Reuse of Taza marl-limestone in Morocco for road construction

Abstract

To expand and maintain the Moroccan road network, millions of tonnes of aggregates from natural resources are extracted annually. This has a major impact on the environment and natural environments, namely, a disturbance or disappearance of the ecosystems of the rivers in which the materials are taken, a reduction in natural aggregate reserves and an extension of open-air quarries. For this purpose, the recovery and reuse of the materials in place by a specific treatment become more important. However, Moroccan regulations exclude very plastic soils with changing characteristics, which are generally fragmentable and degradable materials.The soils constituting the road accesses and the platform of the wind energy project of the city of Taza in Morocco are evolving marls-limestone. These materials are the subject of our research subject to see the possibility of their reuse. The first step of this research topic is the realization of a characterisation of marls-limestone of Taza, in order to identify the materials by physical, mineral and non-destructive testing. The second stage concerns the valorization of this evolving material with additives to improve the intrinsic characteristics of these soils, and check the possibility of reuse in embankments and earthworks. This improvement consists in measuring the cohesion, the friction angle and the bearing capacity of the materials, as well as giving the optimum amount of lime for practical design.