, India
Abstract The main role of the present work is to conduct I. INTRODUCTION
pavement performance evaluation of Cell Filled Concrete
road constructed in Sidlaghatta taluk of Chickaballapura
Providing good road network is very essential for the
District in Karnataka. The study area selected is from Anur development of any country. In India, there are about more
Hunasenahalli to T-07 (2.16 km) in Sidlaghatta Taluk. The than 6 lakhs villages located in different terrain conditions,
above selected road is categorized under Village Roads (VR) e.g. plains, hilly and mountainous region, deserts, swamps,
and is constructed under the Technology Demonstration coastal region, backwater area, tribal pockets, etc. The
Project of PMGSY phase IX. The objective of the work was to climatic conditions also vary from place-to-place to a great
conduct Pavement Performance Studies on the said road extent. Social, economic and educational development of
which include the Structural and Functional evaluations. these villages greatly depends on accessibility. A large
Detailed surveys were carried out on the above said stretch.
number of villages in the rural India are still not connected
For Functional evaluation, roughness was measured using
MERLIN and Pavement condition survey by longitudinal
with the all-weather roads. The employment opportunities
/transverse cracking, severity of potholes and area of patching and basic necessities, like health, education cannot reach
has been measured. In the traffic surveys different types of rural masses without a system of good network. It has now
vehicles including commercial vehicles have been recorded for been realized that for the development of rural areas,
72 hours (24 hours X 3 days). In the axle load surveys, type of development of proper and communication system must be
vehicle, number of axles and load on each axle has been a priority.
recorded to determine the Vehicle damage factor (VDF). In The rural roads are the basic infrastructure required for
the non-destructive structural evaluation, Deflection studies the development of rural areas. Rural roads have been
using Benkelman Beam Deflectometer (BBD) was done. The
planned and constructed under various Rural Development
BBD test was conducted to know the rebound deflection of
cell-filled pavement layer of thickness between 40 to 100 mm.
Programmes of the Government of India. Serious efforts
The evaluation has been carried out in three cycles at an through these programmes also could not make all-weather
interval of four months. connectivity to more than 50 percent of the 6 lakhs villages.
The structural evaluation results observed on this road On the other hand, many roads which have been built could
based on BBD test, in which characteristic deflections are not be sustained. Careful examination of these has revealed
under the prescribed limits as per the IRC provisions and that most efforts have not been effective due to the fact that
results based on VDF and MSA is also within the limits, since in those Programmes, the roads were not understood to be
a very low traffic is plying on this road. The functional engineering structures. These non-engineered structures
evaluation results observed as per MERLIN test, the IRI
without back-up systems and facilities to sustain them with
values are close to 3.0 m/km which is of less impact to riding
quality. And as per the pavement condition survey, the
engineering inputs for repair and maintenance have
pavement looked good except a little distresses found with few disappeared in no time. Many of the technical aspects of
percentages of cracking (cells exposed), patching, potholes and road making were never given due importance in rural
roughness. Evaluation of distresses has been done considering roads: e.g adequate compaction of subgrade, drainage,
pavement condition index (PCI) and found to be satisfactory required cross drainage, and most of others. There must not
as per PCI rating. be any inhibition about the technical details that are
required to be understood for rural roads: these are required
Keywords Structural evaluation, Functional evaluation, to be adopted necessarily. But none of those are impossible
BBD, Vehicle Damage Factor, MERLIN, Roughness, PCI.
to adopt for local agencies and authorities by any means.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)
Moreover, there are plenty of appropriate technologies Concrete is filled up into a formwork of cells 150
for rural road construction and maintenance using locally mm_150 mm_100 mm made up of thin plastic sheets and
available materials as well as local agricultural implements. compacted to form flexible interlocked concrete blocks. It
was found that the blocks became interlocked and that the
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY block pavement displayed a very little amount of rutting
along the wheel path.
Evaluation of Functional and Structural parameters
B. B. Pandey et. al (2011) conducted a study of an
for the selected stretches of Village Roads.
investigation on cell filled pavements. They carried out
Identifying the merits of new technology over the
studies for investigating the structural behavior of different
conventional technology.
types of cell-filled pavements. The main objective of this
To quantify the structural and functional parameters study was to investigate the behavior of pavements
to be used for the further study on deterioration constructed by filling the cells with (a) cement concrete (b)
modeling in terms of Pavement Condition Index soil cement and (c) sand cement laid over two different
(PCI). types of sub-bases (moorum and soil cement). A
This Pavement Performance is taken up to study the comparison of costs of different types of cell-filled
behavior of conventional concrete, flexible pavement, pavements with those of traditional flexible and rigid
cell filled concrete of 100mm thick with different pavements designed for low traffic volumes indicates that
categories for the same traffic and to find out the cell-filled pavements are cost-effective compared with
economical construction of rural road for the conventional pavements, particularly in locations with
economical and social development of the rural scarcity of aggregates.
population. Y. A. Singh et. al (2011) conducted an experimental
study on Structural Performance of Plastic Cell-filled
III. SELECTION OF STUDY AREA Concrete Block Pavement (PCCBP) for Low Volume
In this case study, the rural road was selected in Roads. Experimental investigations into the structural
Sidlaghatta Taluk of Chikkaballapur District, Karnataka behaviors of different thicknesses of plastic cell-filled
state, which was constructed under the technology concrete block pavement (PCCBP) over 100-mm thick
demonstration project of PMGSY phase IX. The details of water bound macadam sub-base course were presented. In
the test sections of Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07 (2.16 km) this study, an attempt has been made to use waste stone
of Sidlaghatta Taluk are shown in Table 1. dust in place of the traditional river sand as fine aggregates
in concrete.
IV. LITERATURE SURVEY Haradhan Sarkar et. al (2014) conducted an experimental
Visser, A.T (1999) conducted a study on flexible study on Behavior of Interlocking Concrete Block
Portland cement concrete pavement for low volume roads. Pavement over Stone Dust Grouted Subbase. This paper
In South Africa Portland cement concrete filled geo-cells, describes structural behavior of interlocking concrete block
termed Hyson-Cells, have been used successfully in the pavement (ICBP) that is laid over a sub-base of grouted
provision of low volume roads and streets. The main single size aggregate with stone dust and confined by
conclusions were that there was no indication of stress plastic cell made from thin polyethylene. From the test
sensitivity of the unbound materials, and typical stiffness results it is evident that the pavement without jointing sand
values used in road pavement design could be used. deflects about 14% more than that with jointing sand. The
B. B. Pandey et. al (2005) conducted a study for determined equivalent elastic modulus of the pavement
evaluating the performance of cast in situ concrete block structure for subgrade soils, subbase and concrete block
pavements for low volume roads. layer without and with jointing sand are 59.58 MPa, 232
MPa, 470 MPa and 2352 MPa respectively.

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)

TABLE I
DETAILS OF THE STRETCHES AND CRUST DETAILS (ANUR ROAD)

Sl.No. Road Length in Km Sub-Total Technology Layer Layer Layer Overall Crust
(From & To) Length in Adopted details thickness in width in thickness
km mm M (mm)

Conventional GSB 100 Full width 350

1 0.0 0.1 0.10
Concrete GSB 50 4.05
M30 200 3.75

GSB 100 Full width

2 0.1 0.5 0.40 Cell Filled Concrete GSB 50 4.05 250
M30 100 3.75

GSB 100 Full width

3 0.5 0.7 0.20 Cell Filled Concrete WBM-G3 75 3.75 275
M30 100 3.75

GSB 100 Full width

4 0.7 1.1 0.40 Cell Filled Concrete WBM-G3 75 3.75 275
M10 60 3.75
M30 40 3.75

GSB 100 Full width

ICBP Interlocking
5 1.1 1.2 0.10 GSB 50 4.05 260
Concrete Blocks
Sand bed 30 3.75
ICBP 80 3.75

GSB 125 Full width

Conventional
6 1.2 1.7 0.50 WBM G-2 75 3.90 295
Flexible Pavement
WBM G-3 75 3.75
PMC 20 3.75

Conventional GSB 100 Full width

7 1.7 1.825 0.125
Concrete Pavement WBM G-3 75 3.75 375
M30 200 3.75

GSB 125 Full width

Conventional
8 1.825 2.16 0.34 WBM G-2 75 3.90 295
Flexible Pavement
WBM G-3 75 3.75
PMC 20 3.75
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)
V. ENGINEERING SURVEY AND INVESTIGATIONS The formation width is 7.50 m wide with a single lane
carriage way of 3.75 m width and an average shoulder
A. Road Inventory Data width of 1.875 m on each side. The type of adjoining land
The data collected during road Inventory survey is along the test stretch are built up and agricultural land. The
summarized below. road inventory data consists of general details like rainfall,
temperature, binder properties and other pavement details.
The data is summarized in Table 2.
TABLE II
ROAD INVENTORY DATA

Name of the Road Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Description 0.0 km to 1.1 km 1.1 km to 2.16 km
General Details
Type of adjoining land AL+BU AL+BU
New construction or Up gradation UG
Annual avg. rainfall (mm) 768
Avg. min and max temp (C) 20- 32
Avg. min and max depth of GWT (m) 25-30
Month and year of opening to traffic March 2013
Binder properties
Grade of concrete/bitumen 60/70
Penetration in (mm) Cell-filled Concrete M30 63
Softening point () 53
Pavement details
Avg. Embankment ht. (m) 0.20 0.15
Carriageway width (m) 3.75 3.75
Shoulder width (m) 1.875 1.875
Type of surface Concrete BS
Condition of shoulder Good Good
(Good, Fair ,Poor)
Effectiveness of surface Good Good
Drainage (Good, Fair, Poor)
AL- Agricultural Land; BU- Built Up; UG- Up gradation; NC- New Construction;
NA-Not Applicable; BS- Bituminous Surface

VI. STRUCTURAL EVALUATION From the deflection values of the observation points
within each stretch, the standard deviation (d) was
A. Benkelman Beam Deflection Studies calculated. The characteristic deflection value, Dc has been
The rebound deflection value obtained at each point was worked out taking Dc = (m+d), for Village Roads, where
calculated making use of the initial, intermediate and final m is the mean deflection values. The average
rebound deflection values, after applying correction where characteristic deflection value for the two stretches is
ever necessary. The average of the rebound deflection shown in Table 3. The BBD test is conducted as per
values, at every 50/100 m interval over the entire stretch IRC:81-1997.
given for BBD studies was calculated.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)
TABLE III
AVERAGE CHARACTERISTIC DEFLECTION VALUE

Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Chainage Average Total Average
Sl.
Characteristic Characteristic
No From To Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
1 0.00 0.10 0.08 0.16 0.25 0.16
2 0.10 0.50 0.07 0.21 0.38 0.22
3 0.50 0.70 0.08 0.16 0.06 0.10
4 0.70 1.10 0.12 0.23 0.28 0.21
0.32
5 1.10 1.20 0.74 0.41 0.40 0.52
6 1.20 1.70 0.22 0.13 0.31 0.22
7 1.70 1.825 0.68 0.59 0.50 0.59
8 1.825 2.16 0.61 0.51 0.53 0.55

B. Classified Traffic Volume Counts The vehicles are classified as representative vehicles
such as two wheelers, three wheelers, buses, 2 and 3 axle
Classified traffic volume counts were carried out for the
trucks, jeeps, cars, vans mini bus, mini trucks, tractors,
test stretches. A 24 hour traffic volume count was
bicycles, animal drawn carts (pneumatic tyred and iron
conducted on hourly basis for three days and the details
tyred). The averages of all class of vehicles were multiplied
were recorded.
with their respective PCU factor and PCU and average
CVPD were calculated. The abstract of PCU, CVPD and
MSA calculated are shown in Table 4.
TABLE IV
AVERAGE PCU, CVPD AND MSA

Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Sl. No PCU CVPD MSA Avg. MSA

1 Cycle 1 382 46 0.37

0.49
2 Cycle 2 388 60 0.45

3 Cycle 3 384 59 0.48

C. Axle Load Surveys Only the axles with weight of 3 tonnes and above are
Axle Load Survey was conducted on the test stretches considered to have effect on the pavement performance,
for the determination of Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF). hence axles with weight of 3 tonnes and above were
The survey was conducted along with the traffic volume considered in the study. The average of vehicle Equivalent
count for 24 hours X 3 days. The axle load survey was Factors and their total avg. VDF are shown in the Table 5.
conducted in accordance with IRC: SP: 19-2001.
TABLE V
AVERAGE EQUIVALENT FACTOR / VDF

Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Sl. No Average Equivalent Factor (E.F) of all Vehicles Total average VDF
1 Cycle 1 0.0327
2 Cycle 2 0.0358
0.034
3 Cycle 3 0.0326

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014)
VII. FUNCTIONAL EVALUATION In this case study MERLIN measurements were made
w.r.t the technologies adopted viz., the MERLIN sheets
A. MERLIN Roughness Survey
were changed as the technology changed. The recording of
MERLIN Roughness survey was conducted on the roughness survey is done on a typical recording chart. The
stretches to estimate the roughness of the pavement surface. abstract of the MERLIN roughness value is summarized in
To determine the roughness of a section of road, 200 the Table 6. Analysis is as per TRL report (Cundill).
measurements should be made at regular intervals at a
distance of 0.6 m from the edge of the road.
TABLE VI
AVERAGE MERLIN ROUGHNESS VALUES

Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Chainage
Sl. Average IRI
Total Average IRI
No From To Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 value (m/km)
value
1 0.00 0.10 3.18 2.71 2.94 2.94
2 0.10 0.50 3.18 3.53 3.30 3.34
3 0.50 0.70 3.53 2.71 2.94 3.06
2.95 m/km
4 0.70 1.10 3.30 3.30 3.18 3.26
or
5 1.10 1.20 2.47 2.47 2.71 2.55
2950 mm/km
6 1.20 1.70 2.59 3.06 3.30 2.98
7 1.70 1.825 3.18 2.59 2.71 2.83
8 1.825 2.16 2.59 2.59 2.83 2.67

B. Pavement Condition Survey Considering the serviceability criteria as per ASTM

Pavement condition index (PCI) is a numerical indicator D6433-11 for each distress attributes the following factors
of present condition that is directly to the pavement surface was obtained. The pavement condition index values along
operational condition. The PCI is a function of the type of the stretch of road is calculated using the pavement
distress. The pavement may also become inadequate due to condition survey data and as tabulated in the below Table
general deterioration with age. 7. The PCI rating is done as per ASTM D6433-11.

TABLE VII
PCI VALUE AND RATING

Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07

Chainage
Sl. No From To Pavement Condition Index Pavement Condition Rating
1 0.0 1.10 94 Good
2 1.10 2.16 81 Satisfactory

VIII. GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS The soil samples were collected from the respective
Soil investigations such as the soil classification, chainages shown in the table and tests were conducted in
Atterberg limits, OMC and MDD, CBR, and natural accordance with IS 2720 and MORTH specifications.
moisture content were conducted in the laboratory in order The results of these are shown in the Table 8.
to determine the soil properties and other engineering
properties of soil.

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TABLE VIII
GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON SOIL

Natural
CBR
Compaction Moisture
(IS-2720
Atterberg limits (IS- parameters (IS content (IS-
part 12,
Chainage (km) 2720 part 5, 1985) 2720, part 8 2720 part 2,
IS Soil 1983)
Sl.no 1983) 1983)
classification
Betwee LL PL PI MDD OMC
At 56 blows (%)
n (%) (%) (%) (g/cc) (%)
Anur Hunasenahalli to T-07
1 0.10 SC 32 20 12 1.875 10.5 6.25 5.0
0.0 to
1.0 km
2 1.00 SC 32 22 10 1.875 11.5 6.00 5.0

3 1.0 to 1.35 SC 31 22 11 1.91 10.0 7.50 5.0

2.16 km
4 2.10 SC 28 20 8 1.88 11.5 7.80 5.0

Note: SC- Silty Sand with Gravel Clay:

IX. CONSTRUCTION COST STATEMENT: (COST PER KM)

TABLE IX
CONSTRUCTION COST STATEMENT OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES

Construction of Asphalted Road Rs.21.57 lakhs

Constn. of 200 mm thick CC M30 over GSB+WBM G-3 Road (Conventional Concrete) Rs.47.12 lakhs

Construction of 100 mm Cell Fill M30 over GSB Rs.30.00 lakhs

Construction of 100 mm Cell Fill Multi grade over GSB+WBM G-3 Rs.32.65 lakhs

Construction of 100 mm Cell Fill 20 mm d/z Agg. In CM 1:3 over GSB+WBM G-3 Rs.32.13 lakhs

Construction of 80 mm Interlocking blocks over GSB Rs.32.69 lakhs

X. RESULTS From the traffic data collected, cumulative standard

axles were calculated for the present traffic data and
A. Structural Evaluation
values of PCU, and CVPD were obtained and the
From BBD studies, the deflection results shown in MSA was found to be 0.45 MSA. Therefore the
table-3. The average characteristic deflection is found present traffic movement has no effect on the
to be 0.32 mm. Therefore overlay is not required at performance of the pavement and normal traffic is
present stage. As per result obtained from BBD test in plying on the stretch.
Anur Hunasenahalli road, cell-filled concrete From the Axle Load Surveys conducted, the VDF
pavement showed minimum deflection than the obtained from average of three cycles is 0.034. It has
interlocked block pavement & flexible pavement. been found that no over loaded vehicles are plying on
the road and there is no damage caused to the road
from these vehicles.

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B. Functional Evaluation Cell Fill Concrete roads is a challenge in the rural
road construction with the effective diversion of
The MERLIN roughness value obtained from the traffic.
average of three cycles in terms of International
Roughness Index (IRI) is 2.95 m/km or 2950 mm/km REFERENCES
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XI. CONCLUSIONS
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