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Muddy
Roads Project
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Abstract:
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| Unpaved
roads in
Vermont
are subject to deterioration from seasonal freezing
and thawing, and many towns have roads that suffer
chronic serviceability problems during the so-called
"spring thaw," or mud season. Several
techniques thought to mitigate deterioration of
unpaved roads during spring thaw were constructed on
test sections of unpaved roads in two towns. Each
potential remedy was aimed at providing some
combination of limiting the availability of moisture
in the winter, improving drainage during spring, and
strengthening the upper portion of the road. Each
technique used local and/or commercially available
materials, and all were easy to construct, i.e., a
town road crew could build them. For two spring thaw
seasons, we compared strength estimates based on
dynamic cone penetrometer tests and the percentage
of the road surface rutted for treated and control
sections. Methods that permanently improved the
strength of the top 12 inches of the road or decreased
the water content of the upper 12 inches of the road
resulted in significant performance improvement during
spring thaw. Cement and cellular confinement systems
worked well by improving the strength of the upper
layers of the soil. Two new techniques: Geowrap,
comprising clean sand sandwiched by geotextile
separators placed 12-18 inches deep, and the patented
Geosynthetic Capillary Barrier Drain-provided
beneficial by keeping the upper layers of the soil
relatively dry. Geogrid and geotextile separators
placed 12 inch deep and trench drains parallel to the
road provided no observable benefit. |
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