Sustainable Unpaved Roadway Design with Multi-Axial Geogrid for a Wind Farm
Publication: Geo-Congress 2023
ABSTRACT
This is a case history of the design and construction of a geogrid stabilized unpaved roadway used for the construction of a wind farm facility in eastern Oregon where the only source of water is located 25 mi away. The final decision on the roadway section was based on the reduced consumption of water and cost. The sustainable roadway design saved 120,000 gal. of water and 400 dump truck trips. The challenge was quantifying the design with the geogrid and proposed aggregate base course thickness. Typically, engineers use empirical methods such as the Design Method for Geogrid-Reinforced Unpaved Roads by Dr. J. P. Giroud and Dr. Jie Han or the US Army Corps of Engineers software PCASE for un-paved road design. Given the limitations of these methods, the authors used a newly developed Mechanistic-Empirical Method to justify the sustainable design. The method is called the Lees Approach to Applied Mechanical Stabilization (LAAMS). This paper will discuss the project, give a brief overview of the steps in creating and implementing the LAAMS method, and the achieved sustainable benefits.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
AASHTO. (2012). Standard Specification for Classification of Soils and Soil-Aggregate Mixtures for Highway Construction Purposes. AASHTO M 145. Washington, DC: AASHTO.
Barr Engineering Co., Golden Hills Wind Project, Sherman County, Oregon, May 2020.
Black, W. P. M. (1979). The strength of clay fill subgrades: its prediction in relation to road performance,.
Brinkgreve, R. B. J., Kumarswamy, S., Swolfs, W. M., and Foria, F. (2018). Plaxis 2018. Delft.
Brown, S. F. (1996). Soil mechanics in pavement engineering, Géotechnique 46(3) 383–426.
Brown, S. F., Lashine, A. K. F., and Hyde, A. F. L. (1975). Repeated load triaxial testing of a silty clay, Géotechnique 25(1) 95–114.
Bussert, F., and Cavanaugh, J. (2010). Recent research and future implications of the actual behaviour of geogrids in reinforced soil. ASCE Earth Retention Conference (ER2010), 1-4 August, Bellevue, Washington, p. 460–477.
Chaddock, B. C. J. (1988). Deformation of road foundations with geogrid reinforcement, Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, UK.
Collins, I. F., and Boulbibane, M. (2000). Geomechanical analysis of unbound pavements based on shakedown theory, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 126 50–59.
Cook, J., Dobie, M., and Blackman, D. (2016). The development of APT methodology in the application and derivation of geosynthetic benefits in roadway design, in The Roles of Accelerated Pavement Testing in Pavement Sustainability, (J.P. Aguiar-Moya et al. (eds.)) 257–275.
Cook, J., Horton, M., Roe, T., and Hornicek, L. (2015). Improved trackbed performance over low strength formation soils using mechanically stabilised layers, SAICE Railway & Harbour Division Symposium, 26-27 May, Pretoria, South Africa.
Cote, B. M. (2009). Performance comparison of mechanical and chemical stabilization of undercut subgrades, MSc thesis, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Cuelho, E., Perkins, S., and Morris, Z. (2014). Relative operational performance of geosynthetics used as subgrade stabilization,. Montana Department of Transportation.
Danistan, J., and Vilpulanandan, C. (2009). Relationship between CBR values (unsoaked) and undrained shear strength of artificial CH soils, CIG-MAT-2009 Conference and Exhibition, Houston.
De Beer, M., Fisher, C., and Jooste, F. J. (1997). Determination of pneumatic tyre/pavement interface contact stresses under moving loads and some effects on pavements with thin asphalt surfacing layers. Eighth International Conference on Asphalt Pavements, August 10-14, Seattle, Washington, USA. Vol. 1, pp 179–227. ISBN 8790145356.
De Beer, M., Maina, J. W., van Rensburg, Y., and Greben, J. M. (2012). Toward using tire-road contact stresses in pavement design and analysis, Tire Science and Technology 40(4), 246–271.
Fervers, C. W. (2004). Improved FEM simulation model for tire-soil interaction, Journal of Terramechanics 41 87–100.
Giroud, J. P., and Han, J. (2004). Design method for geogrid-reinforced unpaved roads. I. development of design method, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 130(8) 775–786.
Huang, Y. H. (1993). Pavement Analysis and Design, Prentice-Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
IGS (International Geosynthetics Society). (2018). Guide to the Specification of Geosynthetics, 5th edition. International Geosynthetics Society, Jupiter FL.
Jenkins, P., and Kerr, I. A. (1998). The strength of well graded cohesive fills, March, 38-41.
Khoueiry, N. (2020). Study of granular platforms behaviour over soft subgrade reinforced by geosynthetics: experimental and numerical approaches, PhD thesis, University of Lyon.
Klopmaker, J., Vollmert, L., and Emersleben, A. (2016). Geogrids used as subgrade stabilization - experience from large scale field trials, 3rd Pan-American Conference on Geosynthetics, GeoAmericas 2016, 10-13. April, Miami Beach.
Lees, A. S. (2020). The bearing capacity of a granular layer on clay, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Geotechnical Engineering 173(1) 13–20.
Lees, A. S., and Clausen, J. (2020). Strength envelope of granular soil stabilized by multi-axial geogrid in large triaxial tests, Canadian Geotechnical Journal 57(3) 448–452.
Lees, A. S., and Matthias, P. (2019). Bearing capacity of a geogrid-stabilised granular layer on clay, November, 28-33.
Lees, A. S., and Clausen, J. (2020). The strength envelope of granular soil stabilised by multi-axial geogrid in large triaxial tests, Canadian Geotechnical Journal 57(3): 448–452.
Lees, A. S. (2020). The bearing capacity of a granular layer on clay. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Geotechnical Engineering 173(1): 13–20.
Lekarp, F., and Dawson, A. (1998). Modelling permanent deformation behaviour of unbound granular materials, Construction and Building Materials 12(1) 9–18.
Lentz, R. W., and Baladi, G. Y. (1981). Constitutive equation for permanent strain of sand subjected to cyclic loading, Transportation Research Record 810 50–54.
Li, D. (1994). Railway track granular layer thickness design based on subgrade performance under repeated loading, PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Ling, X., Li, P., Zhang, F., Zhao, Y., Li, Y., and An, L. (2017). Permanent deformation characteristics of coarse grained subgrade soils under train-induced repeated load, Advances in Materials Science and Engineering 2017, Article ID 6241479, 15 pp.
Little, P. H. (1992). The design of unsurfaced roads using geosynthetics, PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Loukidis, D., and Salgado, R. (2009). Bearing capacity of strip and circular footings in sand using finite elements, Computers and Geotechnics 36: 871–879.
Osman, A. S., and Bolton, M. D. (2005). Simple plasticity-based prediction of the undrained settlement of shallow circular foundations on clay, Géotechnique 55(6): 435–447.
Palmeira, E. M., and Antunes, L. G. S. (2010). Large scale tests on geosynthetic reinforced unpaved roads subjected to surface maintenance, Geotextiles and Geomembranes 28 547–558.
Paute, J.-L., Hornych, P., and Beraben, J.-P. (1993). Repeated load triaxial testing of granular materials on the French network of Laboratoires des Ponts et Chaussées, Flexible Roads, Balkema, 53–64.
Powell, W. D., Potter, J. F., Mayhew, H. C., and Nunn, M. E. (1984). The structural design of bituminous roads, Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, UK.
Puppala, A. J., Mohammad, L. N., and Allen, A. (1999). Permanent deformation characterization of subgrade soils from RLT test, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 11(4) 274–282.
Puppala, A. J., Saride, S., and Chomtid, S. (2009). Experimental and modeling studies of permanent strains of subgrade soils, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 135(10), 1379–1389.
Robinson, W. J. (2021). Full-Scale Evaluation of Multi-axial Geogrids in Low Volume Roads ERDC/GSL-TR-21-X. Vicksburg, MS: US Army Engineer Research and Development Center.
Robinson, W. J., Wayne, M. H., and Tamrakar, P. (2022). Evaluation of Hexagonal Multi-Shape, Multi-Axial Geogrids in Unsurfaced Road Applications. Transportation Research Board 2022.
Roque, R., Myers, L., and Ruth, B. (2000). Evaluating measured tire contact stresses to predict pavement response and performance, Transportation Research Record 1716 73–81.
Suiker, A. S. J., Selig, E. T., and Frenkel, R. (2005). Static and cyclic triaxial testing of ballast and subballast, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 131(6) 771–782.
Thompson, M. R. (1979). Subgrade stability. Transportation Research Record 705 32–41.
Tingle, J. S., and Jersey, S. R. (2005). Cyclic plate load testing of geosynthetic-reinforced unbound aggregate roads, Transportation Research Record 1936 60–69.
Tingle, J. S., and Webster, S. L. (2003). Corps of Engineers design of geosynthetic-reinforced unpaved roads, Transportation Research Record 1849 193–201.
Ullditz, P. (1993). Mathematical model for pavement performance under moving wheel load, Transportation Research Record 1384 94–99.
Valeux, J. C., and Morel, G. (1980). Influence of bearing capacity of underlying materials on the compaction of pavement layers. International Conference on Compaction 2 475–480. Editions Anciens ENPC, Paris. In French.
Vardanega, P. J., and Bolton, M. D. (2011). Strength mobilization in clays and silts, Canadian Geotechnical Journal 48: 1485–1503.
Watts, G. R. A., Blackman, D. I., and Jenner, C. G. (2004). The performance of reinforced unpaved sub-bases subjected to trafficking, Third European Geosynthetics Conference, Munich 1 261–266.
White, D. (2019). Laboratory test results, Inios Geotechnics confidential report.
Yang, X., Han, J., Pokharel, S. K., Manandhar, C., Parsons, R. L., Leshchinsky, D., and Halahmi, I. (2012). Accelerated pavement testing of unpaved roads with geocell-reinforced sand bases, Geotextiles and Geomembranes 32 95–103.
Yoder, E. J., and Witczack, K. M. W. (1975). Principles of Pavement Design, 2nd ed., Wiley Interscience, New York.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2023
Pages: 353 - 365
History
Published online: Mar 23, 2023
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.