A 'WBM' road stands for 'Water Bound Macadam' road. It derives its last part of the name from an Engineer named Macadam who proposed and designed the structure of this road section. The other part of the name stands relevant as this road type essentially uses the principle of binding the various in-situ layers of boulders, stones, fine aggregates and fillers as moorum, stone dust, sand, etc.

A typical WBM road section comprises of the following basic structure:

• Subgrade preparation : This includes removal of the top soil, vegetation and loose sub-surface (if any) up to the desired reduced levels. The subgrade should be well consolidated and compacted to a camber of 1 in 60 or 1 in 48.
  
• Sub-base and base preparation : This is the base course and is also called soling. It comprises of well compacted base made out of rolling boulders/ kankar/ overburnt brick ballast in three layers, viz., the larger sized boulders (sized 63mm to 40mm) evenly placed as the bottom-most layer; medium sized aggregates (sized 40mm to 25mm) evenly placed as the middle layer; and smaller sized aggregates (sized 25mm and down) evenly placed as filler material as the top layer. The layers should be compacted well longitudinally in pre-determined sections by a 10 tonne roller with the final compacted layer being about 125mm thick. A second course of such sub-base commonly known as base and comprising of three layer system should be provided over the well compacted 1st course so that the total compacted thickness of the sub-base and base is about 250mm. The compacted base should be dry-rolled followed by saturating it well with water and subsequent wet-rolling until the base becomes cohesive and fully saturated.
  
• Surface dressing : The sub-base & base are allowed to be bone dry over a period of time. The loose dust and dirt are removed by a combination of wire brushes, hard brush brooms and soft brushes so as to expose clean metal surface to a depth of 6mm to 12mm, but without loosening the embedded stones.
• Asphalting : The temporary and semi-permanent roads involve only the above mentioned steps. However, asphalting is done for making the roads all-weather and durable. The process includes binding the surface with alternate bituminous tack coats and applying a 40mm layer of bituminous concrete (commonly known as 'premix'). The final layer of 25mm thick bituminous mix of fine aggregates and a seal coat are applied as a wearing course and to make the road water tight for enhanced durability.

WBM road >>

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-  Image source (screenshot of the mentioned webpage) & recommended related information webpage:  MACADAM.htm

-  Query sent by Vivek Kumar

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BnM>>The global sentiment on the current financial meltdown no doubt plays a direct or indirect impact on the real estate sector as a whole, and property sector in India is no different. The stock market listed big boys of Indian realty sector, viz., DLF and Unitech are visibly bearing the brunt of this global aspect presently with their net worth being marginalized day by day forcing these companies to be more realistic in valuations and property price pegging.

Other stock market listed big shots like Ansals Housing, Omaxe, Parsvanath, Mahindra Lifespace, Shobha Developers, and the likes are also feeling the heat due to a combination of receding demand, unavailable/ negligible/ expensive fund borrowings and diminishing working capital margins on existing as well as future projects in pipeline.  It could not have been worst for them and the entire realty sector than this when compared with the recent past.

Lets wait and watch to see which way the wind blows from hereon. The tussle is still on between the desires of a genuine end user (who wants to buy a property for own occupation, or who want to buy a house as a family investment for his/her children and not the ones who are mere speculators and cartel players);  and the likes of realty companies/ builders/ property developers/ realty middlemen/ agents/ etc. And the core of this tussle lies in the fact as to which way the property prices/ valuations swing from hereon...  --- towards the realistic and affordable levels as desired by the common man or again towards the speculative regime as it was in the last 3-4 years.

Hmmm... lets wait and watch for some time...  thats perhaps the best option for the time being!

[Note: Reproduced herein below is a latest news report that appeared today on MSN-India's website. The item is reproduced with the intention to only share the information]

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Source : msn.co.in (dt 12/Feb/09)

Housing prices down 30% in 4 months: JLLM

New Delhi: The prices of houses have come down by up to 30 per cent over the last four months but weak consumer sentiments continue to prevail resulting in subdued demand, says realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM).

Affordability metrics for homebuyers have started to improve since October due to the sharp correction in property prices, reduction in mortgage rates and smaller unit sizes per apartment, it said.

"Currently, transaction prices in most markets are down by 25-30 per cent across the board," JLLM Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said.

Weak Diwali sales last year and a "virtual standstill" in incremental credit lending during October-December period of the current fiscal have forced developers to mark down their asking rates, he added.

"Price corrections are more pronounced in new launches than existing projects, which are mostly sold to end-users or investors and hence are cost covered," Puri said.

He, however, said demand for housing properties remains subdued with end-users postponing their home-purchase decisions given an uncertain job market and expectation of further price corrections.

The consultant said though many developers have shifted their focus towards building affordable houses in the last few months, but due to thin margins on account of high costs of existing land inventories (mainly acquired over 2006-08) and the current level of construction costs, companies are finding it difficult to remain afloat.

"JLLM expects Rs 1,800-Rs 2,000 per sq ft as the bare minimum pricing level in the current market," Puri added.

Source: PTI

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Autodesk, one of the world's leading organizations having significant presence in state-of-the-art 2D and 3D design and engineering technologies, needs no further introduction as it is a very well known engineering software provider the world over.

Autodesk has been into the business of letting their users and customers visualize, simulate, and analyze the real-world performance of their ideas early in the design process, are into this field since 1982.  The revolutionary engineering software tool, commonly known as AutoCAD, is one of the supreme products of this organization.  There would hardly be an engineering person all around the world who has not been a direct or indirect user of their services and tools at any given point of time.

The organization boasts of providing their "customers the flexibility to optimize and improve designs before actually executing them. thereby not only see, but experience, their designs before they are real, empowering them to save time and money, improve quality, and foster innovation".

Lately it seems from various public domain campaigns and media advertisements, the organization has ventured into building a strong students and end-users community all round the globe so as to draw the global elite professional minds towards their products and services. And India happens to be one of the major target countries for this mind-pool besides other engineering mind pool regions & promising marketplaces.

Beside giving (partly conditional) opportunity to let users download and use free software utilities, the other salient features that Autodesk is offering the to-be-members & target Student Community are:

# Learning and Tutorials
# Job Posting
# Questions and Answers
# Forums and blogs
# Product Tips
# Link and Resources
# Group and Class Discussions
# Industry Articles
# Connect with students and teachers all around the world

Those of you who tend to be interested, no matter if you are an engineering student or not, may visit their weblinks (as also reproduced hereunder below for ready reference of BRICKS-n-MORTAR.com users) and check out whats on offer. Interestingly, to promote their campaign, Autodesk is also offering some gift to early 200 members who help them add more people to their community.

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Related weblinks for ready reference:

• students.autodesk.com/india
• autodesk's official blog
• autodesk.com's communities
  
• autodesk software downloads
• join autodesk's student community

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Blog Post Title: Autodesk on a Mission to Build a Strong Student Community in India & Worldwide


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