In a move aimed at improving periodic maintenance of city roads, the Chennai Corporation will soon begin work on rating them on a technical basis.
The civic body has so far been focusing only on laying roads, forgetting about them for the next three years, and discounting periodic maintenance.
The Corporation is now developing a road quality index, which will indicate the general condition of each of the 33,000 roads in the city. While junior engineers will maintain a record of this statistical measure for each interior road, bus route road engineers will maintain records of the 471 bus routes.
The development of the statistical measure will require a manual survey of all the roads. Engineers will be tasked with identifying the worst roads in each neighbourhood every month and preparing a rank list of the roads based on the statistical measure. A range of issues on stretches, including potholes, low ride quality, bumps, depressions, utility cut patching, weathering, rutting and shoving, are likely to be screened by the engineers to arrive at the statistical rating.
“If the rating of a road crosses the statistically-acceptable limit for motorists or pedestrians, engineers will immediately carry out maintenance work. This will prevent the stretch from deteriorating and also prolong the life of the road,” said an official.
The Corporation would be able to give priority to repairing the worst roads in the city at any given point of time, he added. Previously, the Corporation selected roads for re-laying based on the recommendation of councillors, residents and officials, without any technical screening.
Trained engineers will shortly carry out the survey of the roads, officials said. They will record the nature, size and severity of the road problems before calculating the statistical measure. Over 75 roads managed by the highways department will not be covered by the index.
