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Roadway reinforcement product tested in trafficking study.
The Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) recently completed phase one of a full-scale trafficking study that included TenCate Geosynthetics’ Mirafi RS580i. The phase one research results were recently presented at an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) conference in a paper titled “Use of Geosynthetics for Reinforcing/Stabilizing Unpaved Roads under Full-Scale Truck Axle Loads” (Tang, Abu-Farsakh, Hanandeh, Chen).
The study included two different control sections, two Mirafi RS580i sections and two sections with a triangular extruded geogrid. Sections five and six were the Mirafi RS580i sections, with section six having a reduced aggregate base course section of 25 centimeters. The native subgrade soil was heavy clay.
Both Mirafi RS580i sections outperformed the other sections tested, with section six outperforming a section with two layers of triangular extruded geogrid and an aggregate thickness of 46 centimeters. Mirafi RS580i does not require significant rutting to provide vertical support, unlike most geotextiles, allowing it to excel at interacting with the base course aggregate and keeping it from moving laterally.
The full report can be found on the TenCate website.