KIIT SCE Constructs Cement less Concrete Road in Collaboration with Rural Works Department
In a significant achievement, School of Civil Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be University has constructed a Cementless Concrete Road in collaboration with Rural Works Department, Cuttack under Research and Development (R&D) scheme. This is hailed as the unique feat in the construction arena which has never been done before in the history of Odisha.
Experiments on the novel road construction were carried out on a pilot scale near village Amanapada in the district of Cuttack this week on 9th June, 2020. Using industrial waste and without use of cement, an innovative road was constructed, which is known as GREEN CONCRETE road. This will be revolutionizing future massive Civil Engineering constructions without global warming.
Next to automobiles, huge carbon dioxide (CO2) is generated due to production of Portland cement which causes environmental pollution to the maximum extent in the society. The cement industries are mostly responsible for about 6% of all CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and so to say as the creator of global warming. Each year, approximately 1.89 billion tons of cement (which is a major component of concrete) has been produced worldwide against the requirement of about 2.60 billion ton per year. Since the lime stone is the main source of its production, an acute shortage may appear after 25 to 50 years. Fly ash (FA), a waste product from Thermal Industries is simply dumped on the earth which occupies large valuable areas. Hence, an alternative binder like Geo-polymer concrete is one of the most emerging alternate construction materials to conventional cement concrete. Fly ash is the source material rich in silica and alumina, which reacts with an alkali solution to produce alumina silicate gel that binds the fine as well as coarse aggregates to produce a good mode of concrete.
The behavior of fly ash based geo-polymer concrete on mechanical and durability properties are similar to normal cement concrete. The durability / serviceability of the property is much better than normal cement concrete. This is a great innovative activity for development of green concrete to prevent global warming. It has been possible due to collective effort of the academic fraternity along with supportive engineering personnel who extended whole hearted assistance. It is just the beginning of the Green Revolution.
This project is carried out by Rural Works Department Cuttack under research and development (R&D) scheme in the guidance (Technical support, Supervision and Quality Check) of Prof. Dillip Kumar Bera, Associate Professor KIIT deemed to be University and Prof. Ashok Kumar Rath (Retd. Professor, SCE KIIT). All prior tests were carried out at the laboratory of School of Civil Engineering, KIIT DU before laying in the field. All the M.Tech and Ph.D students involved in this research work deserve accolades. The Green Concrete road construction was carried out in the presence of the Academic and Engineers fraternity of RD Department and other officials. Special thanks to Er. Santosh Kumar Mishra, EE, Er. Prahalad Barik, Er. Prasanna Sahoo, Er. Ramyaranjan Panda of RD-Cuttack-1, Er. Nilamadhaba Sahu, Er. Saheb kumar Sahu, Er. Satyajit Dalai, Er. Prasant kumar Satpathy, contractor Mr. Sheik Khalilulla, social activist Mr. Lalit kumar Dash for their presence during construction,
Er. Jagannath Patel, Er. Subodha Routrai and Er. Amarendra Kumar Mohapatra are concerned research scholars of KIIT DU who had been deeply involved with SCE from the beginning to end of the road construction work. In this context, the fraternity of SCE has extended special thanks to Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS for his constant motivation and support.