Reincement Polyester Gravel Geogrid

Temporary Roads and Working Platforms

Geosynthetics are used in temporary roads to reduce rutting of the gravel surface and/or to

decrease the amount of gravel required to support the anticipated traffic. Furthermore, the

geosynthetic helps to maintain the aggregate thickness over the life of the temporary road.

Where the soils are normally too weak to support the initial construction work, geosynthetics

in combination with gravel provide a working platform to allow construction equipment

access to sites. This is one of the more important uses of geosynthetics. Even if the finished

roadway can be supported by the subgrade, it may be virtually impossible to begin

construction of the embankment or roadway. Such sites require stabilization by dewatering,

demucking, excavation and replacement with select granular materials, utilization of

stabilization aggregate, chemical stabilization, etc. Geosynthetics can often be a cost-

effective alternate to these expensive foundation treatment procedures.

For permanent road construction, a temporary working platform can be constructed to

provide an improved roadbed using geogrid reinforcements with an aggregate layer to

provide a form of mechanical stabilization. This mechanically stabilized aggregate layer

enables contractors to meet minimum compaction specifications for the first two or three

aggregate lifts. This is especially true on very soft, wet subgrades, where the use of ordinary

compaction equipment is very difficult or even impossible. Long term, a geogrid or, in some

cases, a geocomposite acts to maintain the roadway design section and the base course

material integrity. Thus, the geosynthetic will ultimately increase the life of the roadway.

Another geogrid application in roadways is to place the geogrid or geocomposite at the

bottom of or within the base course to provide reinforcement through lateral confinement of

the aggregate layer. Lateral confinement arises from the development of interface shear