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4 Field Tests To Check Suitability of Soil For Road Work
4 Field Tests To Check Suitability of Soil For Road Work
For instance, a road soil that is 95 percent sand will not cohere, and clay that does not possess the
property of cohesion is useless as a road material and will do nothing but make dust.
Therefore it is required to perform some field test prior to use soil in road work. The following 4 filed
test can be made to check its suitability for road work.
Make several balls of the same size of the different clays and dry them out. Place them in water so
that they are covered entirely. The balls which hold their shape longest after being placed in water
have the highest resistance to slaking, and that clay is to be preferred for use in the road
construction. It is important in this test that if various clays are being compared, the proportion of
sand in each sample should be the same and should not exceed 25 percent. If sand is in excess, it
should be removed before doing the slaking test.
If the clay is of the slaking variety, the balls will disintegrate almost as soon as they are put in water,
such a clay is not suitable for road work. Samples that contain too much silt will not show good non-
slaking qualities and will break up at once in water. Clay requires to be added in such soils before
using it.