Shell Instapave

Effective and affordable all-weather roads, helping to improve the quality of life in local communities by offering more people access to local amenities

Shell Instapave Systems offer rural areas a number of attractive advantages to conventional paving systems. They offer a service suitable for light to medium traffic, making them more cost effective than hot mix or concrete systems for use in paving rural roads^*. Over the road lifecycle they are also more cost-effective than maintaining gravel roads, which can sometimes require regravelling as often as twice a year.

Roads connect, support and help communities. They give children reliable, easy access to local schools. They provide a network that allows people and businesses to reach local amenities, towns and markets. Good roads can be lifelines, making important facilities such as medical centres accessible quickly to those who need them most.

Good all-weather roads can make a real difference. Shell Instapave Systems are a simple and cost effective solution for sealing rural gravel roads, helping to improve the quality of life in local communities by offering more people access to local amenities.

Whole lifecycle analysis within Shell has shown that Shell Instapave Systems are cost-effective paving systems for a medium to long term surface lifespan. In El Salvador, Shell’s results taken over a 10-year period show a total lifecycle cost, including construction and maintenance, significantly lower than that of alternative road paving technologies. Based on these results, Shell Instapave Systems can be up to 40% cheaper than gravel road options, up to 50% cheaper than hot mix asphalt and up to 110% cheaper than concrete paving systems.

The value that good rural roads provide is supported by facts from the World Bank (2009)^*:

• Impact studies have proved the benefits good rural roads can have on local health and education
• In just one area of India, the average household income rose from $375 to $700 p.a. and literacy rates increased from 32% to 43% following investment in local roads Pakistan alone is spending $3 billion on rural road development over the next 5 years
• The World Bank spends $1 billion on rural roads every year.

In fact, the World Bank concludes that Rural road investments are found to reduce poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, higher wages, lower input and transportation costs, and higher output prices. Rural roads also lead to higher girls’ and boys’ schooling^**.

At Shell Bitumen, we recognise that everyone should have access to local markets, education and healthcare. This is why we develop paving systems which are designed to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of local communities.

Please contact your local Shell sales contact for the country specific availability

^{* International Development Association: Rural Roads; linking people, markets and services; http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTRURALT/Resources/515369-1264605855368/IDA_tr.pdf}

^{** The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh}