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Breakthrough in road repair work

Published

4 years ago

October 14, 2021

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The UTWT-24, ultra-thin white topping, is a very viable solution for roads which need faster pace in addition to low maintenance cost and economy. Avijit Chaubey and Arun Prakash, of ACC present a case study of two locations where UTWT-24 was put to use.

Roads have been constructed with bitumen binders for a long time now but they face a lot of issues, when compared to concrete roads. The biggest issue with bitumen roads is their service life, which usually is not more than two years if it is a road seeing heavy traffic or prone to heavy rainfall.Conventional concrete roads are much durable and have a life of more than 35 years, like ACC’s venture on Marine Drive, which was constructed fully with concrete. However, repairing an existing road with concrete in highly trafficked areas is a big challenge and is almost impossible at times, since it requires traffic control for almost 14 days after construction.

A solution has now been found and incorporated across many places. This is the UTWT, the ultra-thin white topping. . The concept is based on high strength concrete, of 35 MPa compressive strength and 3.95 MPa flexural strength, which allows traffic to ply within a period of four days. With this method, joints are spaced at reduced intervals of one metre in both directions, reducing the probability of cracking due to flexure. To achieve this performance in concrete at an early stage is a feat in itself, as normally this kind of strength is conventionally achieved at 28 days.

However, repair of roads in very highly trafficked areas with UTWT poses a big challenge both to the traffic plying on the road as well as to the contractor, given the four days repair period.

ACC has now come up with a solution wherein a road can be repaired and opened to traffic within 24 hours from the time of casting. The concrete has been so designed that the required performance of concrete is achieved within 24 hours. The main challenge in developing this product was that any concrete which is designed for high early strength does not have the required retention period, say above half an hour. Due to a very low water-cement ratio, the heat liberated through hydration, accelarates the hydration process, thus reducing the slump of concrete at a very rapid rate. Also, concrete which has high strength usually has high stickiness in its fresh state, which creates a lot of issues regarding placement and finish.

Then, apart from the strength and workability issues, the biggest concern for an engineer is always the cost of the product, and this is an expensive product. The solution developed, thus, had to take into consideration all these issues. UTWT-24 was an outcome of a series laboratory trials, more than a hundred of them, and more than 30 site trials, on a total of almost 150 cubic metres of concrete. The product achieves a compressive strength of 45 MPa+ and flexural strength of 4 MPa+ in 24 hours; it not only concentrates on compressive strength but also on the toughness of concrete.

Toughness is the property which measures the strain before the concrete fails, unlike strength, which measures the stress required for concrete to fail. For example: in Fig 1, the concrete fails almost at 0 mm deflection, whereas in Fig 2 the concrete fails at much higher deflection, thus acting as an medium of tranferring the load effectively to the sub-base.

Case 1: Tembhi Naka (Thane west)

A stretch of 40 m was taken up at Tembhi Naka, to be repaired by overlay. The existing road was first milled down to get a rough surface so that bond between the existing subgrade and the concrete overlay was achieved. UTWT-24 was laid on the road which had properties as detailed in Table 1. The concrete was sampled from three different vehicles to check the uniformity of the product.

Sampling for hardened properties was done from four transit mixers. The hardened properties were measured from the time of batching and are illustrated in Table 2

Laying of UTWT-24 and related operations

Based on test results of the concrete in a fresh state, it is clear that the concrete had self-levelling properties. The average slump slow was 600 mm. Based on this result, it may seem that maintaining the required camber with this concrete may not be possible, but that was not the case. The concrete was laid and a camber of 2 cm in a horizontal distance of 4 m was maintained. (The camber can be made even steeper if required with the same concrete.) The curing practice adopted earlier was by using chemical membrane but later it was learnt that the best form of curing, specially to avoid plastic shrinkage cracks, was by water spraying.

As discussed earlier, concretes which give high strength at early stages show signs of a fast decline in workability. Hence, the workmen were trained to syncronise their activities so that all the surface finishing was done before the concrete sets. Brooming of the surface started at five hours from the time of batching, and groove cutting started at 16 hours. The area is situated in a locality where groove cutting would have created a nuisance for those in the vicinity. So, groove cutting was done in the morning, due to which the age of concrete went up to 16 hours.

Opening road to traffic within 22 hours from the time of laying

The road was opened to traffic which is usually a mix of heavy and light vehicles.

Case 2: VECL service road (Luna- Vadodara)

VECL (Vadodara Enviro Channel) is a quasi-government organisation led by eminent leader Satish Panchal. The organisation is engaged in the treatment of industrial effluents from various industries in the industrial belt. The industries dispose of the effluents into the VECL channeland VECL then treats them and finally disposes of them into the sea. Due to the presence of harmful chemicals in the effluents, the channel itself made of concrete and constantly facing deterioration, requires frequent repairs.. A parallel service road to the channel gives access to VECL engineers to repair and maintain it.The road also is used by heavy industrial vehicles and villagers; in fact, though built for servicing the channel, the road is used by everyone as there is no other option. The entire service road is 55 kms long and has been in service since the 1970s. The organisation anually spends more than Rs 1 crore on repair of the road.

After the launch of UTWT-24, VECL came forward to implement the technology.

The road has random stretches which are damaged, and many potholes. It was decided that instead of going for patchwork and repairing only the potholes, a stretch of the worst affected portion would be repaired.

The road was constructed for a stretch of 500 m and a stretch of 50 m was taken up at a time. The fresh and hardened properties of concrete sampled from a transit mixer are illustrated in Table 3.

Conclusion

The construction of bitumen roads does not last the entire designed life of the project, and leads to a high maintenance cost. Moreover, the roads give way during the monsoons, resulting in slow-moving traffic and poor ride quality.

Concrete roads, though, have a better service life and show the least signs of damage during its life, but may not be suitable for repair work because of its long curing period.

UTWT-24 is a concrete overlay solution for the repair and construction of roads which need to be thrown open for traffic soon.

The case studies presented here portray the performance and speed of implementation of UTWT-24 for construction of roads. It may be concluded that UTWT-24 is a viable solution for roads which need faster pace in addition to low maintenance costs.

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Price hikes, drop in input costs help cement industry to post positive margins: Care Ratings

Published

4 years ago

October 21, 2021

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Region-wise,the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by thenorthern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13%of the capacity, respectively.

The cement industry is expected to post positive margins on decent price hikes over the months, falling raw material prices and marked drop in overall production costs, said an analysis of Care Ratings.

Wholesale and retail prices of cement have increased 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively, in the current financial year. As whole prices have remained elevated in most of the markets in the months of FY20, against the corresponding period of the previous year.

Similarly, electricity and fuel cost have declined 11.9% during 9M FY20 due to drop in crude oil prices. Logistics costs, the biggest cost for cement industry, has also dropped 7.7% (selling and distribution) as the Railways extended the benefit of exemption from busy season surcharge. Moreover, the cost of raw materials, too, declined 5.1% given the price of limestone had fallen 11.3% in the same aforementioned period, the analysis said.

According to Care Ratings, though the overall sales revenue has increased only 1.3%, against 16% growth in the year-ago period, the overall expenditure has declined 3.2% which has benefited the industry largely given the moderation in sales.

Even though FY20 has been subdued in terms of production and demand, the fall in cost of production has still supported the cement industry by clocking in positive margins, the rating agency said.

Cement demand is closely linked to the overall economic growth, particularly the housing and infrastructure sector. The cement sector will be seeing a sharp growth in volumes mainly due to increasing demand from affordable housing and other government infrastructure projects like roads, metros, airports, irrigation.

The government’s newly introduced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), with its target of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025, is a detailed road map focused on economic revival through infrastructure development.

The NIP covers a gamut of sectors; rural and urban infrastructure and entails investments of Rs.102 lakh crore to be undertaken by the central government, state governments and the private sector. Of the total projects of the NIP, 42% are under implementation while 19% are under development, 31% are at the conceptual stage and 8% are yet to be classified.

The sectors that will be of focus will be roads, railways, power (renewable and conventional), irrigation and urban infrastructure. These sectors together account for 79% of the proposed investments in six years to 2025. Given the government’s thrust on infrastructure creation, it is likely to benefit the cement industry going forward.

Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, aimed at providing affordable housing, will be a strong driver to lift cement demand. Prices have started correcting Q4 FY20 onwards due to revival in demand of the commodity, the agency said in its analysis.

Industry’s sales revenue has grown at a CAGR of 7.3% during FY15-19 but has grown only 1.3% in the current financial year. Tepid demand throughout the country in the first half of the year has led to the contraction of sales revenue. Fall in the total expenditure of cement firms had aided in improving the operating profit and net profit margins of the industry (OPM was 15.2 during 9M FY19 and NPM was 3.1 during 9M FY19). Interest coverage ratio, too, has improved on an overall basis (ICR was 3.3 during 9M FY19).

According to Cement Manufacturers Association, India accounts for over 8% of the overall global installed capacity. Region-wise, the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by the northern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13% of the capacity, respectively.

Installed capacity of domestic cement makers has increased at a CAGR of 4.9% during FY16-20. Manufacturers have been able to maintain a capacity utilisation rate above 65% in the past quinquennium. In the current financial year due to the prolonged rains in many parts of the country, the capacity utilisation rate has fallen from 70% during FY19 to 66% currently (YTD).

Source:moneycontrol.com

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Wonder Cement shows journey of cement with new campaign

Published

4 years ago

October 21, 2021

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The campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV…

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Cement manufacturing company Wonder Cement, has announced the launch of a digital campaign ‘Har Raah Mein Wonder Hai’. The campaign has been designed specifically to run on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

#HarRaahMeinWonderHai is a one-minute video, designed and conceptualised by its digital media partner Triature Digital Marketing and Technologies Pvt Ltd. The entire journey of the cement brand from leaving the factory, going through various weather conditions and witnessing the beauty of nature and wonders through the way until it reaches the destination i.e., to the consumer is very intriguing and the brand has tried to showcase the same with the film.

Sanjay Joshi, executive director, Wonder Cement, said, "Cement as a product poses a unique marketing challenge. Most consumers will build their homes once and therefore buy cement once in a lifetime. It is critical for a cement company to connect with their consumers emotionally. As a part of our communication strategy, it is our endeavor to reach out to a large audience of this country through digital. Wonder Cement always a pioneer in digital, with the launch of our IGTV campaign #HarRahMeinWonderHai, is the first brand in the cement category to venture into this space. Through this campaign, we have captured the emotional journey of a cement bag through its own perspective and depicted what it takes to lay the foundation of one’s dreams and turn them into reality."

The story begins with a family performing the bhoomi poojan of their new plot. It is the place where they are investing their life-long earnings; and planning to build a dream house for the family and children. The family believes in the tradition of having a ‘perfect shuruaat’ (perfect beginning) for their future dream house. The video later highlights the process of construction and in sequence it is emphasising the value of ‘Perfect Shuruaat’ through the eyes of a cement bag.

Tarun Singh Chauhan, management advisor and brand consultant, Wonder Cement, said, "Our objective with this campaign was to show that the cement produced at the Wonder Cement plant speaks for itself, its quality, trust and most of all perfection. The only way this was possible was to take the perspective of a cement bag and showing its journey of perfection from beginning till the end."

According to the company, the campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV. No other brand in this category has created content specific to the platform.

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In spite of company’s optimism, demand weakness in cement is seen in the 4% y-o-y drop in sales volume. (Reuters)

Published

4 years ago

October 21, 2021

admin

Cost cuts and better realizations save? the ?day ?for ?UltraTech Cement, Updated: 27 Jan 2020, Vatsala Kamat from Live Mint

Lower cost of energy and logistics helped Ebitda per tonne rise by about 29% in Q3
Premiumization of acquired brands, synergistic?operations hold promise for future profit growth Topics

UltraTech Cement
India’s largest cement producer UltraTech Cement Ltd turned out a bittersweet show in the December quarter. A sharp drop in fuel costs and higher realizations helped drive profit growth. But the inherent demand weakness was evident in the sales volumes drop during the quarter.

Better realizations during the December quarter, in spite of the 4% year-on-year volume decline, minimized the pain. Net stand-alone revenue fell by 2.6% to ?9,981.8 crore.

But as pointed out earlier, lower costs on most fronts helped profitability. The chart alongside shows the sharp drop in energy costs led by lower petcoke prices, lower fuel consumption and higher use of green power. Logistics costs, too, fell due to lower railway freight charges and synergies from the acquired assets. These savings helped offset the increase in raw material costs.

The upshot: Q3 Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of about ?990 per tonne was 29% higher from a year ago. The jump in profit on a per tonne basis was more or less along expected lines, given the increase in realizations. "Besides, the reduction in net debt by about ?2,000 crore is a key positive," said Binod Modi, analyst at Reliance Securities Ltd.

Graphic by Santosh Sharma/Mint
What also impressed analysts is the nimble-footed integration of the recently merged cement assets of Nathdwara and Century, which was a concern on the Street.

Kunal Shah, analyst (institutional equities) at Yes Securities (India) Ltd, said: "The company has proved its ability of asset integration. Century’s cement assets were ramped up to 79% capacity utilization in December, even as they operated Nathdwara generating an Ebitda of ?1,500 per tonne."

Looks like the demand weakness mirrored in weak sales during the quarter was masked by the deft integration and synergies derived from these acquired assets. This drove UltraTech’s stock up by 2.6% to ?4,643 after the Q3 results were declared on Friday.

Brand transition from Century to UltraTech, which is 55% complete, is likely to touch 80% by September 2020. A report by Jefferies India Pvt. Ltd highlights that the Ebitda per tonne for premium brands is about ?5-10 higher per bag than the average (A cement bag weighs 50kg). Of course, with competition increasing in the arena, it remains to be seen how brand premiumization in the cement industry will pan out. UltraTech Cement scores well among peers here.

However, there are road bumps ahead for the cement sector and for UltraTech. Falling gross domestic product growth, fiscal slippages and lower budgetary allocation to infrastructure sector are making industry houses jittery on growth. Although UltraTech’s management is confident that cement demand is looking up, sustainability and pricing power remains a worry for the near term.