Cracks begin to adorn rigid pavement

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 4: Cracks have developed on the rigid pavement or cement concrete road built on the Palace Compound road (AIR Imphal).
For the first time, concrete roads are being built in different parts of Imphal West and Imphal East with the State PWD as the implementing agency.
For construction of rigid pavement or concrete roads, some roads were first laid with flexible pavement (bitumen).
After laying the flexible pavement, construction of rigid pavement started on one side of the Palace Compound road.
Although it has been only a month since the construction of the rigid pavement started, cracks have developed on the surface of the newly constructed  concrete road.
PWD (Imphal East Division) EE Kh Robinson said that cement concrete roads or rigid pavements are being constructed for the first time in Manipur.
The machines used in constructing the rigid pavements are also new. As such, people engaged in constructing such roads are not fully adept in handling the new machines, he said.
The EE said that the rigid pavement being constructed in front of AIR Imphal compound is being done on a trial basis.
The cracks would not affect the durability of the road. The cracks are not big enough to damage the road, Robinson said.
The thickness of the concrete road is 170 mm but no irons or steels were laid beneath the cement concrete layer, the EE said.
He said that the cement concrete road would be calibrated into blocks after it is fully constructed. The cracks seen today would not compromise the quality of the road when it is fully completed.
He informed that construction of rigid pavements has started on Checkon Road, Ananda Singh Higher Secondary School Road, Wangkhei Road etc, and the construction process is being monitored round the clock.
The rigid pavement is believed to be one up from the bitumen laden roads and is expected to last a long time. At the moment most of the roads at Imphal are uneven and filled with potholes making driving a nightmare to many motorists.
The recent floods that ravaged Imphal and many other parts of the valley districts went a long way in making the roads uneven and dotting the same with potholes.
Many road stretches are filled with potholes and uneven stretches and it was only recently that some repair works were taken up on the roads leading to RIMS.