Design and Engineering of an Innovative Bituminized Jute Paving Fabric for Potential Application in Road Construction

Geotextiles are mainly made of man-made fibresbut since the last two decades natural fibre made geotextilelike jute geotextile have been found to be effective in improving geotechnical characteristics of soil and are being extensively used for various technical end-uses like erosion control, management of slopes, strengthening of roads, stabilization of embankments, protection of river banks, consolidation of soft soil, etc. The backdrop of growing global concern for environment concomitant with the alarming danger of carbon foot-print generation amalgamated with non-biodegradability and higher toxicity generation from the use of synthetic fibres have created an urge to come back to natural fibres, thereby opening new market opportunities.Jute Geotextiles (JGT), apart from its advantages of being eco-compatible and techno-economically viable, have proven to be among the most versatile and cost effective ground modification materials which play a significant part in modern pavement design and maintenance techniques.Several varieties of Jute Geotextiles (JGT) both woven and nonwoven have since been developed for a number of geotechnical end uses e.g. improving pavement performance, soil erosion, embankment, drainage system. But, the use of JGT has been restricted mainly as underlay in road construction for strengthening the pavement structure by increasing the soil California Bearing Ratio (CBR) value apart from the other end uses. Some fabrics are also being used as interlayer for the prevention of the reflective cracking in the road. But the use of JGT as overlay in the road construction has not yet been tried so far. Jute Paving Fabric which is a combination of woven and nonwoven jute fabric impregnated with suitable type andgrade of bitumen followed by its laboratory simulation testing carried out at the premiere Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi has great potential to be used as overlay fabric for strengthening the pavement structure as well as partial substitute of bitumen mastic commonly used in road construction. The focus of this paper is the designing and engineering of Bituminized Jute Paving Fabric (BJPF)and commercial application of the same on the roads of different traffic volumes with assessment of its performance based on design consideration, selection criteria and overall enactment.