Evaluation of Construction Materials for Soil Stabilization in Road Making Industry – A Techno Economic Study

Abstract

Poor subgrade soil conditions can lead to inadequate pavement support and reduce pavement life. Soils may be improved by soil stabilization by stabilizing by lime, fly ash, cement, rice husk, etc. which are generally waste products and they create disposal problems. These additives can be used with a variety of soils to help improve their engineering properties. The effectiveness of these additives depends on the soil treated and the amount of additive used. The subgrade strength is mostly expressed in terms of California Bearing Ratio (CBR). Weaker subgrade essentially requires thicker layers whereas stronger subgrade goes well with thinner pavement layers. The pavement and the subgrade mutually must sustain the traffic volume. This work attempts to understand the strength of subgrade in terms of CBR values subjected to different types of stabilizers. Treatment with lime and fly ash was found to be an effective option for improvement of soil properties, based on the testing conducted as a part of this work. It was found that with the addition of stabilizers i.e. lime and fly ash, the C.B.R. increased upto a certain limit but after that the C.B.R. decreased even on the further addition of stabilizers.