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Maccaferri in India recently announced the completion of one of its biggest landslide mitigation projects in Lambagarh, Uttarakhand located on NH-58, the road leading to the holy shrine of Badrinath temple. Extreme weather events are on the rise in the Himalayan regions with heavy loss and damage occurring to both human life and infrastructure. These areas are highly prone to landslides and rockfalls owing to both natural and man-made factors. Landslides have been common since the 1980s and are known to disrupts the traffic during the monsoon season, holding up devotees for days together at either end of the landslide. To address this problem the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways designed a solution to counteract the destabilizing forces in the restricted space and thus improve the safety and quality of the road.
Lambagarh Project Site Completed
As part of this solution implementation, Maccaferri won the national competitive bid to construct a reinforced soil wall (maximum height of 44 meters) with gabions as a facia (Terramesh system) and high strength geogrid (ParaLink) for reinforcement across a stretch of 500 meters. Further, to protect the road from the direct impact of falling debris and rocks, a rockfall embankment of 320 meters length and 10 meters height was constructed using Terramesh and ParaLink reinforcement at the hillside toe. A flexible pavement has been constructed as part of the same project.
Maccaferri is the inventor of gabions, and these are widely used in civil engineering construction especially in highways, railways, mining, and hilly terrains. Gabions are cages which are engineered from double twisted hexagonal woven steel wire mesh. These are assembled and filled with stones at the project site. Terramesh units are made of gabion facia along with an integrated tail as soil reinforcement. ParaLink geogrids are planar structures consisting of a monoaxial array of composite geosynthetics strips and are used for soil reinforcement applications, including reinforced soils walls and basal reinforcement solutions. These products are locally manufactured as over the past two decades, Maccaferri has invested in world class state of the art manufacturing facilities and has successfully established its manufacturing footprint across India with production units in Ranjangaon (Maharashtra), Shirur (Maharashtra) and Una (Himachal Pradesh).
During the project construction, there were two key challenges that were faced but efficiently managed by Maccaferri. The first one pertained to the limited construction working period of 5 months in a year due to the monsoon, snowfall and pilgrim’s rush putting a halt to any project activities in the remaining months. The second key challenge was to keep the existing narrow road open and to ensure a smooth and safe flow of traffic during the project construction.
Mr. Vikramjiet Roy, the Managing Director of Maccaferri in India and the Regional CEO of the ISEAP (India, South-East Asia & Pacific) Region at the Officine Maccaferri Group said, “We understand the dynamism of the Indian infrastructure industry and are moving to offer better and more cost-effective solutions and technology that dwell with the Indian landscape. To meet the challenges of the future, we have a very strong asset to rely on: 140 years of documented history. Maccaferri solutions provide environmental, social and economic benefits mitigating natural and anthropogenic hazards, respecting the environment, enhancing people safety and improving their lives. For the construction of the reinforced soil wall in Lambagarh, the stones and backfill material were locally sourced hence making the solution economical with a low carbon footprint. Our core purpose is to be the Sherpa on the imagination-to-implementation journey to make our nation a leader in sustainable infrastructure solutions with the objective of building an India with world-class infrastructure that leads the world into a sustainable and safer future.”
Even though for this project Maccaferri implemented the solutions as provided by the client, however, for many other projects across India the company proceed through all the stages of development; manufacturing, designing, and installing solutions. As part of their service, technical assistance is provided to partners for installation of Maccaferri’s advanced solutions. For complex and strategic projects that are not common in the industry, they have a specialized construction company (Maccaferri Infrastructure Private Limited) to take up such turnkey projects in India. Over the years, Maccaferri has worked successfully on over 1200 projects across India with various well-known private and public entities, most of which have been successfully completed in record time and these living structures with their ecological value enhancement are its best credentials.
About Maccaferri in India
Backed by a global legacy, Maccaferri in India is a prominent civil engineering solution provider, was established in India in 1998. MESPL’s diverse offerings are uniquely designed to cater to sectors namely – Transportation & Urban Infrastructure, Environmental Protection, Mining, Emergency & Flood, Energy, Military, River Control Works and many more. The company has successfully worked on over 1200 projects across the demography, making them one of the most trusted solution providers for complex and challenging problems. Their extensive portfolio continues to expand on R&D, monitoring of market trends, identifying the right opportunities, and analyzing consumer demand. Over the years, the company has invested in world class state of the art manufacturing facilities and has successfully established its manufacturing footprint across the demography with production units in Ranjangaon (Maharashtra), Shirur (Maharashtra) and Una (Himachal Pradesh). Some of the company’s key clientele includes the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Airport Authority of India, IRCON, Zonal Railways, Border Roads Organization, Northeast Frontier Railways, Public Works Department of various states in India, NHPC, amongst many others.