Adapting foamed bitumen stabilisation is considered as the most cost effective approach in Queensland to expedite the rehabilitation works, especially after the major flood devastation in 2011. This paper presents the key changes made as well as the recent practices adapted during a road rehabilitation work to increase the return from the investment. In this process, initially, the designed width for subgrade lime stabilisation has been modified to minimize the moisture entry into the pavement. The dry modulus, three days soaked resilient modulus and retain modulus were used to identify the suitable base material for construction. In addition, a trail site was used to examine the bulking effect on base layer when adding lime as secondary agent, which helped to estimate the exact depth for foamed stabilisation. A few innovative techniques such as a two-layer compaction to effectively condense stabilised subgrade, was used to improve the quality of the outcome were also highlighted.
The Darling Downs region, located over 100 km west of Brisbane, comprises predominately fertile black soil. Black soil found across the region has characteristics that are extremely problematic to civil engineers and have caused significant damage to the road infrastructure in the region. The black soil in the region has a high shrink/ swell characteristic which has caused substantial pavement damage through rutting, shoving, washouts and settlement issues. Many pavement rehabilitation techniques, such as lime stabilization and foamed bitumen, have been used to minimize the damage caused by moisture infiltration. However, the issues remain. The Department of Transport and Main Roads developed ten innovative rehabilitation methods as a trial using geocells and geosynthetics along a 1km section of the main highway in the region. The Gore Highway had been identified as the ideal location as previous rehabilitation methods achieved limited benefits in reducing pavement failures, which posed safety concerns.
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