Development of Implementation Guidelines to Assess the Strength of Soil Cement Base in Alabama

Abstract

Soil cement is a mixture of soil, portland cement, and water that forms a strong, durable, frost-resistant pavement base once compacted and cured. Variation among construction practices and concerns of current quality assurance testing of soil cement base have led to research for more reliable strength testing methods. The primary objective of this research is to develop guidelines for the Alabama Department of Transportation to cost-effectively and reliably assess the strength of soil cement base. The secondary objective of this research is to develop software to conduct all calculations necessary to relate the field results from the dynamic cone penetrometer to a comparable unconfined compressive strength of the soil cement. This effort is an incentive for using the dynamic cone penetrometer for on-site testing in place of the current method and is meant to streamline the quality assurance process with a more reliable test method.