Tabletop speed breakers, texture surfacing to make black spots safe

Lucknow: Following an audit report by IIT Delhi on black spots in the city, the public works department (PWD) has introduced ‘texture surfacing’ and tabletop speed breakers at 23 accident prone areas in the state capital.The project will cost around Rs 5 crore to minimize road accidents in the city.According to PWD, the 23 black spots include Parivartan roundabout, IT crossing, Bus stop trisection (Shaheed Smarak), CMS Kanausi, 1090 roundabout, Sarpotganj intersection, Eco Garden, Behata, IIM roundabout, Pakkdipul, VIP road, Bhainsa Kund, Malhaur, Chandrika Devi temple intersection, Vijaynagar, Para roundabout, Dubagga, Alambagh intersection, Piccadily crossing, Awadh roundabout, Barabirwa crossing, Matiyari intersection and Mawaiya trisection.“After the audit, IIT Delhi recommended texture surfacing at the black spots. It’s a very important traffic calming measure and is used for creating friction and skid resistance which results in slowing down the speed of vehicles and avoiding collisions. For years, texture surfacing has prevented many accidents in New Delhi. The PWD is introducing the concept in Uttar Pradesh and that too in the state capital for the first time,” said PWD executive engineer Maneesh Verma. In texture surfacing, cut stones are used of size 10cmx10cmx7.5cm which are cemented on the surface with over 5cm thick cement mortar (1:3). Spacing between cut stones is10mm.The texture surfacing will be laid up to six metres in length covering the entire width of the road. After this, a five metre long and 10 cm high bitumen tabletop speed breaker with 1.7 metre ramp on each side is being constructed some 10-20 metres away from texture surfacing patch to further reduce the speed of the vehicle.The public works department will also install signage to alert drivers about the speed breakers on the accident prone areas. At present, the department is working on 15 black spots to install texture surfacing and tabletop speed breakers.