Characterization of mine overburden and fly ash as a stabilized pavement material

Mine overburden removed during surface mining is considered as waste or spoil that is consuming a vast tract of land for storage. Due to high ash content (30-50%) of Indian coals, 130 million tons of fly ash per year is generated with less than 50% of it is being used. Many a time thermal power plants are close to coal mines. Hence, in the present study it is proposed that a mixture can be prepared using fly ash and coal mine overburden with or without cement, which can be used as a stabilized pavement material. The present study deals with characterization of cement stabilized mine overburden fly ash mixture as a pavement material. Mixtures with varying cement percentage of 4-7% were prepared. Based on the unconfined compressive strength and California Bearing ratio values of the stabilized mixture, it was observed that it can be used as a stabilized pavement material.