Conduct of Caliche-Topped Road by Using Geosynthetics

Use of geosynthetics results in significant savings, improved performance and very good serviceability in both short term and long term.  Geosynthetics have made it possible to construct roads and pavements in seemingly difficult situations such as marshy stretches, soft and organic deposits and in expansive soil areas. The different functions of the geotextile are separation, filtration, reinforcing and drainage. The introduction of the geotextile in the weak subgrade helps to enhance the strength of the subgrade. The strength of the subgrade is increased by dissipation of the pore pressure within the subgrade. The design of unpaved roads can be done more economically when the gain in strength on the sub base due to pore pressure dissipation while traffic loads is taken into account. So, in this paper, the behaviour of unpaved road is studied by conducting the tests simulating the traffic by application of load of known parameters. The pore pressure response and the shear strength variations in the subgrade soil are observed during the application of the load over an unpaved road section. The influence of the type of geotextile on the function of separation and reinforcement has been observed by conducting the tests with different kinds of geosynthetics.