Most of the roads, whether in the capital city of Srinagar or in certain districts, are reportedly in shambles – pot holed. No doubt the severe winter conditions cause breaking up and shattering of the road surface due to seepage and frost action.
However, this damage usually occurs when either the compaction, and surfacing is either insufficient or of poor quality or even with insufficient drainage allowing rain water and snow melt to seep into the road surface where after freezing the surface gets shattered.
Macdamisation of road surface has certain basic civil engineering standards in regard to the thickness of macadam being laid, its consistency, quality of tar, the temperature of the mix and finally its proper compaction with road rollers.
Most important is the proper drainage on the two sides ofthe road surface preventing seepage into the main body of the road. Poordrainage has often been found to be the greatest culprit in shattering the roadsurface. Another culprit is snow clearance by snow ploughs touching the surfacetoo closely! It can easily scrap few millimeters from the top of the roadsurface allowing seepage and shattering of the entire road surface.
The snow clearance personnel driving these machines need to be advised about this aspect. However, the most important is the temperature of the mix and the overall temperature of the atmosphere at the time of the laying of the macadam.
The ideal time would be summer when the atmosphere is hot. However, it has been observed that the macadam is laid on the roads in autumn or just in the start of the winter. Allegedly, the main consideration is the utilization of funds kept for the purpose but released late in the season! This aspect can be looked into by the concerned departments which should be directed to release funds well in time.
The other most important aspect would be supervision of thesurfacing or resurfacing of roads everywhere. The ideal would be to have anindependent consultancy of the road engineers who would, on mandatory basis,check and supervise all surfacing and resurfacing operations all over thevalley. Their certification should be made mandatory before clearing thepayment to the concerned firms undertaking the jobs.
The best example of the most ideal surfacing had been doneon the Maulana Azad Road and the Boulevard Road in mid-eighties of the lastcentury which lasted almost two decades without any additional repairs. Whycan’t the same standards be applied to all the roads? Now that the Durbar wouldbe moving soon to Srinagar on its dilapidated roads, it is hoped the bumpswould force them to give consideration to all these suggestions!