Bhubaneswar, Dec. 5: Experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here as well as teachers invited from South Africa are all set to provide specialised training to engineers of the public works department in construction of quality pavements in the city.

The works department has selected five civil engineers of assistant executive rank to undergo training from December 12 to 16.

"The engineers selected for the purpose will be trained and implement their knowledge while planning the construction of pavements," said a senior official of the works department.

The pavements, the engineers will be trained to build, would last at least for 50 years. "The load of vehicles on pavements is an important factor that has often been neglected in most of the design procedure. The increasing traffic and depletion of natural resources have pushed researchers to try and design pavements with a long life," said Umesh Chandra Sahu, who will co-ordinate the course.

Sahu said newspaper engineers from the field would be trained in modules, which include design of long-life composite pavements, climate change, energy sustainability, vehicle pavement interaction and traffic loading, evaluation through accelerated load-testing facility, pavement material characterisation, monitoring, modelling and so on.

Wynand JvdM Steyn from University of Pretoria, South Africa, will be guest faculty for the programme.

"Durable pavements are important when it comes to the beauty of the city. Bhubaneswar has already got a reward of becoming the first smart city in the country. It should live up to expectations. The upcoming training of the engineers will definitely provide a brief overview of the subject," said works department chief engineer S.R. Sethy.

Experts at the 75th Indian Road Congress, which had been held here last year, also stressed construction of durable pavements. They had then provided a specific guideline for construction of pavement. According to the guidelines, flexible pavements should be built in three-layer structure to make them durable.

"The course has been designed to understand the structure of pavements and its performance under vehicular loading under the prevailing environmental condition. It is a specialised course, which can be taken by people working in the field. The course and the expertise of the international faculty will later be extended to the students of our institute," said Sahu.

Urban planner Ramesh Parida said professionals in the field should learn to evaluate the structural strength of pavements using various techniques such as accelerated load testing facility.

"This is a welcome programme and the attendees should benefit immensely," said Parida.