Feasibility studies on applicability of low cost materials for farm road construction and slope protection

Abstract

Geotextile play a significant part in modern pavement design and maintenance techniques. The growth in their use worldwide for road construction application in particular has been nothing short of phenomenon. Geotextile enhance the performance and extend the service life of unpaved roads. The study consists of comparing the performance and stability of road sections constructed with different materials like, coir geotextile, jute, tyre shreds, coarse aggregates. In field tests, geotextile performed the best of these materials. This is due to the uniform distribution of applied load throughout the geotextile material. The various engineering properties of the soil at the site, with and without the low cost materials, like the grain size distribution, dry density, permeability and shear strength were also studied. From the analysis of stability of slopes, it was found that geotextile is effective in stabilizing the slopes of even 1:1, while the other materials fail to perform well.