Slippages on Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway indicate design flaw, not construction defect

Slippages on sections of the Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway within days of its inauguration point to a design issue, not a construction defect, a top govt official has said, adding that simple patchwork repairs will not solve the problem. "The affected stretches will have to be rebuilt bottom up. We need to ensure there is no laxity at the designing stage of projects. This is a major concern for us, especially since the expressway has been executed under Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM),

The Centre is awaiting the final report of an expert who conducted a detailed investigation into the slippages. "There was no deficiency in the thickness of the road or in the pavement layers beneath it," the official added. In HAM projects, the private developer is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the project through the entire concession period, which, typically, is 15 years. A preliminary investigation by an IIT Kharagpur professor had identified the use of weak, highly plastic soil beneath parts of the expressway as one of the main reasons for the slippages. Plastic soil loses strength when wet and can get deformed under load. The preliminary report shows poor drainage as a contributing factor.