Review on the lime-soil stabilization as one of the successful technologies used in the improvement of road-soil-pavement layers strength

Abstract

In general terms, transport infrastructure by definition describes the framework that supports our transport system. This includes, railways, sea-ports, airports and, in particular road pavements. In South Africa, the South African National Roads Agency’s (SANRAL) prime mandate is to finance, improve, manage and maintain the national road networks, with other roads maintained and managed by provincial or local authorities. But due to increasing traffic and heavy-duty transport loads in many parts of the country, road pavement layers are having difficulty in coping with increasingly heavy tonnages and most now exhibit damage in their lower layers. It is for this reason that the engineering properties of soil layers underneath the pavement surfaces need to be improved using a variety of techniques. One such technique entails the improvement of soil strength through chemical stabilisation through the use of lime as the stabilising agent.

The term lime soil stabilisation applies primarily when lime is introduced to soil that is reactive to create strength development in the long run through pozzolanic reaction. In South Africa, lime is utilised extensively in the construction of roads.

In this paper, a review on literature based on the practices of lime soil stabilisation with the object of improving the engineering properties of soil is presented, with emphasis on the production of lime, nature of soils suitable for lime-soil stabilisation, the behaviour of lime-stabilised materials and the chemistry related to lime-soil stabilisation.