PURPOSES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the application of soil stabilization method for soft shoulder construction in the iRoad Project of Sri Lanka. METHODS: Firstly, the quantitative analysis of soil strength improvement due to soil stabilization was done for soil samples collected from iRoad construction sites. Two types of soils were selected from iRoad Project sites and prepared for soil stabilization testing by the Road Development Authority. Secondly, the appropriate stabilizer was selected at given soil type based on test results. Two different stabilizers, ST-1 and ST-2, produced in Korea were used for estimating soil strength improvements. Finally, the optimum stabilizer content was determined for improving shoulder performance. The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) test was conducted to evaluate the strength of stabilized soil samples in accordance with ASTM D 1633. The use of bottom ash as a stabilizer produced from power plant in Sri Lanka was also reviewed in this task. RESULTS: It is found from the UCS testing that a 3% use of soil stabilizer can improve the strength up to 2~5 times in stabilized soft shoulder soils with respect to unstabilized soils. It is also observed from UCS testing that the ST-1 shows high strength improvement in 3% of stabilizer content but the strength improvement rate with increase of stabilizer content is relatively low compared with ST-2. The ST-2 shows a low UCS value at 3% of content but the UCS values increase significantly with increase of stabilizer content. When using the ST-2 as stabilizing agent, the 5% is recommended as minimum content based on UCS testing results. Based on the testing results for bottom ash replacement, the stabilized sample with bottom ash shows the low strength value. CONCLUSIONS: This paper is intended to check the feasibility for use the soil stabilization technique for shoulder construction in Sri Lanka. The use of soil stabilizer enables to improve the durability and strength in soft shoulder materials. When applying the bottom ash as a soil stabilizer, various testings should be conducted to satisfy the specification criteria.

Subsurface cavities in the asphalt pavement which can cause road depression and cave-in accidents influence on the safety of pedestrians and vehicle drivers in the urban area. The existence of subsurface cavity can increase the tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layer which is an indicator of fatigue cracking potential, and leads to the weakening of the pavement structural capacity. In this study, the finite element (FE) analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between the critical pavement responses and influencing factors, such as cavity depth and size, asphalt layer thickness, and asphalt concrete modulus. The surface deflections and tensile strains calculated from the ABAQUS FE program were compared to those from ILLIPAVE. It is found from this comparison that there are a good relationship between two analysis results. A three dimensional finite element model which is essential to simulate the hexahedral cavity were used to generate the synthetic database of critical pavement responses. To validate the developed model, the deflection data obtained from field Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) testing in four different locations were compared to FE deflections. It is found that the center deflections obtained from the FWD testing and FE analysis are similar to each other with an error values of 2.7, 4.4, 5.5, and 11.9 % respectively. The FE model developed in this study seems to be acceptable in simulating actual field cavity condition. On the basis of the data in the database, various analyses were conducted to estimate the effect of influencing factors on the critical pavement responses. It was found that the tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layer is affected by all the factors but the most affected by the cavity depth and asphalt concrete modulus. Further studies are recommended to properly account for the effect of cavity’s geometry to pavement response.

In Sri Lanka, the shoulder in asphalt pavements has been constructed using the materials transported from borrow pit in the iRoad Project due to the low quality of in-situ soils. After excavating 150~200mm thick and 500mm wide shoulder area, the borrow pit materials are placed and compacted according to specifications. The excavated in-situ soils are dumped in designated location. It is estimated that this process of shoulder construction is not economical due to high material transportation cost and can also induce the environmental issues by disposal of in-situ soils. It can also cause distresses such as surface rutting and edge drop-off in soft shoulder section due to bearing capacity failure and off-tracking of vehicle. The heavy rainfall in Sri Lanka can induce severe erosion problem when using the soft shoulder. To improve the strength and durability of pavement shoulders in the iRoad Project, the soil stabilization will be a good alternative to solve the above mentioned problems. The use of in-situ soils with addition of soil stabilizer enables to reduce the construction cost of shoulder section and mitigate the environment issues. The objective of this task is to review the application of soil stabilization method for soft shoulder construction in the iRoad Project. Firstly, the quantitative analysis of soil strength improvement due to soil stabilization was done for soil samples collected from iRoad construction sites. Two types of soils were selected from iRoad Project sites and prepared for soil stabilization testing by the Road Development Authority. Secondly, the appropriate stabilizer was selected at given soil type based on test results. Three different stabilizers, ST-1, ST-2, and ST-3, produced in Korea were used for estimating soil strength improvements. Finally, the optimum stabilizer content was determined for improving shoulder performance. The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) test was conducted to evaluate the strength of stabilized soil samples in accordance with ASTM D 1633. The use of bottom ash as a stabilizer produced from power plant in Sri Lanka was also reviewed in this task.