My attention was drawn to a lead write-up on the subject by M. Sultana published on 16th February 2015 in your daily. It was pointed out in the write-up that concrete roads have longer life span in mostly water bound and low water table soil of Bangladesh. But it is possibly not cost effective. Most of our roads are built on earth filled embankments that are usually not so compacted layer by layer. The result is that during rainy season and floods, the earth filled embankment below the roadway, is loosened and washed away damaging the metal road surface on top. For a bitumen laid road, the repairing is easier and less expensive than that a concrete road. No wonder, bituminous roads are known as flexible roadway
Given the generally high subsoil water level in most areas of Bangladesh, and the flooding that happens during rainy seasons, the cost of running repair and maintenance of concrete roads is much higher. Although I am not a civil engineer, this was my personal experience during the upgrading and rebuilding of Dhaka-Mawa road, way back in 1980s.
Engr. S.A.Mansoor
Dhaka.
sam@dhakacom.com
Concrete versus bituminous roads
FE Team | Published: February 19, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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