MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

M B Mgangira

UACE Training, Kampala

25th September 2013
 Introduction

• Basic material types for flexible pavement

construction
• Unbound
• Crushed stone
• Natural gravel
• In situ soils
• Stabilised material
• Mechanically modified material
• Non-pozzolanic treatment
• Pozzolanic treatment
• Hybrid materials
• Hot-mix asphalt

Slide 2
 TRH14 material guideline document

• Natural, processed and composite materials

• Natural soils and gravel
• Processed gravel and rock
• Bituminous- and cement-treated material
• Portland Cement Concrete (PCC)
• Manufactured products covered by SABS codes
• Cement
• Bitumen

Slide 3
Slide 4
 Unbound material:
Introduction

• Bulk of any pavement consists of unbound

aggregate
• Subgrade sand, clay and soil
• Natural gravel imported subgrade
• Cement-treated or untreated natural gravel
subbase
• Processed gravel or crushed rock base
• Hot-mix asphalt aggregate

Slide 5
 Always refer to local Specification
Grading of unbound natural gravel materials

100
Percentage passing by mass

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00 100.00
Sieve Size (mm)
G4 material Calcrete Base (D804)
Decomposed granite base (D514) Decomposed granite subbase (D514)
Weathered dolerite base (S191) Weathered dolerite subbase (S191)
Shale base (P10/2)

Slide 6
 Unbound material:
Specification

• Grading requirement (Local specification)

• Grading envelope
• Grading modulus (Natural gravels)
• Atterberg limit requirements
• Crushing strength, abrasion resistance
• CBR strength classification system
• Field compaction requirement

Slide 7
 Unbound material:
CBR classification
TRH14, South Africa!!!
Material CBR Relative compaction
G 2 to G4 80 % 98 % mod AASHTO
G5 45 % 95 % mod AASHTO
G6 25 % 93 % mod AASHTO
G7 15 % 93 % mod AASHTO
G8 10 % in situ density
G9 7% in situ density
G10 3% in situ density

Slide 8
 Unbound material:
Field density specification

Layer Material Relative compaction

Base G1 86 - 88 % AD
G2 100 - 102 % mod AASHTO
G3 and G4 98 % mod AASHTO
Subbase G3 to G6 95 % mod AASHTO
Selected G7 to G9 93 % mod AASHTO
subgrade

In situ subgrade G10 90 % mod AASHTO

Slide 9
 Unbound material:
Structural pavement design

• Resilient modulus
• Stress-dependent
• Density
• Saturation
• Permanent deformation mechanism
• Shear strength parameters
• Plastic deformation model
• Density, saturation, bulk and shear stress

Slide 10
 Material treatment: Introduction

• It is not always possible to find materials

complying with the required specifications
• Fortunately there are ways to improve
unsuitable materials (within limits)
• Mechanical modification
• Non-pozzolanic chemical treatment
• Pozzolanic treatment
• Bituminous treatment

Slide 11
 Mechanical modification

• Two methods
• Compaction
• Blending
• End-product of the same
type as the original
material
• Modification of properties
and engineering
parameters

Slide 12
 Non-pozzolanic soil stabilizers

• Many soil stabilisers on market

• Need high PI and correct clay mineralogy
• Surfactants
• Cationic exchange on clays
• “Water proofing”
• Can work, but are very material and product
dependent
• Need careful evaluation
• Extensive testing

Slide 13
 Non-pozzolanic soil stabilizers
Testing for suitability

• Need PI and correct clay mineralogy

• Do they improve the soaked CBR?
• Normal CBR test with different products and
application rates
• If the required CBR is produced, then go
ahead.

Slide 14
 Non-pozzolanic treatment (continued)

Variation in effect of chemicals

Material Diabase Black clay Ferricrete Chert Shale

Treatment

None 32 2 181 51 33

Product B 76 2 137 39 42

Product G 65 2 144 41 37

Product C 72 - - 85 45

Product D 69 - - 46 38
Slide 15
 Pozzolanic treatment:
Background
• Modification
• Reduces PI (ion exchange and flocculation)
• Increases shear strength (wet)
• No tensile strength
• Stabilization
• High stiffness
• Significant improvement in shear and tensile
strength

Slide 16
 Pozzolanic treatment:
Background (continued)
• South Africa is arguably the worlds largest user of
pozzolanic stabilization per kilometre of road
• Almost every road has a stabilized layer
• Usually stabilized layer under a crushed stone or
gravel base with a surface treatment or thin asphalt
(25 to 50 mm)

• Local experiences!!!

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Pozzolanic treatment:
Chemical agents

• Lime (slaked or unslaked)

• Generally materials with PI > 10
• Needs clay to react
• Cement
• Mostly materials with PI less than 10
• Contains all active components only require water
• Milled granulated blast-furnace slag and fly-
ash
• Needs activator and water
• Blends of fly-ash and lime
Slide 18
 Pozzolanic treatment:
Parent material requirements

• Grading
• Aggregate crushing strength
• Flakiness
• Sand equivalent
• Atterberg limits
• Durability
• Deleterious minerals

Slide 19
 Pozzolanic stabilisation:
Material specification

Criterion C1 C2 C3 C4

Material before At least G2 At least G4 At least G6

stab

Plasticity after SP SP PI < 6

stabilization

Strength (MPa) Min 6 (4) Min 3 (2) Min 1.5 (1) Min 0.75 (0.5)
100% Mod Max 12 (6) Max 6 (4) Max 3 (2) Max 1.5 (1.0)
AASHTO (97%)
ITS at 100% - - > 250 > 200
Mod AASHTO

Durability Wet/dry, freeze/thaw, carbonation, etc as per project

Slide 20
specification
 Pozzolanic stabilisation:
Laboratory testing
• Standard laboratory tests
• UCS*, ITS, Atterbergs, Grading, Durability
• ICL, wet/dry brush, accelerated carbonation, salts,
conductivity
* - CBR for modification, UCS for
stabilization or where CBR > 150 %
• Advanced laboratory tests
• Static and dynamic triaxial
• Flexural beam test

Slide 21
 Pozzolanic stabilisation:
Carbonation

• Affects marginal quality materials mainly

• Pozzolanic reaction products and free lime react
with carbon dioxide in the air and soil air
• pH is reduced and the cementitious products
become unstable and break down
• All strength is eventually lost
• Tests for carbonation
• Accelerated carbonation test
• Residual UCS
• Initial consumption of lime/cement
• Must exceed ICL by 1 %
Slide 22
 Pozzolanic stabilisation:
Carbonation
• Tests for carbonation
• Accelerated carbonation test
• Residual UCS
• Initial consumption of lime/cement
• Must exceed ICL by 1 %
Phenolphthalein reaction within the base layer

Slide 23
 Pozzolanic stabilisation:
Construction

• Processing
• Lime – within 10 h of contact
• Cement – within 8 h of contact
• Curing
• Various techniques (within 24 hours)
• Next layer, emulsion, prime, continuous
mist-spray
• Ineffective curing = carbonation
• Compaction
• Bases > 97% Mod AASHTO
• Subbase and selected – 95 and 90-93%
Slide 24
 Bituminous treatment

• Hot-mix asphalt

• Cold mix treatments

• Bitumen Stabilised Materials (BSMs)
• Bitumen stabilised materials (BSM) are granular
materials treated with small amounts of bitumen
emulsion or foamed bitumen and active filler,
cement or lime
• Foamed bitumen treated gravel
• Emulsion treated gravel

Slide 25
 (SAPEM, 2013)

Slide 26
 Chemical Stabilization:-

• A plethora of chemical stabilisers

• Some can improve soils
• Need to be cost effective
• Need to be tested for specific materials
and environments
• May lead to maintenance difficulties

• FIT-FOR-PURPOSE CERTIFICATION

Slide 27
 Chemical Stabilization:-
Synthetic polymer treatment: sand

Enzyme-based products

Slide 28
 Discussion

• Experiences with material improvement?

• Use of nonconventional stabilizers?

Slide 29