Saint-Gobain’s composite GlasGrid can be utilised in effectively in infrastructure projects. It can also increase the service life of bituminous roads.

 Innovative approaches to lower road repair costs are becoming more and more necessary. Saint-Gobain India ADFORS provides GlasGrid, a reinforcing composite, to extend the life of bituminous roads. The Composite Glass Fiber Reinforcement Grid has been the most effective over the past 40+ years at preventing the development of thermal and stress-related reflection cracks that could appear on the surface of a fresh bituminous overlay. More than 64 countries have utilised the product extensively for maintenance, runway, and highway construction, with around 3500 projects occurring annually. One of Saint-Gobain India’s unique products is ADFORS. It is utilised in significant linked projects, including airport runway projects (PPP, Civil and Defense), road projects (national highways, elevated road projects, State Highways), and other infrastructure-related undertakings.

Composite GlasGrid can increase the service life of bituminous roads significantly by integrating with various applications such as:

• Periodic road repairs and maintenance
• Road resurfacing/rehabilitation projects – deep milling and 40 mm thick bituminous overlay projects.
• Cement-treated base pavements (CTB)
• Full depth reclamation pavements (FDR)
• Greenfield construction
• Bituminous overlay on cement concrete road

This innovative technique acts as a membrane interlayer that absorbs stress to stop reflection cracks in new bituminous overlays. This technology may offer a viable and affordable alternative in most of India’s rehabilitation projects.

Some of the advantages of Saint-Gobain ADFORS composite GlasGrid are:

• Reduction in frequent maintenance activity.
• Better performance in fatigue damage, reflection cracking resistance and rutting of bituminous roads.
• Sustainable option.
• Lesser consumption of natural resources like aggregates.
• Recyclable in nature

Additionally, four-point bending fatigue tests performed on Saint-Gobain India ADFORS GlasGrid by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) reveal the fatigue life of bituminous mixtures reinforced with Saint-Gobain India ADFORS GlasGrid is at least three times higher compared to unreinforced bituminous mixtures.

A facility for accelerated pavement testing was constructed in IFSTTAR, France, using Saint-Gobain India ADFORS GlasGrid. Saint-Gobain India ADFORS GlasGrid prevented the development of cracks by a minimum of 2.4 times compared to unreinforced portions after subjecting the pavement to extreme loading conditions. University of Nottingham (UK), North Carolina State University (USA), EMPA (Switzerland), and University of Parma (Italy), to name just a few, have all conducted additional research studies on Saint-Gobain India ADFORS products. India Saint-Gobain ADFORS is dedicated to offering a long-term, environmentally responsible, and more effective solution for the nation’s road infrastructure.