Chapter 16 - The Use of Alternative and Improved Construction Materials and Geosynthetics for Pavements

Abstract

Traditional construction materials can be scarce or very expensive for several civil engineering works. Nowadays, significant increases in the cost of construction materials can also be a consequence of environmental restriction to their exploitation. Thus, there is an increasing interest on the use of low grade construction materials in pavements and other earthworks. This chapter deals with the use of alternative materials for the construction of pavements in association with low cost geosynthetics. Field test sections on a highway were constructed and monitored to evaluate the performance of the following pavement solutions: fine-grained soil stabilized with lime; quarry waste; poor quality fill material enveloped by a nonwoven geotextile impregnated with asphalt; and geotextiles as separation between the pavement base and the subgrade and between the base and the asphalt cap. A control test section where the pavement was constructed using good-quality gravel was also monitored. Several laboratory and field tests were performed throughout the research, such as laboratory tests under unsaturated conditions, field plate-load tests, field California bearing ratio (CBR), and pressuremeter tests. The results obtained show the potentials of the use of low-grade construction materials when appropriate construction procedures and geosynthetics are employed.