Road engineers asked to adopt modified bitumen technology
The second road infrastructure improvement conference has been held in Accra with a call on road engineers to adopt the use of the polymer modified bitumen technology.
Advertisement
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Core Construction Limited, Mr Frank Lartey, who made the call, said the use of the technology would reduce rutting, cracking and maintenance costs and increase the service life of roads on which the technology was applied.
Polymer bitumen is used as a binder and water-proofing material for the construction of roads, pavements and air field surfacing.
Organised on the theme, “Sustaining Road Infrastructure with Improved bitumen technologies in Ghana”, the conference provided a platform for stakeholders in development to deliberate on issues relating to investment in infrastructure and the importance of the use of polymer bitumen.
It was organised by the Core Construction Limited and the Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE), in collaboration with the Chemistry Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) and other road infrastructure development agencies.
Conventional bitumen
Mr Lartey said, currently, road engineers used the conventional bitumen for road construction, which failed to give roads the expected service life because of adverse climatic, environmental and traffic conditions.
He explained that bitumen used in the sub-region, known as the conventional bitumen could no longer carry the volume of traffic, the change in weather, especially the high temperatures and the ultraviolet rays of the sun which could not be seen with the eyes but had a negative effect on roads.
Mr Lartey said one of the advantages of using the polymer modified bitumen was that it could withstand high temperatures, adding, “We can give it a temperature rating of about 80 to 90 degrees celsius before it will even start to have any form of deformity.”
He said so far, the bitumen technology had been used on some road projects in the country.
They include the patching of the Tema Motorway with PG 70-28 asphalt concrete, asphaltic concrete on sections of the Tetteh Quarshie-Madina highway, intersection improvement on sections of the Amasaman-Tudu road network and 60 per cent of the Elubo-Agona highway.
Roads Minister
In his address, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, said the provision of infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges, was an important and critical aspect of the development strategy of the government.
It was for this reason, he said that the government had embarked on the reconstruction, rehabilitation and maintenance of a number of trunk, feeder and urban roads across the country.
He expressed the hope that the conference would highlight issues about road construction and make contributions towards innovation and progress in road construction in the country.
Uphold standards
For his part, the President of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, Ing Kwaku Boampong, noted that road construction and maintenance had come under serious scrutiny by the public because some roads deteriorated in a very short time after construction.
He, therefore, stressed the need for road engineers to be committed to their work, show honesty and ensure thoroughness and self-discipline in their work.
