Bitumen roads are made out of bituminous materials, and bitumen is a sticky black viscous liquid derived from natural deposits.
A bitumen road construction provides a smooth surface to ride on and emits less noise. It also has a lower starting cost and overall maintenance cost than concrete pavement.
Bitumen is utilized in road building and obtains specific distinctive qualities due to its diverse properties and benefits.
Origin of Bitumen:
The industry’s principal source of bitumen is crude oil. Crude oil is a complex combination of chemicals separated by a distillation tower. The vacuum bottom of the distillation tower is transferred to be treated and converted into bitumen.
Distinct forms of bitumen, such as penetration or oxidized bitumen, are created in the refinery by a different process on the vacuum bottom. This bitumen is mostly used in constructing roads.
Advantages of Bitumen road construction:
- Temperature Resistance
Bitumen road construction is resistant to high temperatures caused by melting and is unaffected by de-icing materials. It can take in high amounts of temperature for a longer period of time and yet stays unaffected in its functionality.
- A smooth ride surface
Roads constructed with bitumen have no joints and so provide a smooth surface to ride on. When compared to concrete pavements, it also emits less noise. The wear and tear on bituminous pavement is minimal, therefore the smoothness is preserved.
- Progressive Failure
The distortion and breakdown of bituminous pavement occurs gradually. Brittle failures are visible in the concrete pavement. Bituminous roads are built with high grade machinery pressed over the roads taking a long period of time, thereby ensuring that the distortion is minimal and slow.
- Rapid Repair
Bituminous roads have the potential of being fixed quickly. They don’t waste time retracing the traffic path since they set rapidly. The application of bitumen takes time, however repairing them becomes easier due to the efforts taken in the initial application.
- Construction in Stages
Bitumen road construction can be planned and completed in phases. It does not create any timelines or due dates before which the extended road construction needs to be completed. This aids in the execution of phased construction in the event of funding constraints or traffic estimation issues.
- Life is less expensive.
Bituminous pavements have lower startup and overall maintenance costs than concrete pavements. Bituminous roads as discussed earlier are built with muscle and long lasting nature in the very first application, thereby reducing the cost of repair in the remaining useful life of the road.
- Long lasting
A new, well-constructed bitumen pavement should endure at least 15 years before requiring substantial maintenance or full-depth reconstruction. Surface treatments like microsurfacing or thin overlays every 7-10 years, on the other hand, might stretch the time between major repairs to 20 years. Bitumen pavements are far less expensive and easy to maintain as the pavement is long lasting and requires minimum repairs, which is definitely more economical than it is to reconstruct a bad road.