A laboratory study of thickness design of flexible pavement by the CONSOLID system in black cotton soil

Abstract

With rapid growth of population, fast urbanization and more construction of buildings and other structures has
resulted in reduction of good quality available land. There is no choice for People except to use soft and weak soils around
for construction activities. Such soil possesses poor shear strength and high swelling & shrinkage. The South Gujarat
region in India have majority of top soil as black cotton soil. The black cotton soil has characteristics of shrinking on
drying and heaving on wetting. This soil being expansive creates several types of damages to pavement structures, and in
some cases the pavement may even become unserviceable. A laboratory investigation is carried out to study the effect of
CONSOLID SYSTEM on index and engineering properties of the Black Cotton Soils. The properties of stabilized soil such
as compaction characteristics and California bearing ratio were evaluated and their variations with content of consolid444
and Solidry are evaluated and also to evaluate the improvement in properties by the addition of consolid444 and Solidry to
be used in pavement design for economy. A CONSOLID system also reduces thickness of the pavement and save resources
and construction time. A comparative study of pavement thickness design by IRC METHOD is also done.