Sell plastic and get good roads

Sell plastic and get good roads
Prathima Nandakumar | TNN

Bangalore: Don’t throw away your plastic. Sell it to BBMP, earn some money and get good roads.
Soon, Bangaloreans will have a say in making the city roads classy. All you need to do is walk up to one of the 40-odd plastic collection outlets set up by BBMP to deposit plastic waste. This will fetch you Rs 6 per kg of plastic. While the city will be rid of its rubbish, you will get to drive on good roads.
The BBMP will build roads using recycled plastic. It has set aside Rs 50 crore for resurfacing arterial roads, Rs 40 crore for other main roads and Rs 250 crore for laying roads in the newly added areas.
BBMP commissioner S Subramanya said: “The plastic waste collected from households will be shifted to designated recycling units for segregation and processing. We have signed an MoU with an agency, KK Plastic Waste Management, for recycling. About 8% bitumen will be replaced with plastic to render strength to roads.’’
Use of recycled plastic known as ‘polymer blend’ is not new to Bangalore. In 2003, the same agency had carried out a pilot project. Ahmed Khan, director of the agency, said: “It is a green solution too. It takes two tonnes of plastic to make a kilometre of road. We have set up bins at schools like Bishop Cotton’s and Delhi Public School, and Central Jail to collect plastic. The same can be replicated across the city.’’
Why plastic? Bitumen melts at a lower temperature than plastic. But when mixed with plastic, bitumen can withstand higher temperature. Plastic helps strongly bind other raw material and thus helps prevent the wear and tear of the road.
Know-how
l Littered plastic bags, PET bottles and thin film grade plastics are cleaned, melted and mixed with bitumen.
What this means
l Better strength, longer life
l Effective removal of plastic waste from Bangalore
l Drains will be free of plastic, which will prevent water-logging
l Reduction in dependence on chemical fertiliser as waste is segregated into organic and plastic at source
l Better income for ragpickers
Flashback
l Studies indicated that plastic in bitumen increased stability by 2.5 to 3 times
l 2004 — A pilot project of laying 40 km of roads, including Chord Road, Jayamahal Road, Shankar Mutt Road was carried out
l July 2006 — BMP council approved use of technology to strengthen roads Underpass construction goes hi-tech R Jayaprakash | TNN
Cut it, fit it and shut it. This is the BBMP’s new mantra to clear bottlenecks. Traditional underpasses and flyovers cost a lot of money, time and traffic hassles. Instead, the BBMP is turning to new-age pre-cast technology that can be fitted into a road without causing too many traffic snarls. The Malaysian technology involves using cast Elements — an RCC arch segment box and square boxes. With this, the cost of an underpass will be Rs 1 crore — Rs 60 lakh for pre-cast elements and Rs 40 lakh for fixing them, constructing the ramp and road.
“The idea was to get the latest technology used to build bridges, underpasses, ROBs and RUBs in developed nations, where timebound project are the order of the day,’’ BBMP officials told The Times of India.
Though the BBMP has not publicised this new approach, work has already begun on Bellary Road and in three casting yards at Seshadripuram, Peenya and Hebbal. The machinery from Malaysia and Germany landed two months ago. The BBMP proposes to complete five underpasses between Windsor Manor Bridge and Hebbal Flyover by December 31. This will clear traffic woes in the North corridor. It has identified 26 bottlenecks where such measures will be adopted.
Next on its agendy is to remove all traffic signals on the choked Outer Ring Road. “We will carry out a study and identify all major intersections on the inner road, Outer Ring Road and arterial roads,’’ BBMP officials said.
LOCATION OF UNDERPASSES Before Windsor Manor Bridge BDA junction Cauvery junction CBI junction Sanjaynagar junction
Technology Excavating the earth would take a
day, laying the concrete base another two days. Placing pre-cast elements will take two days. The other steps involve interlocking 30 blocks of 1 meter each, carrying out earth-nailing by putting weld mesh to prevent the roof from caving in. After reinforcing the earth, concrete-panelling for embankment would be done. Finally, soil will be deposited on top of the box and the ramps put up.
Features Underpass will
be 15-m wide, can allow two buses to travel simultaneously. With have Solar lighting, vents for rainwater and pedestrian walkway. Unidirectional, the arch segment will be used for 9-m clearance and box element for 4.5 m.