LIFE CYCLE COST OF BITUMINOUS PAVEMENTS AND CONCRETE PAVEMENTS IN URBAN AREAS

Road building needs huge investments not only for construction of new infrastructure but also for the repair and maintenance of the old ones. In case of developing countries, like India, there is a shortage of funds required for new infrastructure projects both for construction and more significantly for their maintenance and repairs. Today’s focus is on the construction of long-term performing pavement. Most of our roads are bituminous pavements which are showing early sign of distresses like rutting, cracking, ageing, etc due to increasing loads, intensity of traffic, high tyre pressure, etc. Concrete pavements can be adopted as an alternative to traditional bituminous pavements. One of the possible alternative rehabilitation solutions to bituminous overlays is the use of whitetopping overlay on an existing bituminous pavement. In this study an attempt is made to evaluate life cycle cost analysis of concrete and bituminous pavements and suggest a beneficial alternative amongst them.