Rural Access Road Reinforcement Over Poor Soil
Neoloy®Tough-Cells provided ideal solution to reinforce a rural access road over peat soil with poor load-bearing capacity.
Challenge
A rural road, which crosses areas of peat and bogs, suffered from large settlements and poor load support. The road had particularly poor load-bearing capacity, making it unsuitable for transporting heavy vehicles or supporting a pipeline that was intended to travel along the road. As the area was a nature reserve, the nature authorities demanded a solution that would not cause damage to the environment either during installation or after possible future removal.
Old Approach
A conventional solution involves laying a granular, non-reinforced road of double thickness. Such a solution requires large quantities of granular fill as well as considerable time and effort to compact the granular fill.
Neoloy Tough-Cell Solution
In order to overcome the very poor load-bearing capacity of the soil, a unique solution was devised using two layers of 200 mm high Neoloy Tough-Cells, which were filled with low-grade granular fill mixed with local coal dust. This resulted in a stable surface with high load-support capabilities, enabling travel over the road by heavy trucks and agricultural machinery. The project involved a total of 90,000 square meters.
- As much as 40% reduction in required granular fill, resulting in significant cost savings
- Decreased need to compact the granular infill, resulting in a 30% decrease in installation time
- Year-round support of heavy vehicle traffic with minimal road damage or maintenance
- Improved confinement of soil particles, preventing erosion from weather and internal flow
Neoloy was selected due to its ability to increase load-bearing capacity sufficiently to support heavy vehicles, and its minimal impact on the environment during installation and after removal. Neoloy Tough-Cells proved themselves as an effective “green” solution that successfully addressed the client’s requirements.