Abstract
The State of Michigan in the United States often encounters weak soil subgrades during its road construction and maintenance activities. Undercutting has been the usual solution, while a very few attempts of in-situ soil stabilization with cement or lime have been made. Compared to the large volume of weak soils that require improvement and the cost incurred on an annual basis, some locally available industrial byproducts present the potential to become effective soil subgrade stabilizers and a better solution from the sustainability perspective as well. The candidate industrial byproducts are Cement Kiln Dust (CKD), Lime Kiln Dust (LKD), and Fly Ash (FA), out of which only a fraction is currently used for any other secondary purposes while the rest is disposed of in Michigan landfills. This manuscript describes a laboratory investigation conducted on above industrial byproducts and/or their combinations to assess their suitability to be used as soil subgrade stabilizers in three selected weak soil types often found in Michigan. Results reveal that CKD or a combination of FA/LKD can be recommended for the long-term soil subgrade stabilization of all three soil types tested, while FA and LKD can be used in some soil types as a short-term soil stabilizer (for construction facilitation). A brief discussion is also presented at the end on the potential positive impact that can be made by the upcycling of CKD/LKD/FA on sustainability.
Highlights
The State of Michigan in the United States owns an impressive road network of paved roadway
Weak soil strength is evident from the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) test results shown in Table 1, which are reported in pounds per square inch as per local practices followed in Michigan
The material discussed above clearly suggests that Cement Kiln Dust (CKD), Lime Kiln Dust (LKD), and Fly Ash (FA) can stabilize the three representative soil types from Michigan tested during this research investigation
Summary
The State of Michigan in the United States owns an impressive road network of paved roadway This includes 9669 route miles of state trunk line, 89,444 route miles of county roads, and 21,198 route miles of city and village streets [1]. The weak soil encountered is unable to support the design loads; in other cases, the soil is not able to bear the loads of the construction vehicles (see Figure 1). These issues pose the challenge of finding cost-effective solutions to stabilize weak soil subgrades. Subgrade modifiers generally reduce the plasticity of soil and provide a short-term strength improvement.
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