Use of lateritic fine-grained soils in road pavement base courses

Abstract

Lateritic fine-grained soils are, in large areas of Brazil and other tropical countries, the most frequent local materials found along road routes. However the use of these soils in pavements has been difficult, because they do not conform to the traditional specifications for base courses. This paper presents successful uses of many of these soils in pavement base courses, particularly sandy soils, following specially developed geotechnical test methods and construction procedures, thus sensibly reducing the cost of pavements, mainly for low to medium traffic levels.