Bhubaneswar: For the first time, a cement-less material has been used to construct a road in Odisha.
In an engineering coup, KIIT researchers have developed a cement-less green construction material, which was used on a pilot basis near Amanapada village in Cuttack district earlier this month.
The innovative ‘green concrete’ road was constructed without cement, using only industrial wastes. KIIT researchers claimed that the new technology, which does not contribute to global warming, can bring about a revolution in construction works.
In this process, fly ash — a waste product from thermal industries — is dumped on the earth spread over a large space. Hence, an alternative binder like geo-polymer concrete is an alternative construction material to the conventional cement concrete.
Fly ash is rich in silica and alumina, which reacts with an alkali solution to produce alumina silicate gel that binds the fine as well as coarse aggregates to produce a good mode of concrete.
The properties of fly ash based geo-polymer concrete on mechanical and durability properties are similar to normal cement concrete. In fact, the durability and serviceability are much better than cement concrete.
The pilot project was carried out by Rural Works Department, Cuttack, under the guidance of Associate Professor KIIT Deemed to be University Dillip Kumar Bera and former KIIT professor Ashoke Kumar Rath.
All the tests prior to implementation were carried out at the KIIT laboratory.
