THE PROPOSED GEOBEADS ADDITION AS LIGHTWEIGHT FILL MATERIAL

Abstract

The study aimed to develop an alternative material for dam and road embankments, especially in the area with soft soil, using Geobeads. There are many problems constructing embankments on soft soil, such as low bearing capacity, excessive and differential settlement, and slope stability. The subgrade must be stable to resist the weight of the fill construction and upper structure. The lightweight fill material is commonly used as an alternative to reduce the excessive and differential settlements by reducing the weight of landfills on the soft soil subgrade. In this study, the laboratory test was conducted to investigate the influence of Geobeads (GB) additions as lightweight fill material both as the dam embankment and the road embankment. This study aims to find a combination of GB, sand, and cement to fulfill the standard as an embankment material. Investigation of physical and mechanical properties represented that light embankment can be an alternative on soft soil. The Indonesia National Standard, 8062:2015, and the General Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction Work were guidelines for embankment cases. The falling head test executes the permeability coefficient. The CBR test was conducted based on ASTM D1883. The specimen has varied the percentage of EPS addition (20%, 30%, 40%) with 14 days of curing time. Based on the test results, both the permeability coefficient value and the CBR value decreased along with the increase in the percentage of EPS, where the coefficient of permeability (k) of the specimens around 10-5 cm/s and the lowest CBR at 40% GB was 30.02% which is the range still used as embankment material.