A Study on Use of Locally Available Moorum in Pavement Base and Sub-Base

Abstract

Because of enormous construction activities scarcity of natural stone aggregate resources has resulted in a significant concern for engineers in many countries including in India. In the present laboratory study, an attempt has been made to explore possible utilisation of locally and abundantly available lateritic soil called moorum that fits to some extent to gravel, in the subbase and base courses of a pavement. Conventional stone aggregates have also been used in combination with moorum to satisfy the desired grading as per the specifications. The optimum percentage of moorum that can be used in base or sub-base layer is found to be around 50%. Because of the relatively high plasticity index of moorum, ordinary Portland cement has been used for modification as well as stabilisation. The unconfined compressive strength test was conducted for the cement treated moorum-aggregate blends as per relevant specifications. It has been observed that the locally available moorum used in conjunction with normal stone aggregates modified/stabilised with cement has satisfactory engineering properties and hence can be used in the road base and sub-base applications.