Abstract:
Nowadays, the need for different kinds of naturally occurring construction materials is
increasing in the road construction industry. One of these materials is laterite but does not
usually meet the specification to be used as pavement material for heavy traffic load due
to their shortages of sand and having higher plasticity. The focus of this study is to use
treated laterite soil as base course construction materials using cement and quarry dust on
the samples collected from Kunzila junction –Horticulture farm - Zegie town road
project. Three sources were taken from the study area and each of them has been
subjected to geochemical tests. In the first phase of the investigation, the engineering
behavior of the soils for each sample was investigated, the second phase of the
investigation was focused on examining the possibility of using combined laterite soil as
pavement material, the third phase of the investigation was focused on examining the
possibility using of cement-treated laterite soil as cement stabilized pavement material
with the addition of 2-12% of cement, the fourth phase of the investigation was focused
on examining the possibility of using quarry dust treated laterite soil as quarry dust
stabilized pavement materials with the addition of 10-50% of quarry dust and in the last
phase of the investigation, cement as well as quarry dust stabilization were carried out
simultaneously in which 2-10% of cement and 10 - 50% of quarry dust were blended
with laterite soil. Based on the laboratory test result, the geochemical characteristics
indicate that the blended material is pure laterite. The laterite material fulfilled the CBR
and PI requirements when stabilized with 12% cement for the base course regardless of
having out values beyond the specification. The laterite stabilized with 10% up to 50%
quarry dust alone does not fulfill the requirements of base coarse material. It was found
that the natural laterite material can be used for base course construction by stabilized it
with a combination of 8% cement + 30% quarry dust for CB2 base course.
Keyword : Laterite, Cement, Quarry dust, Stabilization, Base course