Soil stabilisation with lime-activated-GGBS-A mitigation to flooding effects on road structural layers/embankments constructed on floodplains

One of the major setbacks of road construction in most flood plains is their geological incompetence. They are hardly able to form soils with the right engineering profile for use as foundation soils for road construction. This has undoubtedly made the prospects of improving natural soils an attractive option, coupled with the ever increasing zest of zero waste, reduction in energy usage, reduction in natural resource depletion and lowering carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. To avoid the strain associated with material haulage over long distances-increased costs and carbon foot prints. Soil stabilisation with by-product materials has proved to be a useful cost effective option. This paper hence, presents a detailed investigation of the viability of using waste materials, Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag (GGBS), gotten from the steel making processes, activated by lime (CaO), in the stabilisation of low bearing capacity clay soils (Lower Oxford Clay). Particularly, where flooding is envisaged to be of utmost concern, as facilities hosted by scenarios of this type are imminent environmental concerns and undermines cost efficiency. This was achieved by the laboratory simulation of flooding scenarios in which 50 mm diameter and 100 mm long cylindrical specimens were exhaustively investigated. The assessment involved soaking samples in water, for 4- and 10-days after different days of moist curing (7, 14, 28, 56 and 90 days), durability index test and unconfined compressive test for up to 90 days of these samples were assessed. The results achieved, show that road structural layers/embankments constructed on floodplains could be durable with the application of industrial by-product material (GGBS) activated by lime. This has the implication of combining cost effectiveness with improved quality of the materials formulated, thereby enhancing the environmental friendliness of construction processes on flood plains. This sustainability implication provides the impetus for the current research. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.