Ingeniería de Sistemas de Riego y Drenaje

Road Construction, Maintenance Challenges and their Solutions in Kashmir

Abstract

Rashid M, Bhat SH and Bahsir IA

The primary focus of our study is to identify the challenges and difficulties that we face and to find some feasible solutions while constructing and maintenance of roads in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The roads pass through the swathes, that are mostly frost prone, located at high altitudes and we experience sub-zero temperature there. Apart from its mountainous nature, the climatic conditions are very harsh for most part of the year, in which the precipitation is more, mostly in the form of snow that covers the whole of the land including roads. The valley has a few exits in the form of national highways that pass through mountainous ranges at very high altitudes, where the snowfall is heavy during winter months. The state being dominated by undulating topography, road is the prime means of transport. The carving of roads and their maintenance through the continuous mountainous ranges has become a challenge for the engineers and constructors. The cause of concern is that Kashmir has the road density of 35. 71 km per 100 sq km, this is one of the lowest in the country. In this paper, we introduce some of the materials and some of the improved methods in road construction in order to overcome the challenges that we encounter during construction and maintenance of roads in Kashmir.