A contractor in India has set records for the quantity of concrete paving carried out for a road project within a 24 hour period. The firm is working on an expressway for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and was able to pave a 2,580m stretch during 24 hours. This is a record for Asia, and is also one of the longest sections of road ever paved within 24 hours anywhere in the world.
The pavement quality concrete (PQC) was laid across four lanes for the project and the work equated to a record 10.32 lane km of roadway. The contractor was able to lay concrete across an area of 48,711m2. A total of 14,613m3 of concrete was laid in the 24 hour period, itself a record.
The firm used a specially-modified Wirtgen SP 1600 paver that was adapted to handle the 18.75m paving width required.
The feat by the contractor, Patel Infrastructure Limited, has been recognised by both the India Book of Records, and the Golden Book of World Records.
The section of road forms part of the greenfield Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway, which is being built with four lanes in either direction. The work was carried out by one of the world’s largest concrete pavers.
The feat comes in the backdrop of the Ministry having constructed 8,169km of National Highway routes (NH) from April 2020 to 15th January 2021 in the current financial year 2020-21. This has been achieved with an average speed of around 28.16km/day. During the same period in the last fiscal year, 7,573km of roads were constructed, with an average speed of 26.11km/day. The Ministry is hopeful that with such pace it should be able to deliver a construction target of 11,000km of roads being built in the fiscal year by 31st March.
