NEW DELHI: In a crucial step to help in maintaining consistency and quality of service roads along the national highways, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has brought out guidelines for their design criteria since there was no uniform scientific basis for the same.
As the service roads cater to the traffic diverted from the main carriageways during construction, the guidelines are expected to ensure durability and serviceability of service roads.
The norms released on Monday stipulate a formula to decide the design life of service road; expected period of time the stretches will function without needing major reconstruction. Thickness of bitumen layers and pavement type to be adopted on the basis of the region such as areas receiving high rainfall, industrial districts, defence zones, mining areas and economic zones are explained in the guidelines.
According to design criteria, all service or slip roads should have adequate drainage as per the standards with proper outfall and construction should be completed before the start of the work on the main carriageway and maintained as per the conditions of the contract.
Officials said that uniform guidelines would certainly help in maintaining consistency and quality of service road construction; vital for the overall infrastructure development. Better-maintained service roads can also enhance safety and reduce maintenance costs in the long run, they added.
The guidelines have been introduced as the ministry has observed that the service or slip roads deteriorate rapidly and sometimes, it leads to premature failures and increased maintenance interventions when the traffic is diverted from the main carriageways on the stretches during their upkeep or additional work.
The ministry also noted that on occasions, national highways projects are delayed which results in heavy traffic plying on the subsidiary road running parallel to a main highway for much longer duration than the expected period. The service roads also take load off from the carriageways when their access is restricted owing to some development.
“It is imperative that adequate capacity enhancement and design life considerations for service roads are incorporated at the initial design stage itself…It is also advised that appropriate modifications to be done in RFP (request for proposal), relevant schedules and the same shall be incorporated in all cases where bids are yet to be invited,” read the guidelines.
