Highways begins cold-milling of several roads in the city

Highways Department milling roads in Chennai to ensure smooth re-laying process with minimal traffic disruption.

The Highways Department has begun work to cold mill the surface of several roads including Velachery - SRP Tools Road, Lakshmi Puram - Puzhal Road,and Chennai –Ennore Road. These roads will be re-laid shortly.  

Sources in the Highways department explained that per day, around 150 metres of road surface is being milled or scrapped off. “We are ensuring that milling is done end-to-end so that there are no sharp edges on the road causing problems to two-wheeler riders. When milling is done in small patches, we take care that motorists are not put to any hardship,” explained a source. Milling is being done based on a court order so that the height of the roads dont get unduly increased due to re-laying.  

The paver machine can lay about 400 – 500 metres a day whereas milling can be done only for about 150 mts a day, which is why re-laying is done after a couple of days of milling. “Though the tender period is for a month, the works are being carried out as soon as possible, sometimes in only 3-4 days. If re-laying is done in smaller portions, there will be more joints causing inconvenience to motorists. Milling, cleaning the stretches of dust and removed bitumen and re-laying is done at night so that there is minimum disturbance to traffic flow.”  

The works are being carried out at a cost of ₹10 crore. Roads belonging to the Highways in areas such as Vanagaram, Ambattur, Puzhal, Madhavaram and Redhills will soon be milled and re-laid.  

Venkatesh, a resident of Thiruvanmiyur, said that some kind of warning signages can be placed ahead of milled stretches asking motorists to slow down so that bigger vehicles will avoid speeding up. “When larger vehicles speed up in these stretches, it makes riding very difficult for two-wheeler riders. As it is due to the uneven surface, we tend to lose balance and speeding of other motorists will add to the risk,” he said.