Low-Volume Paved Road Improvement with Geocell Reinforcement

Geocellular confinement systems (geocells) are 3-dimensional honeycomb-like structures filled with an in-fill of some available materials that vastly improve shear strength of in-fill materials. Geocells have the possibility of being a viable solution for the challenges of low-volume paved road reconstruction. The objective of this study was to test geocell designs with different in-fill materials and a thin hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay under full-scale loading. To achieve this study objective, four pavement test sections were constructed at the Civil Infrastructure System Laboratory of Kansas State University. Three out of these four lanes had geocell-reinforced bases with three different in-fill materials; crushed limestone; quarry by-products; and Recycled Asphalt Pavement. The fourth test lane was the control section consisting of crushed stone base. All sections were heavily instrumented. Repeated loads (80-kN single axle) were applied using an accelerated pavement testing machine. The sections with 50-mm HMA layer reached the failure criteria of 12.5- mm rut depth after 10,000 passes due to excessive stress in the subgrade. The redesigned sections with 100-mm HMA layer carried 500,000 passes with less than 6-mm rut depth. Thus geocells with marginal materials as in-fills appear to be viable in low-volume paved road applications.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB30 Low-Volume Roads
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Bortz, Brandon Stallone
  • Hossain, Mustaque
  • Halami, Izhar
  • Gisi, Andrew J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
• Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crushed limestone; Low volume roads; Overlays (Pavements); Reconstruction; Recycled materials; Repeated loads; Shear strength
• Uncontrolled Terms: Accelerated pavement tests; Geocells
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Materials; Pavements; I30: Materials; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01372830
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-3662
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 15 2012 4:04PM