Do any of you fellas use lime stabilization in clay soils in your area? It is very common in my area and I consider it a huge pain in the rear but it has its benefits in soils not suitable for paving subgrades for certain. just curious if it is used as much elsewhere as here.
Ive spent my time with lime, portland, and fly ash. Most of the time we were not technically stabilizing, as our % was low, so we were only modifying. Most of that was for drying purposes. Nothing like taking mud that you cant walk on, or even run a dozer across, and making it into good compactable fill.
All new highway projects here in Ohio require from 12-16" subgrade stabilization. It varies from being lime or cement. The new Honda Plant in Greensburg, IN did around 11 million square yards of stabilizing and modifying if I remember correctly. Mt. Carmel Sand & Gravel did the Honda job - they are one big stabilizing contractor. They travel across the U.S. for large projects.
Yes it is excellent as a soil conditioner for turning trash soils into a workable material. I did a job on Lake Pflugerville in Pflugerville ,Texas where we stablilized a parking lot for 10 inches of state spec base and 2 1/2 inches of asphalt. It was also used on the concrete drive portion to stablilize for 6 inches of 1 1/4 inch screenings and concrete paving. Fenson thats some serious time on that much lime... I may have another job coming up in east Texas which is a subdivision that will require liming.I`ll see if I can get some pics of the worst soils we deal with,heavy clay gumbo which is horrid to work with.With a blade its a nightmare.Extremely hard to try to cut and fill with unless its limed.
Here is a link to Mt.Carmel's website. If you look at the projects, there is some info on the Honda plant. I had several buddy's hauling the lime in there. Most of it came out of Ste. Genevieve Mo.
Mighty cool Knucklehead.I dont deal that often with lime stabilization but it appears we are beginning to do more of it in the company I work for.It is amazing what lime will to do a heavy clay vertical rising soil.Turns it into a material as workable as sandy loam and makes it dry in a fraction of time compared to its parent property clay gumbo.
Where abouts in east Texas is this subdivision. I'm in Nacogdoches.
You are right, definately some neat stuff. If you get a chance ,put some in a soda bottle with some water and give it a toss.:cool2 I did it in a concrete block building On a serious note, We put some on us 231 in southern Indiana after 1 1/2" rain. Within 2 hours we didn't even leave tire tracks on it.
What is the difference between lime and gypsum?
Dirtpusher,howdy neighbor.I haven`t seen the job yet but it is in Lufkin.I`ve seen the estimators pics of the property but I am unsure of where its at in Lufkin. Hendrik,I am not sure of what the difference is.I do know slaked lime is the product of burnt limestone.I have a few pics of the job I did at a city park on the lake in Pflugerville.A few pics of road tractors dumping slurried hot lime on subgrade after I scarified it 6 inches with a d-6.. Also a pic of black gumbo soil after liming.Grades as easy as sandy loam after it cures. One pic with mix on second pass
I know where you're coming from FinishBlade. Great deal of high PI material in our parts. Lime seems to be the typical boilerplate answer to creating a working platform. I've seen a couple instances , however, of situations where the clay had significant amounts of sulfates in the soil , and caused undesirable reactions with the lime. Can't remember if the high sulfate areas were cement treated or not. Maybe Parmer lane up near IH35 had some problems and had to be re-done. Cheers on the Lake Pfluger job. We went to a fireworks display on July 4 out there. Very nice park area!
Thanks on the LP park.We spent some time on that job.Had a Pflugerville city inspector filling in for their other inspector that handled the park. The guy we had was a road inspector.He wouldn`t give an inch on anything.Optimum plus 4 percent only on that gumbo soil.Optimum was 30.9 percent moisture.He failed me on one hole at 30.5 percent..Tough job,I was dragging a water truck with a chain and d-6..... Speaking of Parmer lane.You know that minis storage,three story deal right before ya get to I-35?It is the next site to that Exxon station on the west side of the highway? I did the site work,concrete and asphalt on it.Spent some time on that rascal too. Engineer busted on about 300 feet of curb and gutter in a handicap area.. We ended up peeling up base,tearing out curb and reworking half that lower parking lot over it to fix his mistake..Serious headache on that job.It ended up looking pretty good though.Good meeting a fellow from around here.We do about 80 percent of our sitework in Georgetown,Round Rock,Pflugerville and Austin. I`m starting a bank job on 35th street and Jefferson tomorrow near Camp Mabrey.. take care, Gene