PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A STABILIZED ROAD SECTION IN DAMMAM, SAUDI ARABIA

S.A. AIBAN, H.I. AL-ABDUL WAHHAB and O.S.B. AL-AMOUDI

ABSTRACT

During the last two decades, Saudi Arabia and many of the Arabian Gulf countries have gone through a spectacular phase of both industrialization and infrastructure establishment. Many of these unprecedented activities resulted in some unexpected post-constructional problems attributed to the lack of proper quality soil coupled with the unfamiliarity with the inferior properties of these soils. One of the major problems reported in the literature is the formation of depressions and settlements in roads in eastern Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that all necessary precautions were taken into account. The shallowness of the groundwater in most of the eastern areas intensifies the problem by reducing the strength of the soil significantly, thereby altering the compressibility of such soils.

In this investigation, a major road in Dammam Industrial area has been reported for frequent deterioration even when the construction was properly carried out. A preliminary investigation was made to quantify the material properties and the cause of failure. It was found that the marl used for construction, similar to other marls, has acute water sensitivity and complete strength loss is possible if the soil is inundated. Detailed laboratory investigation was then carried out to evaluate the performance of cement-stabilized material under different conditions. Later, four sections on the same road were constructed; two sections were constructed without any additives, while in the other two sections the base course was treated with 4% Portland cement. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of the four sections were carried out for the past 19 months. Results show a great superiority of the cement-treated sections over the untreated sections. The construction procedure, laboratory and field evaluation are presented and discussed in detail.